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24.08.2004 Bratislava (SLOVAKIA)

Four years later, sitting on the same steps where I met my great friend Pedro! The Orange Hostel, the hostel we chose, is a sorry sight... dirty, badly kept... it seems like an abandoned Russian barracks... no wonder if now and then some interrailer, after a look round the room, returns to reception, hands back the keys and leaves in search of a better place... But for one night, and above all after Skopje, we're ready for anything!

Sergio at the stove means: pasta with sauce!

Bratislava is nice, quiet, clean and I'd even say elegant! A tremendous rain, however, blocks us while we stroll in the old town, making our last evening as interrailers even more melancholy!

25.08.2004 Bratislava (SLOVAKIA)

[Sergio]: The beauty of an interrail, I think, is those little moments of daily life, from waking up in the morning tired after the night to breakfast, to strolling through the city centre without a destination, commenting with the barest knowledge on the various monuments encountered along the way and trying to arrange a date with some local girl for the evening... A nice lunch at the hostel and, if the fridge allows (the shared hostel one), even a good main course!;-) Now we return with many lovely memories and with another legendary trip to tell and a future to organise... If we hadn't set off we'd have missed all this...

26.08.2004 Venice (ITALY)

Travelling with two expert travellers made everything simpler; we took turns at almost everything without problems, except for cooking, the undisputed kingdom of Fighetto, although now and then even my big salads lent a hand!

As always happens we met a load of special people, new and interesting... people who always have something to say and to teach... then, comparing your own experiences and anecdotes, good or bad as they may be, is of capital importance!

[Luca]: We came into contact with the various local populations in such a clear, pure and sincere way that it almost seemed like blending in among them... From these people you learn things they don't teach us at school... Imagine that... You learn the true scope of money, its value and its earthly futility. You appreciate the small things, without TV and mobile phones, without cars or cash machines... People at a table, in the same room, in a hostel, in the street... who try to understand the why of so many things without any pretence of succeeding... thanking life, not wasting it.

The facts are amply documented; the emotions, on the other hand, remain tattooed in these 22 days just past, with the only privilege left to these actors of being able to say: "It was my life and I was there".