laurel || maughan || [has a] || blog: les jeux olympiques!!

AAH! the marshmellows are attacking the city!!!!

Yesterday I had two firsts: I went to Italy, and I went to the Olympics.
We left the apartment at about 630 and walked to the station at Part-Dieu, where a magnificent bus awaited us. The drivers were these two funny characters that sort of bickered back and forth the whole way. The bus ride was nice though - we even got to watch a movie! It was James Bond, randomly enough. Dubbed in French, of course. The ride was about four hours, so I got a little nap in...
We arrived at the train station in Torino, Porta Susa, around 1130. The first adventure was figuring out where we were. Luckily, there were volunteers stationed in the stazione and just outside to help wayward Olympic spectators find their way. We got a nice map of the city.

Second adventure: trying to figure out how the tram system worked. We eventually figured out that we needed to go inside the station to La Stampa to buy tram tickets, then shuffled back outside to take tram 10 to the Palacesport Olimpico, where the hockey match would be later on. We didn't know exactly how far we needed to go, but luckily Scottie started talking to this guy from London who was on his way there for the Italy-Finland match. He was actually really nice and we chatted a bit with him the whole way there.... After we found it and picked up our tickets, we wandered around the Olympic area but were disappointed to find that there wasn't much there. I think we had all envisioned sort of a festival atmosphere with lots of things going on, and that just wasn't the case. We took the tram back up to the north of the city to try to find the "Olympic Superstore" that our map told us was in that general direction.... we failed at buying touristy Olympic merchandise and ended up walking a lot more than I had thought. Tired as we were, we needed some gelato to reenergize us for the trek back... The gelato was awesome, and the people were very helpful. Seeing that we were struggling, a customer at the counter asked if we spoke French and explained some of the flavors to us. Molto grazie, segnora!
I was glad to make our way over to the stadium. Once we had a sense of purpose, things picked

up a little. This time, the area was crawling with people, many of them decked out in red Russia jackets or yellow and blue Sweden shirts, carrying flags, faces painted, often wearing Viking horn. (?). The hockey match was awesome!!! The Russia team definitely had the stronger fan base and I think that helped to propel them to a smashing victory, 5-0. People got really into it - they danced when the cheesy sports stadium music came on and cheered on their teams. Some Russia fans near us kept trying to start the wave but sadly, it failed before it got a quarter of the way around the stadium. Basically, the Olympics weren't too different from a sporting event in the US.... although the people there were probably a little more classy ^_^ Sports events have a sort of culture unto themselves, I think, and people of all nationalities get a little silly when they're cheering for their favorite teams.
So overall, it was a good adventure. Now I know that while it may sound fun to just jump off the train and start walking, a little more planning beforehand would be helpful. This trip was kind of frustrating, and quite honestly, not terribly fun until we got to the hockey match. I'll know better next time.
I was really excited to have a chance to speak a little bit of Italian, though! I've forgotten a lot, and when/if I go to Rome later this semester, I should definitely spend some time brushing up before we go. But people seemed very patient with foreigners and even when all we could say was "Buongiorno... gelato? cioccolato?", there was a little bit of communication.
I'm sad to miss out on going to Italy with Julia, Lauren, and Louise. Paris and Dijon with Mom and Tom will be AMAZING though, and I'll have other chances to go to Italy... I'll make sure of it!!!