Our First English
Visitors
(other than my parents!)
Two sets of friends arrived in the same week and as the first set left, the next arrived. The first couple of friends, Marianne and Lisa and Lisa's 5 year old daughter Charlie arrived on a warm Sunday in mid February. Greeting them at the airport, it didn't feel as though 3 months had passed since we last saw each other. We quickly slipped into catching up on all the news and I had to remember to do some translating for Felice so he didn't feel left out. They were here for just a few days and it was so nice having time just wandering around Trani with them which also gave me the opportunity to practice my tour guide skills! It was also good for me having people to speak to without having to really think about how to construct a sentence! As I accompanied them to Bari for their final day, it was time to say goodbye as I had an appointment at the airport to meet my friends Mandy and Mark.
Mandy and I have been great friends since primary school, that's 25 years of knowing each other! Unfortunately I wasn't at the airport to greet them as I'd planned because the bus timetable I'd looked at on the airport website was wrong! At that point I decided that Bari isn't a particularly tourist friendly city. But perhaps that will change as time goes on.
However, I eventually arrived and it was great to see Mandy and Mark waiting for me, smiles on their faces. We spent a couple of days walking around Trani and a day shopping in Bari. At this point I should stress that it's not right to run across railway tracks no matter where you are, and at Trani station there are signs written in both Italian and English forbidding you to do so. However, this doesn't seem to deter people in this part of the world and that included us on the day Mandy and Mark arrived. After checking there were no trains coming, with luggage in tow, we made a dash for it. It felt wrong, but strangely exhilarating! When Mark bravely decided to do the same thing the next day on our return from Bari, imagine our surprise when a train was actually on its way! Although it was in the distance, it soon gathered pace. Mandy and I found great amusement in seeing the look on Mark's face when he also decided to pick up speed to successfully make it to the other side in one piece - relief all round!