Four of us players met at Porta Nuova subway station. We have free subway passes courtesy of the Games. Got off at XVIII Dicembre stop and up to the street level to wait for bus #29. Off at Regina Margherta bus stop and walk to the fields. This is a gigantic park in the city with lots of trees, open grass spaces, walking paths and then the complex that has a stadium with an old artificial turf and surrounding grass fields. We will be playing our games in the stadium on the artificial turf.
We have about 11 guys at practice including our two American pickups; Juan from San Francisco and Joe from Boston. Our coach/player Donal warmed us up with various drills and then we practiced offence against defence until 11 am. Wow, very hot and somewhat humid. We all watched the next game in the stadium given it as two teams in our five team grouping. Calgary Selects beat the Hasbeens (from Australia) 4-0. Getting hotter so need to drink as many fluids as possible to keep hydrated. Interesting that the convenience area sold the beer much cheaper than the gatorade!
In regards to scouting two of our opponents, it was a good chance to see the level of play and quickness. We play both teams in our first two games. Long walk through the park and then to the bus stop. Everyone pretty sweaty. Back on the subway and four of us off at Porta Nuova subway stop. About a five minute walk from there to our apartments.
Returned to room just before 2 pm. Showered, got dressed and headed outside. Ate at a local restaurant, Perino Vesco, located on Via Cavour. Of course, ate outside in their outside seating shaded from the sun. At these smaller places, you order what you want inside and then they put it together very quickly and deliver to the table you are sitting at. Rectangular focaccia bread that is not warmed. Very tasty. As well, ate a chocolate croissant and drank a lime juice. Total for three items was 6.13 Euro. Very cheap. You round up for the tip.
Plan for today is for as many soccer guys as possible to meet around 7 pm for a team dinner. Given I have no wifi, I headed for a telecom company and found Wind around 3:15 pm. Purchased an Italian SIM card (my iPhone is unlocked) for 10 Euro and an additional 25 Euro for 120 minutes of long distance calling and 5 Gigs of data. Given I will be contacting Lana and my teammates using their Canadian carriers this makes the most sense. My new Italian number is 0039 3299791458. Was eventually walking in the area and an older Aussie couple got talking to me and he confirmed he was needing the same deal as me. I walked them to the Wind store, but unfortunately their computers were not working. I need to wait 3 hours before my new SIM card is activated by their computers. My card will only work while I am in Italy. When I leave Italy I will replace the card with my Bell and leave it for free wifi.
Now I am eager to update my travel blog (this is Friday after I arrived on Wednesday). No luck finding a local "free wifi" caffe so I can use my Macbook. Frustrated so decided to go for a walk and learn more about my neighbourhood. Came across Aiuola Balbo Park and updated my physical journal while sitting in the shade. Water fountains spraying water into the large pool. Lots of trees, grass, dogs, people and kids playing. Very quiet in the middle of the city. Nice respite from the heat of the sun and relax from the soccer practice. I had bought the International Herald Tribune for 2 Euros. Did some more walking and discovered the temperature was 39 degrees.
Upon arriving back at my apartment immediately turned on my much welcome air conditioning. Read the paper and relaxed. Met Dave, Donal and Debbie in the nearby piazza, but it became apparent that Donal had provided the wrong directions to the rest of the team for our 7 pm meet. We walked to the proper piazza and finally picked a restaurant. Too touristy in the area, but hard to mobilize 16 people. The food was mediocre as expected, but the company was fun and interesting. Some of us ordered the caprese salad and a pasta dish. Not very good. Chris Honey ordered a 50 Euro bottle of Barolo that four of us thoroughly enjoyed. Many of us are fading with the jet lag and lack of sleep. The gang broke up around 10 pm and it was still in the mid 30s. As you will note, I did not provide the name of the restaurant as it needs to be avoided. ;-)
Chris, Donal and Dave W.
Phil, Jose and his wife Laura
Peter, me and Guy
Laura's sister, Debbie, Nyla and Paul Sunga
Dave provided me a gravol pill to help with sleeping. I updated my travel journal entries (on paper) and downloaded some photos from my iPhone. Email very slow. Caught up on my emails. To bed around 11:30 am. Took the gravol pill. Had a decent sleep as I didn't wake up until 5:15 am. Eventually fell asleep again until 7:45 alarm woke me up.
No comments:
Post a Comment