Sunday In Matera and Other Thoughts - Updated Already!

I went looking for a place to buy my bus ticket to Napoli - no luck again. There are a few travel agencies that are supposed to be open at 10 am tomorrow - unless they close on Monday - so I will give it one more try. The bus leaves here at 11:30 am and my experience with Marina Bus lines is that they won't be friendly or help me if I don't have a ticket. I also decided that if I do find a place to buy a ticket, I will buy 2 so I don't get into that mess again. I hate spending that much money but I want to make sure I can get back to Napoli tomorrow!

As I was walking around town I thought of House Hunters International. You always see people buying total wrecks and working on them. Would this count as a "fixer upper"? You can move in while you're working on it if you aren't afraid of heights, don't sleep walk, and aren't modest! There is a good roof and even tile on the ceilings:





Also, they usually do take their kitchens with them when they move. I see places that sell "kitchens" starting at 1,995 euro and that doesn't include the appliances. Those starter kits are probably 8 feet long with a kitchen sink. Probably similar to what is in my apartment here. I was looking at real estate books at houses for sale or rent and even some of the rental houses come without kitchens. They do leave their bathrooms :)

With the changes in the government here, things were pretty lively at the town center. As usual, there were almost all men hanging around and talking loudly while holding their newspapers. It looked like there was one table set up with a petition having something to do with the region. This is what the town center looked like today:





You don't see men with other large groups of men friends in the USA - except at sports events - but here is it very common. And the men, especially the older ones, are always dressed up. I am assuming that the women are home cleaning. I need to find out. Here are 3 men I was following that are typically dressed - how cute are they :)





I saw this statue and it looked a bit like the Prime Minister who just resigned. There was no plaque, so I'm just making this up.





It has gotten pretty chilly here. I finally figured out how to calculate the temperature from C to F. You divide by 5, then multiply by 9 then add 32. So today it was about 58 degrees.

I need to pack tonight so I can walk Seymour in the morning, have a leisurely breakfast of espresso and bread with cherry jelly, then walk into town to try to buy a bus ticket - and be ready to leave by 10:30 t0 10:45 am.

A lesson for anyone coming to Matera on the bus - buy ROUND TRIP bus tickets in Napoli.

UPDATE - As I was going out to walk Seymour for the last time, my hostess stopped me and we talked about her boyfriend Luigi taking me to the bus stop tomorrow. I told her I still hadn't found a place to buy my ticket so she bought it online for me - unfortunately only one ticket! I will try to hide Seymour somehow when I get on the bus. I had also asked her if she could print the health form I may need filled out to get Seymour on the plane and she printed 2 copies for me. What a relief. She also gave me a jar of jam that her mother-in-law made. I'm not sure what kind it is but she said it was grown locally. It has the texture of tomato puree or a jar of pimentos but I am hoping that it is some kind of fruit. I will try it in Napoli - If they let me on the bus! What great people they are!
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