Day 9 – Innsbruck to Pordenone
By Allison Kunde, Former Northern Lights 18-2 player

Waking up at 7:00 in the morning is not especially fun. Especially when you’re waking up at 7 to find someone who will unlock the door to Brook and Naomi’s after Brook left the key in their room. But after the door was opened and both Brook and Naomi agreed never to leave Brook with the key ever again things were pretty much back to normal.

Breakfast was, as usual, a delicious combination between fruit and bread. And after leaving the breakfast room for our own room to finish packing we headed onto the bus for another road trip to ITALY! The beginning of the trip was a blur to me as I decided to take a short nap (about an hour) but when I was awakened by Curt’s “wake up girls!” announcement I found myself in Brenner.

Brenner is a beautiful tiny, city filled with tiny shops and a gorgeous view. From there we continued our excursion on the bus and stopped at an overview of the Italian Alps. The Alps were the perfect picture opportunity and we stopped for about ten minutes. The mountains were still lined with pure white snow and the light mist that surrounded them created a post card picture opportunity.

After herding us back onto the bus we took a thirty minute drive to Cortina, a famous ski resort area. Cortina also had a gorgeous view and even better Cortina had places to eat. We were handed our fifty euros per group of five and then I left to find the best Italian eatery in town with Alicia, Stephanie, Lauren, and Katie.

After stopping at the first place we saw we decided to sit down for pizza. While we did encounter a few problems ordering we received our food in no time and then strolled the city streets. Unfortunately for us almost all of the shops we went by were closed except for a small gift shop where I purchased Dan Carlson a small gift of appreciation (I hope the filing is going well!). After shopping we left again to finish our drive to Pordenone.

When we reached the city I was shocked by the fact that the hotel we were staying in was not quite the same as the hostiles. In the past our rooms were gigantic and now they seemed as if they were made for two but an extra bed was added. Besides the size the rooms were pretty nice.

After we settled into our rooms we headed to dinner where we had a full three course meal starting with pasta then salad and then finishing with a meat dish (DELICIOUS!). And to top it all off we finished with a scoop (or two…three) of gelado.

Overall the day was long but the scenery, and of course the food, made it about ten times better. I will miss this city but I’m looking forward to seeing my family (love you) and finishing preparing for college! Ciao!