February 5, 1998 - Thursday

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I know it has been some time since I've updated the journal pages. Unfortunately back in November I fractured my tibia and ended up in a leg cast for two months.  There was not anything interesting to write during that period of time.

Kristie and Stephen came to Trento on December 27th.  Glenn and Cherrie were kind enough to fly the kids over for me.  I was hoping to be out of the cast before they arrived, but wasn't.  We met at the Trento trainstation.  Then Glenn and Cherrie continued on their tour of Italia.

The children and I spent the holidays mainly at home.  I did get the full leg cast removed on the 29th, but a half legger was stuck on instead and that was the way things would be until Jan 13th.

The kids and I were still able to do things.  We held Kristie's birthday party a little early considering she would be back with her mother on her birthday.

Then we went around town doing our shopping and what not.  Unfortunately the kids had to head back to the states eventually.

We ended up staying at a very nice hotel in Milano.  

The room was big and comfortable.  And it had cable tv so I was finally able to watch some English language programming without having to stay up until 03h00 in the morning!

We ended up meeting Glenn and Cherrie at the same hotel.  This was convenient because we were able to share a taxi out to the airport.  The Malpensa airport is very far from Milano Centrale.  I was surprised how far away it was.
The kids got on the airplane and I went back to Trento.

On January 27, 1998 Vincenzo and Rosa had their baby girl, Flavia.  She is a cutie of a baby and I am really happy for the both of them.    She was born by Cesearean section so Rosa was in the hospital for a few days recuperating.  As a matter of fact, I left Trento before she left the hospital.  But I will be back to visit someday.  Matter of fact, I may be there sooner than they think!
 

I then left Trento on January 31.  I said all my goodbyes to all my friends there.  It is amazing how many friends one can make in a small hamlet in the Italian Alps.  I will miss them all very much.  But as I said earlier, I hope to visit them as often as I can.

Antoinette accompanied me on the long 11 hour train ride from Trento to Koln.  Saturday night we met up with Mike and Maria Fairchild.  Dropped our bags off at their apartment and then headed off into the nightlife.  The first venue we went to was Papa Joes which had some live jazz playing.  After that we went to Flanagans pub where they had a small disco set up.  Turns out on other nights they have live bands there too.

Sunday we went sightseeing as Antoinette was leaving Monday to go skiing.  We walked around and saw the Dom Cathedral.  Quite an impressive structure, especially when it is lit up at night.

Then we went into a museum that was not very interesting.  We spent about 15 minutes there and quickly made our way out.  You can see Maria here is posing in the carnivale setup.

Afterwards, Mike and Maria went home to get some warmer clothes.  Antoinette and I headed over to the train station to find a nice route back to Trento for her during midday.  We found one that would leave at 14h27 which was better than the 07h00 alternative she had been given.

The three of us stayed up until 05h00 talking.  Then I took Antoinette to the train station and put her on her train.  With Antoinette's leaving, I felt like my chapter on Trento had closed for good.  It was a sad feeling for me to see her go.

The bridge in the picture on the right was completely destroyed during WWII by Allied bombing.  This is the Rhine river flowing here.  The river flows quickly and there are many of these tiny barges going up and down stream during the day.

Otherwise, I am now awaiting my work papers so I can start working in Koln.  I expect to have my papers by early March.  In the meantime, I am going to try and do some travelling through Eastern Europe.  I think that will be rather interesting.

Copyright @ 1998,  Alexandre POLOZOFF All Rights Reserved.