Road Trip!

That afternoon as we met in the place the bus had dropped me off those couple of nights previous. There was a double-decker coach waiting for us. Whenever I was a kid, the people at the back of the bus were the cool ones. When I reached an age when I was getting buses to and from university, this ceased to be the case, or at least aged twenty I still wasn't cool enough.

I say 'still', there were the odd occasions that I did manage to make it to the back of the bus. Anyway, for some reason this is where I ended up on that first road trip. My new friends and I had bonded so furiously that there were about ten of us in a group and the back was the only place that could accommodate us and our desire to get to know each other further.

I confess this move made me feel slightly immature - surely we're too old for the back of the bus lark, but it proved useful for leg room and chatting. So our first road trip was to see the Frassasi Caves. Anyone who's been to these kind of caves before will know the deal - stalagmites, stalagtites, lots of eerie lighting, a strict 'no photos' rule, and dark, dank walls.

This is quite cynical isn't it, and it was beautiful, I was only disappointed I couldn't take any pictures of it. We were allowed to take a group photo, but it's so small that it took me a good five minutes to find where I was.

Anyway, it was still spectacular and a really nice way to spend an afternoon. Looking back at some of the pictures, there were four of us starting to emerge as firm friends - me, Gaby, Bree and Lynette. We made a great team: we all had the same sense of humour, a good attitude to studying, and a childish delight in comandeering the back of the bus.

When we got back to Camerino, we decided that we'd all go to the concert that evening. One other thing we had in common, was the desire to get stuck in at every opportunity...