Day 112

Wedding Party, Ostuni, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

35 Kilometers.
I slept late and spent a long time in the morning and early afternoon working on the computer in an ancient and overly priced Internet cafe. It was after 2 pm when I ran out of Alberobello, and the run to Ostuni went by surprisingly quickly and smoothly. As I passed by a gas station somewhere along the way the old man that was attending the station shouted to ask if I needed any more gas. Sometimes I feel like a car.
Ostuni is famous for being composed of mainly white buildings, and I guess for this reason there were a lot of tourists there. I spoke with a lot of people this night, eventually in the late evening I came across some athletic group stretching along the road. I figured I would give it a shot, so I told them my story. No dice, but they suggested that I ask some guy at some bar in some general direction that they knew. I headed over that way, and ended up stumbling upon a fairly happening swanky bar. I went in and immediately felt awesome. The place had a very classy atmosphere and, well, you know my outfit selection. I ordered a beer and went outside and sat down. Before long I was in conversation with an American that was in Ostuni for a wedding party. Everyone was drinking and having fun, and I got invited to eat dinner with them. We went to a restaurant and had some drinks, and I definitely crashed the pre-pre-wedding dinner. It was a lot of fun, and there were about 20 people in the group who came from all over the world and spoke English. They were all staying in hotels so I wasn't really expecting to find a place to stay through them. This night was about enjoying myself...the next day I would run to my last town in Italy.
We ate and talked and I had a great time with a very fun group of people. We bounced over to another bar where I had some more drinks, and around 3 am everyone headed back to their hotels, and I was left to find somewhere to sleep.
I talked to all the people who worked in the bar, and got one offer from a guy who lived in a town far away. I would have to take a bus and a train back in the morning, so I decided to just rough it for the night. I started following the signs to the train station...which I didn't really realize was about 3 km out of town. As I wandered alone, slightly intoxicated along a long Italian road at 3 in the morning, I thought to myself "where the f@#$ am I?!" This is a question I ask to myself frequently...to which I always just answer with a smile and some inwards laughter.
Slept on a train station bench sitting upright. Around 5 I switched to another bench when people started bustling around me. Around 6 I switched to a bench across the street, moving occasionally to be less in the wind (or more in the sun as it came up). Not the best kind of sleep for an upcoming long run, but hey whatever. Being a university athlete and architecture student definitely prepared me for this kind of life.