There was a man named Otzi. He lived 5300 years ago, and was found September 19th, 1991 (Yay Andrew!) in the a mountainous region called the Dolomites in between Italy and Austria. When this man was found by two hikers climbing in this icy region, he was so well preserved they thought that he was a man who had recently died. When it was discovered that he may be a little older than previously thought, scientists were quickly called in. They found this man in ice, so well preserved that he still had all his tools, his bear skin cap, leggings, tunic, weapons, and they could even determine what his last meal was and how he died. It was one of the most incredible finds. Now, i studied this Iceman once i heard about him in one of my classes, and have always wanted to see him. Little did i know that when i would be sitting in my Italian language class, we would come across an example that talked about Otzi, and how he was in a museum in a small town in Northern Italy called Bolzano. I was in shock for a second, i could not believe it was that easy, out of nowhere came the location of a place i have always wanted to go. So i looked up how far away it was and it turned out it was a 3 and a half hour train ride. Awesome! So i asked my friend Ravi, if he wanted to come and he said sure. We left for a day trip early morning, and had no idea what was in store for us. I went thinking that this would be a small town, that might be kind of interesting, but i was really just going for the museum. Wow was i wrong. As it turns out, if it wasn't for Morocco and Rome, this trip would of been the most amazing and memorable yet. When we got to the city we started exploring, and right away we knew that this was not like any other city in Italy. The weird thing, is that i thought it looked more like Germany than Milan, the clean and organized look not so apparent in Italian cities. Bolzano is a unique city, as are the others in that area. This is because they are right on the Austrian border, and German is their second language. All the signs had Italian/German, whereas in other parts of Italy they had Italian/English. It was different, yet cool. So we walked around and couldn't really find the museum at first and went down to a more residential part of town. We came across the Italian Army's High Command base building, which Ravi really wanted to see, on accident and he was so happy haha. We then saw a high school soccer match going on and decided to watch for a little. This field, and town for that matter, were right on the base of the Dolomites, so this soccer game had the beautiful backdrop of mountains, it was incredible, i thought to myself, if i was playing i would be way to amazed at the view, and would be the worst player ever =). We then went back and found what i can only describe as the most amazing park i have ever been to. It was a strip of grass that ran for maybe a mile or so, and was full of families and children playing, basketball courts, playgrounds and everything. The best part about it though was the view once again. Right at the base of the Dolomites! It was so breathtaking and beautiful. Walking through that park, you can't help but be happy, nothing seems stressful when surrounded by such pure beauty. After walking a little, we decided to try and find the museum again. We were walking, and all of a sudden i see a picture on a building, and it had Otzi! We were so excited and we jumped in the street, and people looked at us like we were crazy, but we didn't care! It was an awesome surprise and just another reason to be excited about an already amazing day. We went in and saw Otzi, it was one of the craziest experiences. Seeing a man who lived 53 centuries ago! Seeing a man whom i studied and wasn't sure if i would really ever see. It was incredible, simply incredible, on top of this day being incredible. It was everything i could of hoped for and more.
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