FINALLY! I have been carrying around my first aid kit for years and never used it, but today was the day!

I had taken the train to Montefalcone and rode to Grado, a great little sea side town that, back in the day, was the same size as Venice, but now Venice is a tourist monstrosity and Grado is a pretty little town with a relaxed feel that would be nice to spend some time in.

So I was on this bike path and in front of me a kid had blood squirting out of his ankle. So I stopped and asked, "do you need something to wrap it with?" I asked the man who turned out to be the dad. In truth I was really hoping someone else stepped up because all I had is a t-shirt, singlular, but dad stepped up and took off his tshirt and bent over and wrapped his foot.

"He needs to elevate it"' I said to the dad, who turned out to be a Brit. So he told his kid to lift up his foot.

"No, lay down and elevate your foot," I said.

While all that was going on an Itallian man was on his phone trying to get an ambulance.

I gave the kid my little fold up map to put his head on and that was about the the time I realized, "hey, I have a first aid kit."

So I got out some bandages to put under the guys tshirt and some alcohol cleaning pads. The Itailan phone guy was saying, "dont give him anything! Dont give him anything!" Which seemed odd. What did he think I was going to do, jam opiates down the kids throat? Apparently the guy had some kind of medic training though I wouldnt have guessed it.

"Its fine to clean the area off," I said to the dad, who seemed to know that too.

The ambulance took a while so I asked the kid what happened.

"He was riding with no hands," said the day with a bit of an eye roll.

Eventually the ambulance arrived, so did his Italian mom who rode up on a bike. She went with him to wherever they took him but actually the bleeding was totally stopped by then so maybe its like in America where if paramedics are called they gotta do something. Still, the kid was shaken up and, though he will be perfectly fine, I am sure the site of blood squirting out was scary.

After they left and the dad thanked me and gave me some tips on what to see in Grado and my next town Aquileia where I would stop for the night. No one really bothered to clean up the blood off the bike path but hey, who was I to say anything about that, I am a guest in this country.

I guess its time to restock my first aid kit.