All I can say is
beautiful. Italy is definitely the most beautiful country I’ve visited here in Europe, although I’m only basing that on three cities that I saw; Rome, Pisa and Venice. With so much to see and so much history, you can’t help but be in awe with everything around you.
This Italy trip started off last Monday night when I took a train to Wigan, a train to Liverpool Lime Street Station, then a nice scenic bus to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which made me wanna come back and see the sights of Liverpool (not that I wasn’t gonna go – hello,
The Beatles). Definitely a first, but surely not the last, sleeping at the Liverpool Airport was not as bad as I thought it would be. Tons of people were already camped out when I arrived there at 11:30pm, but I luckily found half-a-bench and a chair that made for a semi-comfortable sleep. I think the girl on the other end was regretting not stretching her legs the length of the bench when I came and sat down beside her.
4:00am on Tuesday morning, I was third in line to check in to my 7:00am flight to Ciampino Airport, which is just outside Rome.
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rome.ITALY tues.NOV08/05-fri.NOV11/05I woke up on the plane just in time to peek out the window and see the first amazing site of the trip; as we’re flying over Rome, I could clearly see the huge Roman Colosseum, smack in the middle of the city. It was so cool! And a minute later, Vatican City in all its glory comes into view, and I could make out St. Peter’s Square and the Basilica. All of these up close would not disappoint.
My flight arrived at Ciampino at 10:45am as scheduled, and Jen and her two friends, Andrea and Yunyi, came through the arrival gate less than an hour later. Jen, I’m still impressed that you survived the entire week on just one small-ish backpack.
You’ve changed. But Yunyi definitely takes the cake with her school bag that’s smaller than my red MEC backpack. I don’t know how she managed.
On the bus to the metro station, Jen and I caught up and compared notes on where we’ve traveled so far. It was so nice to talk to someone who can relate to being on exchange and traveling and, most importantly, to the food we missed back in Ottawa. Really, how is food in Ottawa better than in Europe?
After a metro ride on the most ghetto subway (we have ghetto pictures to prove it) and a short walk, we finally arrived at our hotel (yes, I said
hotel and not hostel), Hotel Papa Germano. Since the girls are a little more high class than I am, we splurged a little on accommodations on this trip and got 4-bed private rooms. It was so nice to have my own bed for once, where they actually come in and make the bed for you every morning, like a
real hotel.
We freshened up a bit and then walked into the first real restaurant we saw for an early dinner of pasta. Afterwards, we headed to Termini Station, where a) we had to take the tube and b) got the first of many gelatos. Well,
I didn’t exactly get one then cause I was full from supper, but I more than made up for it through the rest of the trip. We took the tube a couple stops to one of Rome’s major sights. There would be no dilly-dallying on small, side sights. We got out of the tube station and, wow…
Yes, I freakin saw this. The Colosseum. So cool, huh? It really is as amazing in real life as you imagine it. It wasn’t crowded around it all either, so we easily walked around it, spotting all these dressed-up gladiators and caesars posing for pictures with people. We had hesitated too long on taking the tour of Colosseum that day, and by the time we had walked all the way around and back to the entrance, we had missed the last admission, which was at a fairly early 3:45pm.
Oh, and did I mention the weather in Rome was awesome? Warmer than Barcelona. Sandals and t-shirts during the day. It was great.
We walked down Via Fori Imperiali, and everywhere we looked, there would be ruins or ancient buildings of some sort or monuments surrounding us. It was hard to pick what to focus on. Walking down Via Fori Imperiali, to our left was the ruins of the Foro Romano, the Mercati Traianei on our right and up ahead was the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, for the first king of Italy.
This picture was taken quite far from the monument, from the other side of Piazza Venezia, but you can see just how big it is as you can see how small the people in front of it are.
We headed up Via del Corso, which cuts the centre of town in half, with the intention of finding the famed Fontana di Trevi. On our way there, we took some stops; into stores for some shopping, and into a
gelateria for – what else, gelato. Life is definitely good when I can eat gelato while sitting in front of the Trevi Fountain. Good times, good times.
As the official navigator (aren’t I always?), I directed us through the city to eventually end up the Pantheon, as per Andrea’s request. If you’re an
Angels & Demons fan, you’ll undoubtedly know that the Pantheon is one of the settings in the book. And speaking of
Angels & Demons, I had definitely wanted to go to all the major sights from the book, but I wasn’t expecting there to be a
tour of it, since it wasn’t as popular as
The Da Vinci Code. I was so happy that I was wrong about that when I saw a pamphlet for and
Angels & Demons walking tour at the hotel, but it was quickly shattered when I read that it was only offered on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; every freakin day that we’re
not in Rome. Sucks.
Side note: How annoying is it when the random person you ask to take a picture of you in front of some sight actually
just takes a picture of you and completely misses the sight in the background? And you can tell when this is gonna happen cause they start fiddling with the zoom or they start to come closer to you.
Obviously, we’d like the background to also be
in the picture. I thought this was a given when you ask to have your picture taken. The girls and I had one such picture in front of the Pantheon.
We continued on to our next destination, passing the Tempio Adriano and the Palazzo Madama, entering into the Piazza Navona, which is a trendy square, surrounded with cafes and restaurants and is a nice place just to chill out. It is also another sight in
Angels & Demons, and of course I took pictures of Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers, in the middle of which stands an Egyptian Obelisk. Most of the pictures we took after the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II are pretty dark, but we returned to all the same places and took proper pictures during the day.
Here’s a story, and probably not one you’d wanna tell the kids. So, the girls and I are walking towards the Tiber River and from Ponte Umberto I, we could see the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the distance, so we start making our way towards it, passing by the Palazzo di Giustizia and the Castel Sant’Angelo along the way. We’re walking down Via della Conciliazione, which runs like an entranceway into St. Peter’s Square, and this man in his car slows down beside us and started asking us something in Italian. After we tell him we can’t understand, he starts asking for help in English. So, we think he’s asking for directions and he was trying to show us a map cause this other guy had
just asked us for directions. We all kinda walk over and Yunyi and I were the oh-so lucky ones that got close enough to get a full view of his Italian sausage sticking straight out of his pants. Freakin disgusting! I’m scarred for life. We were all so grossed out and quickly walked into a store cause he kept yelling over to us. This is
exactly why you
never talk to strangers. That rule should also apply to adults and not just to kids. So gross, goodness. Good thing we were headed to the Vatican so I could be cleansed.
All disgustingness aside and after he finally sped off, we got to a deserted Piazza San Pietro. Amazing. Seriously, everywhere I went, I couldn’t believe I was even there. We took some pictures before heading back down into the city centre and taking the tube to Termini, stopping off for a shawarma (and not a proper one like back in Ottawa), and retiring for the night in our fancy hotel.
After a decent breakfast at the hotel, we took the tube to the Vatican to catch the mass/blessing that the Pope does on Wednesday mornings in St. Peter’s Square. Rows of chairs were set up in St. Peter’s Square, as we saw the night before, and today, these were filled with hundreds of people awaiting the Pope’s arrival. It was a bearable crowd; not too crowded, but I can only imagine the crowds during the summer. We were a bit too far back to be able to catch Pope Benedict XVI on the Popemobile, but we eventually made our way to the back of the seated area, where we could get a full view of the Pope, although we were quite some distance away. I zoomed in with my camera as much as I could. We were close enough though to have a good view of the Jumbotron and that was probably as close to the Pope as we were gonna get; hence, I have tons of pictures of the Pope displayed on the Jumbotron, as follows.
Cool, huh? I would have liked to see Pope John Paul, but I got here a few months too late, I guess. For the most part, the blessing consisted of the Pope addressing the various pilgrims to the Vatican in their respective languages, which I thought was pretty cool. There were even people there from Halifax. The Pope blessed the crowd in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Italian (of course), and there may have been a few more. It was a pretty cool experience in itself and we have tons of pictures to prove it.
Like this one. Kinda hard to see, but if you zoom in by the man in black standing up walking out, you can see the Pope to the right of his head. And you can also see some Swiss Guards there.
After the hour-and-a-half long blessing, we went to the Vatican Post Office off to the right of St. Peter’s Basilica and Jen mailed her postcards with Vatican stamps and into the Vatican Post. We then followed the crowd to the Vatican Museums, with its entrance at the back of Vatican City. We didn’t wait too long in line, and made our way through the Museums. We didn’t have a guide of any sort, so I really can’t tell you what I saw. It was pretty amazing though and huge. Really, we were making our way towards the pièce de résistance, the Sistine Chapel. I’m not exactly sure what I expected from it, but it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Not that I was disappointed, but I guess I just had no idea what it looked like. The paintings on every surface of the interior were pretty impressive. Even though picture-taking wasn’t permitted, pretty much everyone disregarded it and took pictures anyways. Some dumbasses even used their flash. I at least tried to be discreet.
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, with the infamous Creation of Adam in the centre of the Central Stories, which are the paintings in the middle. The 12 Sibyls and Prophets are seated on thrones around the outside of the Central stories, and are countered lower down by Christ’s forefathers portrayed in the Webs, which are the paintings in the ‘triangles’ in between the Sibyls and Prophets. The four corner Pendentives of the ceiling illustrate some episodes of the miraculous salvation of the people of Israel.
After a visit to the Vatican gift shop and a few more pictures, what better way to end the tour than with some gelato. They honestly have a gelato place at every other store down any street. Ottawa has – what? – 2 maybe 3? Every time I got gelato, it was always coffee and either chocolate or crème caramel. Yum. Some of the fruity ones were also good, but ice cream to me always has to have some sort of chocolate in it.
A little bit of a ways away, but the day was beautiful anyhow, we walked back to the other side of the Tiber River to Piazza Navona to see it properly during the day. Still lively and filled with people, Piazza Navona was alive with vendors all over the square and people in the small cafes on the perimeter which we could now see better in the light.
Also better in the light was the Fountain of Four Rivers. The fountains scattered throughout Rome are absolutely beautiful. Apparently, Bernini had a hand in creating pretty much every fountain in Rome.
We also went back to see the Pantheon in daylight and shopped on our way to see the Fontana di Trevi.
All along the outside of the Trevi Fountain, where I’m taking this picture, there are steps that people are sitting on and the fountain is actually surrounded by buildings. I’m happy that I could get a nice picture of the fountain without other tourists and people in front of it.
We ate dinner – pasta, of course, at this little restaurant a few blocks away from the Trevi Fountain, where this little Italian waiter man kept hitting on Andrea and his little brown buddy kept asking her to please, please go on a date with him. Creepy. We walked to the north of the city, as per usual shopping and buying souvenirs on the way, towards the Spanish Steps. There were tons of people sitting on the steps, and it was really dark, but I tried to take some pictures. But the church at the top of the steps, Trinità dei Monti, was also under some construction so it was covered. From the Spanish Steps, we walked down Via Condotti, which is this somewhat high-fashion shopping street with stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton all down the street. We didn’t really go into any of these stores, let alone buy anything, but we did take pictures in front of some of them, like proper tourists.
On our way to Piazza del Popolo, we happened to run into Magic Fingers, this Asian man on the street making something that I won’t say cause I bought a bunch as pasalubong. Anyway, so he’s making these things and it takes a little while to make each of them, and Jen’s got one, I’ve got one, and while I was deciding who else I wanted to get them for, Andrea was gonna get one, but then suddenly, Magic Fingers started packing up and these cops were telling him to leave, I guess cause he was an illegal street vendor. We were a little bummed that he had to leave, but we decided to come back down Via del Corso, where he was, that next night and hopefully find him again.
We walked to Piazza del Popolo, which was pretty desserted and then just took the tube from there back to Termini Station, and walked up to our hotel, getting some gelato on our way home.
With nothing concrete planned for the next day, we decided to go back to the Vatican and see St. Peter’s Basilica and hopefully get into the Vatican Gardens. Unfortunately, the Vatican Gardens were closed, but we did get to see St. Peter’s Basilica and all its glory. Probably no other church that I’ve ever been to can hold a candle to St. Peter’s. It was absolutely magnificent and enormous! There were sculptures and paintings everywhere, and of course, Michaelangelo’s La Pietà. La Pietà is a marble sculpture depicting Jesus’s body in his mother Mary’s arms after the Crucifixion.
Jen, Andrea, Yunyi and I right outside St. Peter’s Basilica. We’re standing right where the Pope was just the day before.
From there, we took the tube to the Colosseum, where we finally got to see the inside. We didn’t take a tour, and the walk around the inside was short and sweet. It was definitely cool to be in there, just imagining how it was when it was functional centuries ago.
What better way to have lunch on an unusually beautiful November day that outside the Colosseum. Cause we’re poor backpacking students, Andrea and I had made ham and cheese sandwiches from the breakfast buffet that morning. Hey, you gotta use what you get, right? And here’s a little ingenuity; we obviously didn’t have any Tupperware so we used the plastic cereal bowl and stuffed our buns in it and covered it with napkins. Creativity at its best, people. Jen and Yunyi ate some snacks they had, while Andrea and I feasted on our ham and cheese sandwiches. They were pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Included in the admission to the Colosseum was admission to the Roman Forum across the street, so after searching for some gelato and coming up empty-handed, we walked around the ruins of the Forum and through the Palatino.
Our next destination was Santa Maria in Cosmedin, where the famed Bocca della Verità resides. Legend has it that people would go there, put their hand in the mouth and if they told a lie, the mouth would close on their hand. Santa Maria in Cosmedin was just on the other side of the Roman Forum, opposite from the Colosseum, but there was no simple way out of the Forum in that direction, so we had to walk all the way around the Forum.
So, it’s Day Three of Rome, and understandably, we’re pooped. On our way around the Forum, we took a nice long break in the ruins and just chilled out for a good 45 minutes or so. We eventually got around the Forum to Santa Maria in Cosmedin, where there was a line-up of Chinese tourists waiting to put their hand in La Bocca della Verità. We had a quick photo-op with the Mouth of Truth, and then walked down by the Circo Massimo, which is behind the Palatino, to the metro station.
Again, on our way to the metro station, we stopped at these benches to take in the view of the Forum from afar. So, we’re sitting there, and we kinda notice this little car parked in front of us and it was rocking a little. A little closer look showed that this couple was heavily making out and were pretty much on the verge of sex right in this tiny little car. Honestly, Europeans – not afraid to show affection. Any time, anywhere. We had to turn around on the bench cause they were right in our line of sight.
After a while, we finally got to the metro and took it Piazza del Popolo, so we could see it in daylight. From there, we walked down Via del Corso, veering off to some side street, where we were once again tempted into another gelato run. The one we stopped at was pretty good – 2 scoops for only €1.50. We eventually hit the area around the Trevi Fountain and, starving by this point, we had dinner at this little café off to some side street before continuing on in through the city.
Once again, we had to stop for gelato, which I think was fate cause as soon as we stepped out of the gelato place, lo and behold, guess who’s sitting right outside, setting up his little makeshift booth? It was Magic Fingers! (Secret word of the day: Ahhhh!) I had to stare for a second, cause, man, what are the chances? After a while of waiting, Andrea finally got hers and I got 3 more, which Jen and Yunyi were left to their own devices and came back with a ton of shopping. I also got a blue and white ITALIA sweater that’s fun from this Filipino girl who worked at a souvenir shop. I thought maybe she’d give me a discount cause we’re practically cousins, but she didn’t.
We decided to walk back to the hotel, and thanks to my awesome navigating skills, we had, at some point, managed to go the opposite direction, accidentally seeing the Quirinale, which was once a summer residence for the popes. We eventually got back on the right track and got to Termini Station and bought our train tickets to Pisa and then to Venice for the next day.
We got up at a painful 5:30am to catch our 6:30am train from Termini to Firenze (Florence), where we changed trains to get to Pisa for 9:30am.
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pisa.ITALY fri.NOV11/05
True to what everyone’s told me, Pisa is this little town with really not much in it except for the Leaning Tower, the Duomo and the Battistero, all within a few metres from each other in the Piazza del Duomo in Pisa.
Only about a 15 minute walk from the main train station, we passed by the Arno River that runs through Pisa, which was a lot like the Salzach River that runs through Salzburg.
With our backpacks and all our stuff, the short walk to the Leaning Tower was somewhat painstaking, but definitely worth it when we got to the clearing.
There weren’t many other tourists there, which was nice so we could get nice pictures of the Torre Pendente di Pisa uncluttered by other people. Of course we had to do the “pushing the tower down” pictures, as was every other tourist there. And there were also the “pushing the tower up” pictures that are a must. Our artistic skills were a little lacking, but the pictures look alright.
La Torre Pendente di Pisa was surprisingly not as tall as I thought it would be, but definitely cool to see. We walked around the souvenir shops lining the wall across the street, and briefly walked around to see the Battistero and the Duomo (Cathedral) before heading back into town for some lunch.
I have absolutely no idea what the name of the place was, but we decided to stop at this small café-cantina-type place for lunch, on our way back to the train station. We would not be disappointed. We only had a panini, and mine had proscutto, lettuce and mozzarella cheese, but it was probably the best panini I’ve ever had. There was something salty in the bread that made it so good. All the girls would agree, so we also all go a panini to go for the upcoming train ride to Venice.
Also nice about the café place was this cute guy that Jen spotted. I swear, she has a radar, cause I didn’t even notice him. Yes, very cute, spoke Italian, and had kinda sandy brown hair. Jen and I both kept staring at him through the mirror in the café. Andrea, however, didn’t notice him cause she was busy staring at the eccentric and eclectic guy serving us. Also cute.
Places visited in Pisa:
- The Leaning Tower
- Battistero
- Duomo
- Arno River
We got to the train station just in time to catch the 11:54am train to Firenze so we could transfer over to the train to Venice.
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venice.ITALY fri.NOV11/05-sun.NOV13/05
We arrived at Mestre Station in Venice at about 4:30pm, where, as per the directions from the hostel, we took the number 9 bus that would drop us off directly in front of the hostel. Granted, when I booked the hostel, I knew it was not exactly close to the city centre, but as we passed by this industrial area and we drove down the opposite direction of the sign that pointed towards Venice, we were all getting a little worried. There was just too much land that we were on for this to be Venice. Where are all the cute little buildings and the endless canals?
About an hour later, we finally arrived at Hotel Vila Dori, a really nice little place and definitely more like a hotel than a hostel, although it was cheaper than our Rome hotel. This entire Italy trip, I’ve been spoiled by the awesome accommodations that were not bunk-bed-multiple-people rooms, but actual hotel rooms. Hotel Vila Dori takes the cake, however, with its queen-size bed and fluffy duvet. They had put in a bunk bed to accommodate 4 people in the room, but the room itself was quite nice, also with a nice ensuite bathroom.
After getting directions from reception, we walked a bit to catch the bus that would take us directly to the city. We were about a half an hour outside of the city, and just looking around us, you’d never know we were in Venice.
Without a map, we winged it and just walked around where it looked like there was something to do. After getting snacks at the grocery, we finally found our way into the edge of Venice and checked out some souvenir shops, most of which sold items made from Murano Glass, which is characteristic of Venice. We walked around as much as we could, but it was already dark, the shops were closing, and the shuttle from the hotel that we had ordered would soon be arriving, so we headed back to the bus station and just waited for the shuttle to take us back.
We took in an early night, just chillin out at the hotel, watching some real TV and figuring out what we’d see the next day.
Saturday morning, we were disappointed to find a crappy breakfast, which we then opted out of, and took the bus to Venice and had breakfast there, consisting of our favourite: panini. At the place Andrea and Yunyi got their paninis from, there was this elderly Italian man having a coffee, and I swear he looked like a mob boss, but like the old ones with the thick black-rimmed glasses named Uncle Vito or something. No joke. He had on the glasses and a black coat, and even when he kinda smiled at us on his way out, he definitely had that mobster-vibe to him. Well, it was more a movie-type mobster vibe than a real scary one.
Again, without a map, we just decided to walk blind through the city and end up where we end up. Venice is definitely a beautiful city. Every street we passed, every bridge we crossed over a canal – beautiful! This is definitely the most beautiful city I’ve been to. And quite romantic, with the gondolas floating through the canals and couples cuddling under their blankets. I’m going back there for my honeymoon.
Here’s my makeshift boyfriend Jen and I in Venice. Let’s just pretend that I’m there with a boy that I love and we’re on our honeymoon. Yes, wake up, Sarah. But honestly, look how pretty? And this was just some random bridge over a random canal, not even one of the bigger more important ones.
We continued to walk around, checking out some souvenir shops and occasionally stopping to look through a map in one of the shops to see if we were going the right way. Apparently, we were cause we eventually came up to Rialto Bridge which crosses above the Grand Canal.
This is the view of the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge, which is this bridge that has shops and things on it, leading to a semi-market. Breathtaking, huh? And as you can tell, it was so foggy that day, which added to the allure of the city, however a little cold.
Walking a little bit more, we came up to this fish and fruit market, where, seagulls reside and I got pooped on. I actually didn’t notice until Jen pointed it out later that day, but when those damn bastards started flying over us, I just knew they were dropping bombs. It wasn’t that bad though; I only got a little on my jeans and some on my bag. Some other lady I saw had it in her hair. That would have been gross.
After a while, we finally came up to the beautiful Piazza San Marco.
Yes, people, I was actually in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Directly behind me is St. Mark’s Basilica and then the amazing Venetian tower on the right. Also, do you see all the pigeons? They were everywhere! And hundreds of them! People were being flocked by pigeons cause they’d feed them and the pigeons would just surround them. There was this one toddler that was swarmed by pigeons cause the parents thought it’d be a treat to get a picture of their kid with the pigeons. Evil, evil parents.
Jen was the only brave one out of all of us, surprisingly enough, to venture out and let the pigeons come to her. Just holding out your arm in the square, the pigeons will come to you, even if you don’t have food. We got some good pictures of Jen with a pigeon sitting on her hand. When I tried, we were less successful, however. I stood there with my arm out, and as soon as I felt the pigeon rest on my arm, I absolutely freaked out and scared it away. Jen, Andrea, Yunyi and random passers-by burst out laughing at me. Needless to say, I have no pictures with the pigeons. It wasn’t worth it.
We walked to the far end of the St. Mark’s Square, where we got this brilliant idea to run through the pigeons so they’d all fly away and would provide for a cool picture. Yunyi, who didn’t want to participate, videotaped Jen, Andrea and I in our mission to run through the pigeons. I wish I could post the video. Basically, after I explain to the viewers back home what we’re about to do, you see Jen, myself and Andrea running through the pigeons, and the pigeons not giving a crap about us. They didn’t even acknowledge us, let alone fly away. It almost seemed like the pigeons were saying, “Oh, how lame are you stupid tourists.” And then rolling their little pigeon eyes at us, as they just nonchalantly moved over as we ran past them. None of them even flew away, stupid snobby pigeons. Amuse us a little.
From Piazza San Marco, we hopped on vaporetto, which is a water bus, and took route 82, which circled around Venice through the Grand Canal. It was pretty nice, as we got to see a lot of Venice, but it would have been nicer with some sort of commentary. This was also when Jen pointed out that I got crapped on by a seagull. Birds are evil, I’ve concluded.
After the vaporetto ride, which ended back at St. Mark’s Square, we walked around the city some more, stopping for dinner at this small restaurant, where I made the mistake of ordering a Bellini. I thought it was about €3.00 for the bottle, so I‘m thinking, hey, why not? I’m here in Italy anyways. Let's have a Bellini. Never, never assume drink prices was the lesson learned here. I had gotten a panini for dinner, and when the bill came, the Bellini was not €3.00 but actually like €7.00. It wasn’t even that good. I guess I’ve been lucky at finding money or getting unexpected discounts this entire time in Europe, so this was payback from the cosmos. I can’t really complain. Jen had gotten one of those funky twisty rings from Rome, but then got to Venice and realized that a) the rings she got were plastic and she could have gotten glass ones here in Venice and b) she paid €10.00 for one and here it was €3.00 each.
I hadn’t really bought anything at this point, but I made up for it with a nice picture of the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, some Murano glass Christmas ornaments and a few other pasalubong. While I was buying the Christmas ornaments, there was a huge group of Filipinos in the same store, and, in true form, buying like 20 of the same thing likely as pasalubong. Vienna was the other place that I had noticed a number of Filipinos, although there, it was mostly gay Filipinos. Yeah, I don’t get it either. What’s in Vienna for the bakla?
No, we did not go on a gondola, which sucked, but I’m not so upset as I will be back and take a proper ride with my husband on our honeymoon. We had planned on it, but it just didn’t work out, and each ride can cost anywhere from €60.oo upwards. We’re poor backpackers.
After a quick trip to Santa Lucia Train Station, which we thought was a mall, we took an alternate bus route back to the hotel, chilled out for the rest of the night, watching Madonna on MTV and packing our stuff for our flights home the next day. Andrea also lent me her Europe guide book and I took down some sights to see in Stockholm and Brussels for my upcoming trip.
Places I visited in Venice:
- Rialto Bridge
- Piazza San Marco
- Piazza Ducale
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Sunday morning, we took a shuttle from the hotel to Treviso Airport, which only took about half an hour, but we had left so early as to beat any possible traffic, so we got to the airport at 8:30am. Our flights weren’t until noon and 1:00pm, so there was a lot of waiting to do.
Andrea and Yunyi occupied themselves with their books and things, while Jen and I just stared at each other going, “So… My favourite colour’s orange. What’s your favourite colour? So…” After a while, Jen and I knew each other pretty much back and forth and the conversation ended there.
At about 9:45am, I parted ways with the girls, as they checked in for their flight to Paris Beauvais, and I waited to check in to mine to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The trip back from Italy all the way back to Lancaster was relatively uneventful, from the flight, to the bus to Liverpool Lime Street, on to the train to Preston, and finally the bus to Lancaster, all of which got me home at about 7:00pm. I did receive some fun texts throughout my train and bus rides home, plus talking to Essi, Anne, Mariese and Alex that night was good times.
Ahh.. but the good times don’t end here. So, I get home that Sunday night and I’m unpacking and hungry, so I decided to make myself some hot and sour soup for the night. I’ve never made this before, but it doesn’t look hard. Pretty much just add water and an egg.
So, I’ve boiled the water, added in the mix and I’m mixing in an egg, as per the instructions. I guess I was stirring it a little too vigorously cause it splashed up a little on me, and a piece of egg got on my forehead and I quickly wiped off. So, I continue making the soup, all the while noticing that my forehead kinda burns. After the soup's all made and done, I went back to my room to eat it and I check out my forehead, and oh my good God, the egg has burned through my skin. I have a second degree burn on my forehead from EGG! Who the heck burns their forehead on egg? And damn, how freakin hot was that egg to have burned through skin?
Me against the egg. Skin was actually peeling off. Be weary of eggs. I have a battle scar to prove it.
The next few days were spent going to class and just relaxing before heading off to London that following w-end. Stay tuned… yes, I know I’m behind.
Street in Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm, Sweden.
Stockholm, Sweden.
One of many H&Ms in Stockholm. (Yes, I went into all the H&Ms that I saw)
Mannekin-Pis. Translation: The Little Peeing Boy. No, there weren't any statues or monuments to Jean-Claude Van Damme.
L'Hotel de Ville de Bruxelles dans Grand Place.
A yummy strawberry Belgian waffle in Belgium. Life is sweet.
Mannekin-Pis. Translation: The Little Peeing Boy. No, there weren't any statues or monuments to Jean-Claude Van Damme.
L'Hotel de Ville de Bruxelles dans Grand Place.
A yummy strawberry Belgian waffle in Belgium. Life is sweet.
