It's Just the Icing on the Cake

I wish the post read like this: On Wednesday, we woke up, got on the train, found the studio, went to the apartment, hung out in Vicenza, then went to bed for school the next day. Instead, it will read something like this:

Woke up and got on the train. It was a pretty long ride, so we ended playing a game to pass the time. We got a few looks from the people on the train because the game required us to stick pieces of paper with people's names on it and we had to ask questions to figure out who we were. Anyways, we finally get to our stop. A few of us take our luggage down and off the train. I took my big suitcase off and was about to get back on the train to get my carryon bag, when all of a sudden the doors close. Leslie was literally about to step off the train and I was about to step into the train when the doors shut and the train started leaving. At the time, it was pretty comedic. Did that really just happen? Is this real life? Well the rest of us that got off the train made our way to the studio and got the keys to the apartment. Ours is pretty sweet, I'm on the second level and have a window next to my bed. We then walked around the city back and forth from the studio and the apartment. Leslie arrives, and I'm expecting her to have knowledge of my carry-on, because I thought someone had noticed that I couldn't reach the bag and was going to take it with them. Alas, that was not the case. My bag was left on the train from Milan-Venice. Worst part is that my new laptop was in it, as well as my external hard drive and nice camera that I actually just learned how to really use. We did everything possible to see if it was there, but there was no such luck. I was a big mess last night with everything going on and things turning out the way they did.

Today was a bit better, I know there's nothing I can do about missing baggage. Everything that could have been done has been done. I called my parents last night because I was a wreck. I love traveling, and don't get homesick, but at this point I was already stressed earlier from portfolio and thinking about grad school, that this just put me over the edge. I've never wanted to go home and back to where I was before until then. But my parents told the church that we go to what happened, and they offered to buy me a new laptop. Which is incredibly helpful and super generous.

Other than that, I've just been wandering around the city, getting lost and trying to find my way back. I feel it's one of the better ways to get to know a city. You stumble upon something that you might not have found if you were headed only for a certain destination. Also, traveling in big groups is always hard and stressful, and I found after this debacle that my tolerance level has been lower. So I tend to stay away from those situations. I wish I had pictures to show, but I don't have a camera, and won't have one for a while.... allore. In this context, it means, oh well.

Nomadic Inferno of Milano

HOT. Today we woke up and went to go find Leslie at the Centrale Stazione....which, was very much impossible. We actually never found her. But she's a smart cookie so she found her way to the hostel and was there awaiting us when we got back from finding, I mean, trying to find, her. We stopped to eat at a pizzeria on the way back to the hostel, and I guzzled 1.5l of water. That is how thirsty and dehydrated I was. We then find Leslie waiting for us at the hostel, and then we made our way to the Duomo!

This was the first sighting of the Duomo.

 It was so amazing! There were lots of street hagglers trying to get us to buy corn to feed the pigeons (I hate pigeons) and then others to buy bracelets. This one guy gave me a bracelet because I told him I didn't want to buy anything, but he put it on my wrist and tied it on me anyways. I'm hoping it's not cursed or anything since I didn't give him any money. Ah well. We went inside the Duomo, which was very beautiful and spiritual. There were also some dead religious dudes who were waiting to become saints. After that we just wandered the streets of Milan where there were classy shops and ristorantes and people.

More pictures will appear on facebook. Or somewhere. It will be online somewhere.

Off to a Great Start!...

No journey always goes according to plan, no matter how many times you run through the itinerary in your head. For example, today. According to our plane tickets, a group of us were supposed to board a plane from Tampa to go to Miami, and then leave Miami to go to London, and then from London go to Milan. HOWEVER, here's where things go wrong. We get called saying our plane was undergoing maintenance and that we had to switch flights. Elaina and I were rerouted to go to Atlanta and then London, while the guys were going to Minneapolis. We were able to all get on the same flight, but this now means that we are at the Tampa Airport for an extra 4 hours.....The lady gave us $12 meal vouchers, which was awesome since I hadn't eaten yet.

The story only gets better. Getting to Minneapolis was alright, not much of a problem there. The flight from Minneapolis to London was killer. Red-eye flight, of course I couldn't sleep very well on the plane, but that's not the worst. We get to London where we basically step into a mall right after customs. Luckily we were able to catch Bobby and Arlenne. So now we chill at Heathrow for hoooooourrrsssss...... Our flight to Milan was delayed (there seems to be a pattern with these flights....) and they don't tell us the gate until 30-40 minutes before departure. Everything seems to run on a different schedule here. There was also another delay to actually board the plane. Perfect. Landing in Milan and thereafter might possibly be the most stressful experience I have ever gone through. None of us speak Italian, which is our fault, but, we manage to squeak by with some Spanish. But we didn't have clear directions from the airport to our hostel, but the transportation guy tells us to take the train and then the bus. Train, no problem. Sort of. A few bumps, but nothing major. After the train is where it gets good. We get directions from a cop as to where to find the bus we need to get on, through a series of broken english, spanish, and hand motions. We actually never found the bus. We walk circles around a few blocks past the station in an attempt to find the stop, but were quite unsuccessful. It also did not help that it was nearing around midnight. Eventually we make our way back to the station and split into taxis that take us to the hostel. Story keeps getting better from here. The driver stops at what is supposedly our hostel, except that it says Hotel Marlenne on the outside. So all of us are like, "No, this isn't it." But he argued back that it was. And he was right. The hostel was like in a group of hostels and hotels together. Now we drudge all our luggage up to the hostel and get things sorted out. Now I'm in bed and stressed and things couldn't have gone any worse. What a great start to the journey, but hey, I've learned that good things do come out of bad situations. Perhaps tomorrow will prove to be a better day.