Well this is slightly overdue (OK, maybe a little bit more than slightly), but here's the post for my trip through Italia. Probably missing a few details, so maybe I'll go back over it later on and add in some other details, but for now, enjoy:
TUESDAY
My flight and ride to Bologna’s main station are all kind of a blur, seeing how I got roughly 3 hours of on and off sleep on the lovely hard ground of Madrid’s airport. I pretty much passed out on almost the entire plane ride. When I got into Bologna, I had some time to kill so I walked around for about an hour, hour and a half, and then went back to the station, and pretty much passed out again on my ride to Florence.
When I got into Florence, I really didn’t have much of a clue where I was going to be meeting Aly. I had a small map of the surrounding area of where our hotel was and then two words written next to it, BUS 20. So, I found bus 20, right by the station, kind of hoped it was going in the right direction, and wound up at the plaza right down the street from our hotel ten minutes later. Met up with Aly shortly after, we checked into the hotel (which was pretty nice for the price we paid), and then we went off through the city, checking out a few museums and such. Unfortunately, none of them really allowed pictures to be taken, and so I really don’t have many pictures of the place.
WEDNESDAY
I’ve been to several cities across Europe – through buses, planes, trains – and I’ve had a ticket every time I’ve been on whatever mode of transportation. I always found it odd that people don’t actually check tickets half the time, especially as every time I’ve been on the bus there’s never really been some way of showing that I’ve paid. Of course, there’s always been that mysterious legend of some form of transportation authority that comes around to check tickets, but I’ve yet to see him.
Until today.
He DOES exist.
And as luck would have it, I didn’t have a ticket on me, and neither did Aly. What happened was, we got pushed into the center of the bus, and while waiting for the chance to make it to the front of the bus again to buy a ticket, the “ticket inspector” started making his way up from the front of the bus, with his partner making the way up from the back. I realized what he was doing about 2 seconds before he got to us and when he asked for our tickets I was trying to say that we still hadn’t had the chance to buy them, however he kindly replied that we can’t buy them now, it’s too late, and he has to fine them. Before I could spit out even two words, he told us that “this was his job,” and then kept talking or cutting me off so I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. My thoughts then ranged from, “well he can’t make me pay this ticket” to “I wonder if at the next stop I can drop him to the floor and me and Aly can just run for it,” and a few things in between. In the end, we had the choice, 50 euro at the spot, 55 euro in 5 days, or 95 euro after two months. We didn’t have enough cash on us at the moment so we had to wait, and well again I couldn’t even try to tell the guy that we weren’t going to be here because he wouldn’t shut the hell up. But, luckily our train the next day to Venice is stopping in Florence, and we’ll have some time to find the place and argue about it, because I am not paying a 50-55 euro fine for this load of bull.
The first hotel dude was a douche. Apparently I’m trying to sneak an extra person into my room at 2 in the afternoon and then never leave. This would maybe make more sense if it was a – later in the day and b – if a room for two people was cheaper than a room for one person (because, well, it’s not).The lady at the ticket desk was a douche.
THURSDAY
So remember when I said we were stopping in Florence and would have the chance to argue this ticket… oh wait, we can’t, because it’s apparently a national Italian holiday and so the place to pay the fine is closed. While my address in the US is on my fine, I don’t think they actually have any way of finding me and making me pay for this BS. Plus, the entire ticket is in Italian, so I have no idea what we’re even supposed to do. Worst case scenario, the fine goes up to 240 euro and if they stop me at the border the next time I go back in like 10+ years when I can actually afford something like that, I’ll pay for it then when I have a job and can afford it.
What’s even better? The train that we had originally booked seems to have completely disappeared. We left Siena early and had come to the station because there were several trains leaving before ours, and we had an open ticket. But apparently our open ticket was for one of the (now nonexistent) trains that make several other stops along the way, as opposed to the two stops our current train makes. What does that mean? It means an extra 18 euro to be paid in addition to the ticket we already bought.
Last night we went out to eat at this one really good place that Aly’s friend’s roommate had suggested. It was really good, and they had their own little special sauce for stuff. Towards the end of our dinner, the one waitress lady came over and placed two bottles of liquor and three shot glasses on the table and said it was a gift from the house, the one was amaretto and the other was this licorice-flavored stuff, can’t recall the name. But anyway, we had no idea what the right way drink this was. Do we mix it? Do we take two separate shots? Who knew, so we took a guess and decided to do a shot of half and half. It was half decent so we figured it must have been the right thing to do, right? Wrong. Apparently, Italians sip at both of them casually, and separately, not take a shot of them mixed together. Double fail.
We got into Venice several hours earlier than what was planned a couple months ago, and you know what, it was definitely worth it. Thursday night we just walked around a bunch, got some food, and went back to the hostel to try and figure out a plan of action for the following day. Well, Aly was more the one figuring out the plan of action, whilst I threw in an opinion every now and then, whether she had asked for it or not, hahah.
FRIDAY
Several museums – well, three of them I think, and a bunch of churches, which Venice is full of. The one museum was a contemporary art one which was pretty neat because I got to see a couple pieces by people we were learning about in my art history class. Later that night we walked around a bunch and we bought 2 liters of regional wine for a little over 4 euro from a guy who pretty much makes it in his bathtub – it’s delicious. “Vamos a ver” seemed to be one of the catch-phrases of the weekend.
SATURDAY
Currently sitting in the airport, and going to make what will probably be failed attempt to sleep for a little bit. Of all nights to not get any sleep, it probably should not be the one two days before you have two of your biggest finals. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware that the airport was going to be this small, and so I’ve already began to finish off the rest of that wine I bought, which means the motivation for studying has already begun to slip away. I’m trying to decide when I want to try and sleep – now, or on the plane, or on the train. Or do I want to sleep on the plane and on the train? Although if I’m going to sleep on the train I might as well just take the bus home from the airport. Whatever the case may be, I’m going to need to significantly increase my caffeine intake tomorrow in order to make sure I get everything done. Scheduling two finals the day right after a long weekend is poor planning on our program’s side. Hey, don’t look at me that way, I know what you’re thinking… but come on, you can’t give someone a chance at a 5-day weekend in Europe and not expect them to travel.
Venice is known for their glass – and as such, had some pretty awesome stuff around. What did that mean? It means I thought that I was almost done with all my gift shopping for people back home – apparently I wasn’t. But some of this stuff was too good to pass up and so, what the hell, right? Of course, seeing how I only used my backpack to bring what I needed on this lovely little excursion, I’m currently still trying to figure out how I’m going to fit everything in there tomorrow. Only time will tell I suppose. Also, glass objects do not make good pillows, so there goes the usefulness of my schoolbag.
Also sitting closer to the door of this place was probably not the best idea, fuck. But there really aren’t any other options. Well, I’m pretty sure there aren’t, unless there’s some super secret doorway built by previous people who can’t afford a hotel the night before they fly out on a budget airline located in Bumblefuck, [Insert country of your choice here]. This is probably going to be an epic fail, but while I can still kind of feel the wine, I’m gonna try and get some sleep. Maybe I’ll just work the next couple of days off a series of naps and study sessions, maybe two hours and two hours? Three hours and three hours? Only one way to find out…
SUNDAY
Well as it turns out I was able to get around 1.5-2ish hours of uninterrupted sleep, only to pass out again for about another hour-ish, and then we were all woken up by the cleaning crew at about 330 in the morning. I say “we all” because they were so kind enough as to honk their little horn things and then drive around squeaking whatever the hell device was in contact with the floor. My flight wasn’t until 840 so clearly I had a good 4 hours to kill before I had to make sure everything was checked in, so I studied a bit, got a little something to eat, washed it down with a red bull, tried to take another nap, studied a bit more, than finally decided to check in. Actually I think that nap part was before the food and red-bull part. I was trying to time the crash just right so I’d be on the plane, and I think I nailed the timing on that pretty well. I pretty much passed out for most of my two hour flight and then made my way to the train station where, you guessed it, I got to wait 2 hours for the next train and so had more time to STUDY. WOOHOO! The past 12 hours of my life are actually kind of a blur to me, and I’m at this awkward level of being a little too comfortable with the fact I have two big finals tomorrow (probably due to the fact I’m still in vacation mode and too tired from traveling to care). Clearly I have my priorities straight as I sit here typing this up on my train ride back to Salamanca, however I guess you could call this more of a brief study break.
