April 9th - April 21st
12 days.
6 cities.
one hell of a spring break.
First Stop:
Venezia, Italia.
to start off, i cannot believe this trip is really happening. i feel like we have planned it forever, and now the day has finally come .. jet setting around europe for the next 12 days, is this real life? well, erin, jade, and i left saturday afternoon for our first stop of spring break, venice. typical natasha, i was very pessimistic and nevous about this whole entire trip because when i travel nothing every goes over smoothly, something was bound to happen. but, surprisingly, our trip to the airport was smoothy. we made it there and through security with a solid 2 hours to spare so we headed upstairs to the pub and had a little snack and a drink. then it was off to venice. smooth ride for the most part, until about half way through ( our long flight of like and hour and a half) where we hit a bit of turbulence. lets just say i was very happy once we landed. once we arrived and made it through customs we headed out to try and find out way to our hostel. well sure enough the bus we were supposed to take stopped running for the night so instead of winging it with another route, we just took a taxi to be safe. well, not so safe because he drove like maniac and ended out ride going down a one way street the wrong way ... goodness gracious.
we arrived out our 'hostel' named hotel martello. it was a cute little place we split up two and two and we each had a tv, bed and our own private bathroom with shower.
after our first experience with hostels, i have been very hesitant to stay in others, but this was a nice surprise. not to far away from the city, the next morning we woke up, walked to the train station, took a train to the water taxi which then took us to san marcos square. a bit of a process to get there, but once we arrived we stayed in one spot for the day.
we walked around the square, so many shops. we got lost in them after a while because you just keep walking and turning corners and there is always another street. next thing you know you in the middle of god knows where and have to try and find your way back. we strolled around for a few hours, grabbed lunch and then went on a gondola ride. it was so much fun. they start in the open water and then you head down the little canals throughout the area. the views are absolutely amazing.
after that we headed back in towards the main square and go some gelato. and this, was where the addiction began. oh my god, im in love. thank god they dont have gelato in london or else there would be an issue. then we did some shopping.. of course. all the shops were cute but had alot of the same things, murano glass and masks. there was glass everywhere. cool at first, but after the first ten to twenty stores have the same glass, it gets boring. well imagine it after about 4 hours ... i still dont want to look at another piece of glass. no more ... please!
me and jade
jade. erin. rachel
after a succesful day in venice, we headed back to our hostel around 730-8ish because it was sunday and everything around us was closing early. the next morning, we woke up bright and early to catch the train to florence. luckily the train station was literally a 5 minute walk away from our hostel (pure luck) so we didnt have to travel far. but, this is when we hit our first dilemma of the trip.
first off, when we booked our trips, rachel was not going to come with us. she had planned to go to some other countries with a friend, because she had already been to majority of the cities we were going to. but ...when it came down to a few days before, she decided to come with us so she booked all of her tickets separately. she decided not to buy her train ticket to florence and just get it at the train station the day off. well that was a good idea until we arrived at the station and the machine said that the train was sold out.
[ insert awkward 'what the hell do we do now' pause here]
we all just looked at each other. soooo, now what? well long story short she ended up taking the train an hour after us, but it all worked out because the boys were unable to pick us up at the train station until then anyway.
first dilemma solved.
a 2 hour train ride later, we had arrived in florence.
oh, since we have quite a few stops in italy, we started working on basic phrases in italian.. and now i am slowly getting used to using it on a daily basis. and i find the phonetic break down of the words really cool. there is a new add that i have seen lately for 'google voice' and it has words writing phonetically, and it fun to read and figure out the phrase ...ahh i love italian!
by the time i get home ill be able to say basic phrases in quite a few.
phrase of the day:
hello.
buon giorno
[ bwon zhor-no ]
goodbye.
arrivederci
[ ah-ree-vuh-dehr-chee ]
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