Wellington

My second flight to Wellington wasn’t too bad. It was on Qantas, so the plane was nicer, and we were served a full lunch because it was an international flight. I got carded when I ordered a vodka and orange with my lunch, probably because I had my hair in pigtails and was watching the Disney channel. I’m doing surprisingly well at staying awake considering I only got about three hours of sleep on the first flight. It was only three hours to Wellington, so I didn’t get any on that one.

I caught the airport shuttle for $20 directly to my hotel because I didn’t realize there were other options until I was already being dropped off. Apparently, there’s a bus that runs nearby too that I could have taken instead. I didn’t really have a moment to think though because the shuttle driver pounced essentially the minute I walked out the door of the airport.

I dropped off my things and, since my three roommates had checked in but weren’t around, I headed out to walk around the city. Wellington isn’t very pretty. Flying in, it looked gorgeous to see the islands. New Zealand is all rolling hills and houses hidden away in the trees. However, on the ground, the city is just kind of dirty. I walked all the way to the other side of the city to check out Katherine Mansfield’s birthplace. I couldn’t go inside because it was already closed, but I took some pictures of the outside. Then I headed back down to the waterfront and checked out the Wellington wharfs. They don’t seem to be nearly as big as wharves in Australia. Granted, I’m not sure where they even go.

Downtown Wellington

Katherine Mansfield's Birthplace

I passed a museum, Te Papa, that I’ve heard a little bit about and sounded interesting, but I got there 15 minutes before closing, so once again, I couldn’t go inside. It’s a bummer because the museum was free except for special exhibits too.

I found the nightlife and pub strip downtown, but I didn’t want to wander into one of the places alone, so I ended  up just getting some McDonald’s so that I could use their free wifi and calling it a night. It wasn’t until I got back to the hotel that I saw someone had posted a sign saying the Contiki group was going out to dinner together. I feel like I missed out on things before I even got here too. It looks like a group of guys went biking today as well and they grabbed dinner together last night too. I didn’t realize that the group would start hanging out before the tour actually started. It’ll be interesting to see what the dynamics are like tomorrow when everyone is together.

Our European Adventure

Well, I’m finally home. Sleeping in the airport was pretty strange. In the middle of the night, a guy sleeping across the bench from us apparently took the orange juice we had brought with us and started drinking it. Madeline woke up though and saw that he had it, so he put the cap back down, set it down on his chair, and left. It was really strange. Why didn’t he just take it with him?

Eventually we checked in for our flight and finally boarded. It was a rather uneventful trip back to Philly. I slept the whole way, apparently with my eyes creepily open.

In Philly, we left one by one after we spent the school money on lunch and got through the long wait in customs. My plane was delayed about an hour leaving Philly though because they switched our gate and then our plane and then the gate again because our original plane needed maintenance. It was annoying, but thankfully I was able to still get home within twenty minutes of when I was originally supposed to land. Just the same, I don’t ever want to fly US Airways again.

Italia: Day Fifteen

This morning I got up at 5am so that I could get ready to go to the Milan airport. It was a two hour drive from the hotel in Novellara, so we had to leave early to make it for our eleven o’clock flight. I had to sit next to an older man on the plane, but at least I got a window seat so I was able to sleep and read in peace.

When we rolled into Atlanta it was kind of sad saying goodbye to the group. I'll probably never see most of them again. I kept going on the tram after all of them got off. It’s nice to be alone, but at the same time it’s weird. My flight to Detroit will board soon after though, so I didn't have long to think about.


Truthfully, travelling is great, but it's just good to be home.

Italia: Day Ten

We got up super early this morning, at like 4:45, so that we could hop on a bus and go to the airport to catch our flight into Florence. The problem was that even with getting up early, we couldn’t get to the airport because our bus didn’t show up. We ended up taking four taxis so that we could catch our flight on time. It was especially urgent because only one flight goes out of Cagliari to Florence per day and we wouldn’t be able to see the city if we didn’t make it.

 After the one hour flight where I sat between two older businessmen, we checked in Hotel Albion and dispersed into the city. Pam, Chelsea, Becky, and I headed to an underground mall that while similar to the one in Montreal, was actually really ghetto. I didn’t find anything in the mall to buy, so we continued on toward the San Lorenzo market. The stalls were really a repetition of each other, but I managed to find a cute dress, a magnet, a postcard, a jacket, and some cigarettes for Daniel. I wish I could have bought the absinthe that I saw, but I wasn’t sure who I would drink it with and I can’t exactly take it back to the U.S.

The river that runs through Florence 

We stopped for lunch near the side of the market at a restaurant called Za-Za. I ordered the chicken breast and was really surprised by how bland it tasted once it arrived. I also had some potatoes with it. I’ve been craving chicken because of the lack of it since we got here, but the meal definitely did not quench the craving. If anything, it only made it worse because I wanted something that tasted good. The meal was outrageous too and had a 2.50 euro cover charge per person. I swear, the system with which they charge for food in Europe is so unusual.

After lunch, Pam bought a postcard and in our effort to find a post office for her to mail it from, we ended up stumbling upon the Duomi and taking pictures of it. None of us wanted to wait in line to go inside, so we turned back because Pam had lost her postcard by then. We headed back to the hotel so that Becky could unpack her suitcase and Pam could take a nap. Chelsea and I grabbed some delicious gelato along the way and I actually got a really good waffle cone. The man who worked in the shop was really nice too. We made conversation about Jeni’s.

The Duomi doesn't even look real

The bathtubs they have all over Florence

While we were hanging out in the hotel, I looked around on the internet for some clubs that we could go to. Florence has a club that actually sounded really cool, with five floors and different music on each one. It had an outrageous cover charge of twenty euros though, so I decided it wasn’t going to happen. A lot of the other clubs had similar cover charges or weren’t open on Mondays. In fact, only one was free and it was pretty far from our hotel. Monday is such an awkward clubbing night.

We tried to go to the Boboli Gardens after everyone woke up, but the gardens closed at 6:30 and no one wanted to walk all the way there. I tried to find us a bus route, but we had trouble. We ended up going back to the hotel for a little while before we got bored and decided to wander around.

Pam, Chelsea, and I walked along the river, which was feasible once the sun went down a little bit. We took a lot of pictures and walked along the quaint Italian streets. Florence really didn’t feel like home though. We found a market and bought some fruit and Barcadi Breezers then walked down the street drinking them until we found a cheap café for dinner. We all ordered sandwiches and ate them out on the patio before going back for desert. We were charged extra because we ate at the restaurant. I’ll never understand all of the hidden charges.

The expensive gelato in the center of Florence - 15 euros for a waffle cone!

Dinner of sandwiches

A bridge in Florence

After dinner, we wandered the streets of Florence in search of Absinthe, but it sounds like most of the stores that sell hard liquor close at 7PM. It was pretty much a wild goose chase from going where one person told us to where the next person said we would be able to find it. We ended up at some African picnic/dance party that may or may not have been political in orientation. I didn’t really feel like dancing and none of the guys were cute, so I didn’t really want to stay. But I did because Pam and Chelsea were having a good time dancing with the guys.

When it was time to go, Pam suggested that we take a picture with all of the guys that we had been dancing with. They had been teaching us moves and Pam and Chelsea had been sharing theirs, so a sort of camaraderie was formed. They didn’t speak English very well though, so it was difficult getting them into a picture formation. One guy kept doing weird hand signals too, but he would wait right until the guy was taking the picture to do them, so we couldn’t stop it.

Once the pictures were over, we went to leave and Pam noticed that nearly ninety euros were missing from the front pocket of her shirt. She immediately asked who had taken it, but obviously, no one confessed. We looked at the pictures that had just been taken and you could clearly see a guy reaching toward the same pocket the money was in. Everyone in the picture, his friends included, started blaming this guy and Pam got into an argument with him. A bunch of other people who had been sitting under some of the tents set up for the party came over to see what the commotion was. They also started arguing that Pam probably lost the money and there’s no way one of the guys took it because he’s one of them, one of the “hardworking people”. It all pretty much sounded like bullshit but we didn’t know what to do. Pam was really flustered and me and Chelsea were just standing on the sidelines, upset.

The guy that Pam accused gave her twenty euros and another guy came over and kept saying that we should be friendly and was trying to keep the peace while saying that Pam was wrong. Another girl came over and started arguing that no one was at fault, that they were just trying to have fun and we shouldn’t bring bad vibes into their party. She seemed kind of drunk while she was arguing, but she knew both English and Italian, so it made the most sense to pay attention to what she was saying. She gave Pam another thirty-five euros in an attempt to get us to stop worrying about the money.

We were still trying to figure out what to do. It sort of seemed like Pam wanted to report the theft and I had seen a few police cars drive by before everything happened, so I started to walk out to the street near the plaza to see if I could find another. Just as I started walking, one drove by. I ran over to the car with my hand in the air, trying to get their attention. The woman who spoke both English and Italian realized what I was doing and started charging after me with a beer bottle in her hand. Apparently, it was quite the sight.

I managed to get the police’s attention though and they parked their car nearby. One of the officers only spoke Italian though and the woman started into her side of the story in fast Italian before I even had the chance to explain what was happening. She put her beer bottle down on the ground while she was having the conversation with them.

Once the other officer walked over, I was able to tell them what happened, but I have no way of knowing what she said to them. Essentially the officer just kept repeating that we needed to be “friendly, friendly.” He said there was really nothing we could do except go to the police station and file a report in the morning, and even then, he didn’t really see what that would do since we’re just tourists. Pam was freaking out because she didn’t have her passport on her and she was afraid that they would ask her for it if she filed a report, but I tried to calm her down while conversing with the officer. The whole time my legs were shaking. I hate talking to figures of authority.

It was ridiculous though because it was like he looked down on us because we weren’t citizens and felt no need to help us whatsoever. I never realized foreign police were so rude. As much as I hate the local police and all that I’ve been through with the law, this has made me respect the way they enforce things in America a little bit more. On top of the lack of help, the officer proceeded to lecture me about trying to get their attention. He said that running after a police car and calling for help are things that you only do if someone is getting hurt or killed. He made it sound like their job was basically to drive around writing tickets and preventing murders. I wanted to fight back against the lecture, but I just tried to thank him for his assistance with the smallest amount of sarcasm possible before walking away. I needed to leave to control my temper. I can’t stand when people are rude and unhelpful.

We spent the walk back to the hotel trying to calm Pam down and figure out where we were. We were actually pretty far away when this all happened and we ended up being twenty minutes late for the meeting. I think Kimberlie and Dr. Fink understand though.

Italia: Day Six

Since we stayed out so late, I decided not to get up and run in the morning, which may not have been the best choice, but I do need to try and sleep when I can. I got up at nine and packed my bag because today was our last day in Torino. The group met and walked to a local market together to look at their produce. After admiring the large amounts of fresh fruit, Pam, Chelsea, and I met up with Patti (Loredana’s Italian friend) and wandered around the clothing side of the market. I purchased a corset and tank top that were pretty cheap in price. I also found a bottle of white nail polish that I wanted to get because the color is in style. All of the people I interacted with in the market were very nice, although we were warned ahead of time to be wary of pickpockets. It was somewhat difficult to communicate that I wanted to try things on though.

We spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of stores on the Garibaldi strip, a large collection of fashion stores. Everything was pretty expensive though, so we just looked and tried things on. In a cheaper clothing store, we all tried on matching dresses in different colors and took some pictures. Then we went to an underwear store where we tried on fruit-decorated boxer briefs and took more pictures.

Trying on our fruity underwear

After buying postcards from a small, touristy shop, we sat down at a restaurant called Happy Days for lunch. We all got the pasta and it was amazing – possibly the best that I've had so far on this trip. It’s funny though because it was really just shelled noodles in a tomato sauce. The bread at the restaurant was really good too.

We met up with Becky and Loredana after lunch and stopped into a bar to get some drinks and sit on the patio. I got some weird strawberry and vodka concoction that was very strong and tolerable, but not my favorite. It was a little too fruity for me. Pam got a Amaretto and Coke that was really good though, so I vowed that I would try it at our next stop.

We kept walking toward the river and went back to the park in the center of the city that we keep visiting to rent a four-person bike/car (I don’t know what the technical name for them is but they're covered vehicles powered with your legs, like a bicycle, but that look like an old-fashioned car). We had trouble on some of the hills, but we managed by putting our brute strength into it. It helped that four of us were peddling. At one point, we picked up some random guy who spoke very little English and dropped him off at his bus stop like we were a taxi service. We also steered down this massive hill though and spent the whole way down screaming and having the Italians stare at us. At the bottom of the hill there was even an amusement park-style bump that Becky lost her bag on.

Our rental bike/car

 We wanted to go ziplining after we returned the bike, but the stand by the river was closed so we didn’t end up getting the chance. It’s a shame though because the experience would have only been seven euros.

On our way back to meet the group, we stopped for another drink at a different bar. This time I got the Amaretto and coke. I decided I didn’t like it very much toward the end of the drink because the Amaretto is really sweet tasting and not my style at all. I sucked it down though and proceeded to feel a little bit tipsy for the rest of the afternoon. I’m just glad the glasses we got at the second bar were two euros cheaper and double the size of the first.

We met the rest of the group at a chain ice cream shop, GROM, near our hotel and picked up our luggage before boarding a bus to the airport. I’m really surprised by how big the Torino Airport is. I was expecting a dinky little three-terminal airport, but it’s actually quite nice and decent sized. Even our plane is bigger than I expected. We did have to take a little bus out on the tarmac to board though, which reminds me of 
travelling to Ireland.

Boarding the plane to leave Torino

Italia: Up in the Air

Yesterday, I boarded the plane from the Columbus airport to fly to Atlanta. I didn’t even finish a magazine and the flight was over. We wasted time at Atlanta eating lunch. I was really impressed by the fact that they had a Qdoba in their airport. I can barely find a Qdoba in Columbus, yet here we walked right past one when we were trying to find our gate. Of course I had to have some. It was probably the most expensive Qdoba that I’ve ever eaten. I paid just over $7 for my burrito (chicken and cheese only) and a mandatory side of chips and salsa.

The plane ride over to Italy was really long – just over nine hours. The food wasn’t very good either so it’s a good thing that I indulged in Qdoba. I sat between two blonde girls on the flight over, neither of them said much. I tried to sleep during the flight, but it wasn’t happening so I ended up working on a journal entry that I needed to make for Ohio Wesleyan's PE 200.9: Obesity and Prevention in Italy and the United States. Right before we left the States, professor Fink gave us a huge packet of reading materials and a notebook for us to reflect in. I didn’t realize we would be doing work beyond our presentations during the trip...

My first thoughts regarding Italy though are that it isn’t exactly my cup of tea. It seems a lot more rustic than Ireland was - something I definitely wasn't expecting from all the praise people have put upon it. Even though we’re staying in an actual hotel with twin beds, an elevator, and private bath, it seems as if the buildings are closer to falling apart and the people are less friendly. Maybe it’s just the fashionista edge they give off, but everyone seems to be looking at us and I would say our travel group looks a lot less American than the Girl Scouts group did in Ireland.

Stairway of the elegant Hotel Dock Milano in Torino

I slept on most of the bus ride to Turin though, so I might have missed some key details between here and Milan. All I know is that I saw some rice fields and was thoroughly disappointed to find that they don’t drive on the other side of the road here like they do in the United Kingdom. I thought that was all of Europe, but I guess I’m wrong. Their steering wheels are even on the same side of the car. The only difference was the kilometer reading instead of miles, the manual transmission instead of automatic, and the diesel fuel instead of regular.

The town of Turin or Torino seems fairly nice though. There’s a pizza place on even corner and a lot of bars that look like little casual restaurants, the trattorias that Italia is famous for.

Ireland: Backtracking

Everyone got up slowly this morning. I quickly packed everything away and headed downstairs for breakfast, which was just a croissant. After breakfast, we loaded onto the airport shuttle. It took a few minutes, but once we got to the airport we found a spot to set our stuff down. I bought a boa, Ireland scarf, and two magnets for my fridge at school. Once we paid for our purchases, we went to get breakfast at a little café cart near the terminal. I got a double chocolate chip muffin and an apple.

We sat around and waited to board the plane. Once we finally got on, our flight was delayed for about an hour while they fixed a maintenance issue. During the flight, I read, napped, and listened to music. They served us a lot of food. First, there was lunch which was a chicken breast, rice, noodles, a roll, and an oatmeal raisin cookie. I only ate the chicken and the roll. After lunch, they provided us with a corn chip snack like we had when we were on our way to Canada. It was really good. Finally, shortly before we arrived in Toronto, they served us wraps. I got the chicken wrap and it tasted just like a chicken quesadilla at Taco Bell. I really missed Mexican food while in Ireland.

Blurry picture on the way home

Tortilla on the plane!

Amazing corn chips

We got off the plane and shuffled through customs, which didn’t take that long. I didn’t get asked any weird questions. Then we killed some time waiting around, sleeping, and using the internet during our layover.

I was so relieved to board the puddle jumper that brought us back to Michigan. The trip to Ireland was great, but everyone managed to get on my nerves at least once. I hate being that close in proximity to people. It just isn’t who I am. I need alone time.