Viva Italia!

I’m excited for Italy! And nervous! It was difficult to find time to get excited because I was so busy all this week. It was one project, paper, or exam after another. Sunday I had an International Reporting article due. Tuesday I had a Human Trafficking exam and a lot of reading, Thursday I had a Strategic Communication exam, and Friday I had a Creative Travel Writing paper due and a photojournalism PowerPoint partner presentation. I just took things one day at a time. Sometimes even one hour at a time! I tried my best, given how much time I had to study and prepare.

It’s now Friday and I’m finished with all of that schoolwork. Now I can move onto stressing about packing. How much should I bring? How many bags? How many pants? A bathing suit? A rubber ducky? Toilet paper? Those last two were jokes. Of course I’m brining a rubber ducky ;)

 I’m not brining my computer to Italy so I won’t be able to blog every day probably. I also won’t have time to write in detail about my day. I will journal a lot and then use that to blog later. I’m brining my iPad and I plan on finding internet cafes to use the internet there. Some of our hostels have wi fi (or wee fee as my host parents say). My parents and my host parents said I have to contact them somehow stating I am alive and well. Fair enough. Since I can’t use my phone in Italy (do you want to pay for my crazy high roaming costs?) I will be emailing, blogging (maybe short bullet point posts?), and facetiming to communicate with both sets of my parents. It will be a challenge to go without my cellphone for a week. But it will also prove I don’t need it to survive and that it’s just a luxury, not a necessity. I am not someone who is dependent on a stupid electronic device.

I’m looking at this trip as an adventure. Emily May and my mom gave me that advice. So what if I get lost? What if my hostel isn’t a 5 star luxury hotel? Who cares if we have to walk a lot? I will survive and laugh about it later. I’m going to have fun in the moment, embrace this opportunity, and have a good time. I came to Europe to learn to be more independent and this is a great way to do that. I plan to stick to Blake like mud sticks to Ginger for safety reasons but I will still be fairly independent because we are not in a large tour group. I think I’ll have to remind myself of these things I’ve mentioned. I’ve known myself in the past to pout if things don’t go my way or fret when things aren’t ideal. I probably will get lost, I probably won’t be staying in the best hotels, and I’m sure something not ideal will happen. But I will make the best of it and go with it. Smiley face :-)

While I’m going into the trip with a positive attitude, I’m also going into with the safe attitude. I’m leaving a copy of my passport with my host family, brining a copy and the real thing with me. I plan on holding my purse at all times and guarding my nice camera with my life. No Romanian child gypsy thief will be stealing my stuff.    

            My Travel Plans:

Friday: Fly to Vienna at 8:25. Get there at 10pm. Check in at hostel.

Saturday: In Vienna

Sunday: Take an overnight train to Venice.

Monday: Venice.

Tuesday: In Venice.

Wednesday: Take a train to Florence at 9:25 and arrive at 11:30.

Thursday: In Florence

Friday: Taking a morning train to Rome.

Saturday: In Rome

Sunday: Fly home to Copenhagen and get in around 9pm.

We don’t have a lot of time in each city and I’m aware that we will not get to see everything we want to. I hope to see:

·      the Freud museum in Vienna

·      a castle or museum in Vienna

·      Grand Canal in Venice

·      Statue of David in Florence

·      Duomo in Florence

·      Pantheon in Rome

·      Sistine Chapel in Rome

·      Coloseum in Rome

·      Trevi Fountain in Rome

So wish me a safe and fun week! I hope to buy postcards and one or two small souvenirs at each place. And of course, I hope you have a great week too!

Here you can see where Venice, Florence and Rome are.