C'est La Vie!

So here goes an attempt to sum up probably one of the most entertaining and valuable learning experiences of my life, ever. As stated before, I have been on a trip going across what I like to call ‘Eastern-Western Europe’. Leaving from Leeds, I took a National Express bus to Liverpool to catch my flight with Ryanair down to Rome (the bus cost around 5.50 pounds and the flight 26 pounds after all the taxes). How excellent is that?? Well, I arrived in Liverpool and got lost, and I do recommend getting lost in a city since you get to see so much that you wouldn’t think of seeing otherwise. I arrived at my bed and breakfast (Standridge Hotel, I believe), and I think it’s run by a couple that lives on site. It was close to John Lennon airport and came with FREE TEA! (And coffee, but I don’t drink it much) So, the day prior to my flight was spent watching BBC, drinking tea, and writing my final paper for medieval studies. The next day was really nerve wracking since I was going to go to Italy on my own, so thankfully I found the Terravision bus that took me to Termini Station in Rome (think the Victoria station in London, but everything is in Italian…scary). After getting tickets for the metro, I had this awful fear I wouldn’t figure out how to validate my ticket since some tourist websites stress validating your ticket or the tourist police would get you. HEY, SURPRISE, IT’S REALLY OBVIOUS WHERE YOU VALIDATE YOUR TICKET AND IT’S REALLY NOT LIKE THERE ARE SCARY TOURIST POLICE ON THE METRO WAITING TO TAKE YOU TO JAIL. You put your ticket through a machine, and you NEED to so you can get to the platforms of the metro, so if you’re taking it…your ticket will be validated and you don’t need to worry about it. On the buses however, all you have to do is find a little box at the front and stick your ticket in. Not hard at all. I found my hostel, Plus Camping Roma, and it was a really nice (out of the way) campsite. It’s really easy to get to with public transport -- but it just takes awhile. The campsite was definitely more than I expected, it had a computer lab, wi-fi spots, a restaurant and bar, a market, and a swimming pool! So while I was waiting for my Topdeck tour to start, I was definitely not bored. One word of wisdom though- a lot of Italians don’t speak English…so if someone tells you that, they were really lucky or a big fat liar. If anything, most of them can understand Spanish (if you speak slowly), so if you know Spanish from high school or university courses, I would definitely use it over there. I went into the grocery store to try and find contact solution…and then I was too scared to leave the campsite anymore. Later that day I met up with the new additions to the Topdeck tour and our leader, and it was way more than I expected. Our leader Lety, is pretty much the bomb. She’s from Spain and has many similar mannerisms to my mom, so it’s actually really funny sometimes. We went on a walking tour of Rome and came back to the campsite for some yummy wine and Italian food prepared on-site and rested in our super sweet bungalows that were heated and had in-suite bathrooms that were immaculate! So that’s all for Rome…so that leads to VENICE! I had never been to Venice before, so I was quite excited. The drive was longer than I would have hoped, but hey, coach travel (in my opinion) is pretty fun. We spent the majority of the day travelling to our new accommodation which was also another Plus campsite. Like the one in Rome, we got bungalows that were really home-y and luxurious (as far as campsites go). Now, the next day we took a small tour and saw St. Marco’s Basilica, the winding streets of Venice, and went on a looooovely gondola ride! After this action packed morning, we had the chance to get lunch ourselves and we ended up at a restaurant next to a fish market (yuck), and me being me, decided to be daring and get the spaghetti with fish. Surprise! Fish actuallymeans OCTOPUS TENTACLES. It tasted good until those suction cups reared their ugly head in my otherwise beautiful bowl of spaghetti. Me and my friend Kate ended up wandering around the city looking for places to buy souvenirs…and I ended up getting a pretty sweet Venetian mask and some postcards. We tried some gelato, and I’m going to go ahead and say mango and tiramisu are my all time favorite flavors. We had to go back at 16.30 to get back in time for dinner, and much like the night before..it was excellent. Topdeck chefs are kind of the bomb.com, but after dinner…we had a TOGA PARTY. It was pretty cool since it was everyone on our tour, and then another group of training tour guides joined us…a group of really attractive tour guides. Although we called it an early-ish night, it was definitely tons of fun, you know, since togas always mean a good time. The next day we left Italy for Slovenia/Croatia…so a new post will follow including both of those countries. Peace out girl scouts!