Hello hello, one and all. It has been some time since I’ve updated you all!

When I last posted I was prepping for my finals. And they eventually came, as any test does//

They went well! My german test was very manageable, and my ACC was maybe a little rough, but very doable. My IBB final paper was a little rough, I’ll admit, but its all good. Because the grading system is so different in Austria, my grades in my classes will not transfer to my GPA, only count for credits. So essentially all I had to do was pass and I was golden. I didn’t want to treat my schooling that way though – don’t want to form some bad habits! So I took my schooling seriously (well, as seriously as I thought was appropriote) and studied and worked to get the best mark I could!

And I did well!!

I got all 1s, except for one 2 (in German). Here the grading scale goes from 1-5, 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest. Pretty much if you get a 4 or 5 you failed. A 1 is about 90%, and a 2 is about 75% I think – I don’t actually know how it works.

So I am pleased 🙂

 

After exams, it was time for the “TRIP”.

iTALIA HERE WE COME!!!

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We left Steyr at 21:15 on Tuesday night, arriving in Linz 50 minutes later, and then boarded a night train to Venice, arriving the next morning at about 8:00. We could have paid a lot of money to get beds or nicer compartments, but we just bought the cheapest tickets, so we had just a regular compartment. We shared the apartment with 1 other guy, but he never spoke to us.

The night train was long, but it didn’t feel as long as I would have expected it to. I didn’t sleep much, mostly just dozed intermittently. I think we were all feeling a little anxious. At the border we watched Police go through the compartments and take more refugees off the train – they didn’t come into our compartment.

Eventually we made it into Venice, and oh my goodness did I feel so happy!

We stepped out of the train and the heat hit us smack in the face. The humidity was also pretty impressive as well!

I immediately felt at home in Greece – similar climate to Italy. And I remembered back to all those times my friend Ερμιόνη would call me a vanilla ice cream cone, because I was so pale and melted in the sun.

Well, I was going to be a vanilla ice cream cone ALL WEEK!

Getting off the train we had to figure out how to get bus tickets, and managed to take the bus to our hostel without much struggle.

Our hostel was actually a campsite, which seems to be a very popular thing in Italy. So this hostel had plain flat areas for people to pitch tents, park trailers, etc., they had tons of 2 person quality tents for rent, 3-person cabins (where we stayed), “Glamping” tents, small chateau cabins, etc. So we were kind of camping, which was okay – it added to the whole “summer adventure” vibe we were going for.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed back across the channel and into venice once more. I was beyond excited.

Our trip overall was very relaxed. We were on vacation after all!

So essentially our plan was to just wander around, get a little lost, and eventually find our way to the ocean on the other side.

Well, mission accomplished – we got lost. Majorly.

Venice is super confusing. There are so many small alleys and streets that you can get lost so easily! The signs are also not very helpful because often they have 2 arrows pointing in opposite directions for the same place. That TOOOTTALLLLYYY makes sense, right?

It was kinda fun just to wander through, hit lots of deadends, and just generally wander.

I took about a million pictures of the canals, streets, apartments, etc. So I will try to keep the pictures on this post to a minimum.

 

Eventually, as one tends to do in Venice, we ended up finding our way to the Piazza San Marco. And I wasn’t complaining one bit.

 

And what do you do at San Marco’s? FEED THE PIGEONS!

This one is a pretty sweet action shot. It is actually against the rules to feed the birds – there are signs up, and from time to time a police officer will walk into a group of tourists and tell the to stop. But for the most part its free game.

And San Marco’s is located right when the Grand Canal opens back up into the ocean, which means that IT SMELT LIKE THE OCEAN AND IT WAS WONDERFUL! i love the ocean!!

We spent time wandering aroudn through the stalls and shops, got dinner, sat along the Grand Canal and put our feet into the ocean. All around a very perfect day. And perfect days always end well:

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Venice Day Two started much later than we originally planned. I think we were so exhausted from the day before that we all slept pretty heavy and long, so we didn’t get to the island until closer to 11:00. This was still fine – we decided to wander in a new direction today, and see the other half of the island we didn’t get to the day before. It was just as beautiful and relaxing as ever. And again, we ended up around San Marcos, so we had another go with the pigeons 🙂

We saw all the site in Venice – the island itself is not very big, and so we walked it almost in one day. And its pretty touristy, but that’s to be expected. Overall it was just relaxing and walking and goofing around, and I think that’s a pretty ideal way to travel. Sure, you want to make the most of your time and see everything, but sometimes what’s important is the little stuff too. We got around the whole island, but we also sat by the canals and got our feet wet in the ocean while eating gelato and having a great time. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.

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Day Three: Verona.

Verona is a one day trip, I think. The major stuff is all related to Romeo and Juliette, and its all pretty concentrated in the same area. Its a really pretty city too.

We left Venice early in the morning and went to Verona just for the day.

This was a more structured day since we couldn’t just wander – we didn’t have time haha.

 

We decided to grab some lunch before we went to Juliette’s wall, and we decided (alright, I may have slightly forced them) to write our own letters for Juliette.

If you haven’t seen the movie “Letters to Juliette” its adorable and you should watch it!!

Anyways, turns out you aren’t allowed to put notes on Juliette’s wall – the movie lied to us!!

But there are mailboxes that you can place your letters in. And there is a small alley tunnel to the actual wall that everyone leaves notes on and signs.

You can pay to go up on the balcony, but there were SO MANY PEOPLE in that tiny courtyard, we figured it probably wasn’t worth it just for one picture. Cool story, but not quite worth the money. We all let sticky notes as well, of good wishes and such, which was nice. And I wrote with a sharpie on the actual wall, because apparently I’m a hooligan or something – who knew?!

We eventually left Verona and headed off to FLORENCE! We got in a little late to the hostel (also a campsite-style place), so we decided to just hang out, charge our phones, update instagram, etc.

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Day Four: Florence

We woke up fairly early (because it got really hot in our tent haha) and set off. Our hostel was in a really nice location on top of a big hill overlooking the city. And a 5-minute walk away was the Piazzale Michelangelo – a beautiful plaza overlooking the city. Its a big tourist stop, so we thought we would hit it early before it got too busy.

 

From the Piazzale we just wandered and made our way down the hill into the city. The hostel gave us a pretty good map so we could hit all the major sites!

We eventually made our way back to the hostel for the evening, and slept very soundly. We were all tired from the heat and all the walking!! haha

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Day 5: Florence and Pisa

Fun fact about Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia – it has free admission on the first Sunday of every month. Guess what Sunday was?!

We got up really early so we could get to the Gallery before it opened. Lots of other people had the same idea, but thankfully the line moved pretty quickly! So we didn’t have to wait very long!

The gallery is really famous for the works of Michelangelo, the famous artist and sculptor.

But the big draw is this:

The original statue of David.

This statue is HUGE! I never realized how huge it was. The pedestal he stood on was taller than most people, so that’s a scale for you.

It was amazing to see the statue – for free too 🙂

Its pretty mind blowing to think about how something like this was made. The sheer size of the piece of marble you would have to start with is crazy! I could have taken pictures of the statue for hours!!

But we still had more museum to see!

 

After the museum we made our way to the trainstation where we got on a train to Pisa!!

It was a full train, that’s for sure. Makes sense though, haha.

At first when we got off, we just started walking, assuming we would see the tower. From the map we had a general direction, but you can’t see it just walking around.

 

And then all of a sudden, we turned a corner, and there it was!

The one thing that really struck me was the extent to which the tower slants. In our pictures you can’t tell as well because its from a bad angle. But here you can really see it:

 

You can go into the Cathedral on its own for free, and to climb the tower is wicked expensive, so we passed on that one!

 

And of course, no afternoon in Italy is ever complete until you get Gelato and eat it in the shade!

 

Pisa was fun, but the only thing probably worth visiting is the tower and cathedral, which is why we were only there for an afternoon. A very fun afternoon though ! 🙂

In the evening back in Florence, we went back to Piazzle Michelangelo to catch the sunset!

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Day 6: Goodbyes

Monday was our travel day.

Trains in Italy tend to be delayed almost always, so we decided we would ensure we got back to Venice with plently of time to make our night train back to Austria.

We had seen everything we wanted to in Florence, so in the morning we just hung around at the Florence hostel until it was time to go to Venice. We decided to pay a little extra to get a direct train instead of having a couple connections – less delays and less fuss.!

We ended up getting to Venice around 17:00, and decided to stay around the train station instead of wandering through the city – we might have gotten lost again! The train station is right on the water, so we sat there and enjoyed the warm and sun. We did get Gelato though (obviously) and had our last italian meal sitting in a restaurant next to a canal. So that was good.

We had to drag ourselves back to the trainstation one last time to board our night train. We had reserved seats, but decided to move and got a compartment all to ourselves! This proved to be wise!

As we travelled, the train started to become more busy and full, so we immediately laid our seats down and pretended to be asleep, so no one would bother us and walk in. At the border, the border control came through and opened our door and turned the lights on, but didn’t ask us for our passports or papers, so that was nice.

There were some close calls where people were standing outside our compatment, and we could hear them talking about banging on our door to wake us up so they could sit in with us. Thankfully they didn’t, because it would be awkward for them when we wouldn’t let them in anyways!

I didn’t really sleep much on that train either, but got lots of dozing done – it was the trick to pretend to be asleep at every stop so people wouldn’t bother you haha.

 

We eventually made it back to Steyr at about 7:30 on Tuesday, where we all had to get on with our days!

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I know this post may seem a little sparse on details but to be honest is was a very chill trip – nothing major actually happened. We just spent the majority of our days wandering around, taking pictures, eating Gelato, and sitting around relaxing. That’s not the most gripping content, sorry.

But it was SO FUN! I can’t begin to tell you how enjoyable the trip was. We went coast to coast! And realistically, it wasn’t that expensive. And we had great fun picking out souvenirs and looking at shops.

Those 6 days went by so ridiculously fast, but also felt like we had been living in Italy for weeks. Its crazy how things like that work!

To end this post, I will post pictures of yy food! 🙂

Ii don’t have a picture of EVERY Gelato and every slushee, etc. I’ve just got the highlights, for your jealous enjoyment ;D

There’s not that much actually because we averaged about 1 meal a day, and supplemented with sweets and snacks – a shame perhaps, but why pay if you aren’t hungry?

The order here:

Gelato

Lasagna

Tortellini with Ham and Cream

Cannolli!

Pizza and Pasta!

More Gelato 😀 we ate it almost every single day!!

Pasta – mine was Fettuccine Alfredo with Mushrooms

Crepes

Pasta and Pizza – mine is actually Gnocchi

Slushies – they were perfect for when it was really hot, because it seemed as though our water was never cold!

And a giant exploded Calzone!

 

There’s your small taste 🙂

In Summary: Italy was amazing, my friends are amazing, and everything is grand!

 

emma.k