Party in the U.K.: VENEZIA, Italy

Ciao from Venezia (Venice)!

I have decided already…Rome = most stressful and hardest & Florence = easiest and best Gelato & Venice = Coolest! Venice is an awesome city…wherever you go it is a new and amazing view. This city is nothing like I have ever seen. We got here around 12:30 and has a 15 minute treck to our hotel over bridges and through alley ways haha. We are right off of the Grand Canal which is great and convenient. This is the most difficult city to navigate…you just really cant even use a map, but just wander around and hope that you get to where you want to go. Our room is TINY! And we have four people staying in it and one bed was on the floor….I wouldn’t recommend 1 person to stay in this room!

Wednesday - We grabbed lunch and were off to conquer the tiny and scanty canals and alleys of Venice. Our first target was San Marco Cathedral. We actually made it to the cathedral…which wasn’t a sure thing. This is in the world famous San Marco square in Venice. San Marco was my favorite cathedral that I have seen this entire trip…and yes I went to St. Peters in Rome, which was also incredible. But, San Marco was like nothing we have seen yet. The whole inside was covered in tiny delicate mosaics…it was amazing. This square is on the gulf/sea that Venice is on, so we walked along the water and took pictures and made our way to Basilica of Saints Giovanni and Paolo. This wasn’t as impressive, but it was still very cool. It was also connected to a hospital so we got to go in that and check it out. This was like no hospital I had ever seen haha….the outside was marble. We sat down on stairs along a canal and took a rest and then decided to make our way back across Venice to our hotel. There was a large statue in this square which was gated off but little kids were still play inside of the gate and in the cubby holes of the statue. There was a little boy and girl sitting in a cubby together and as we were walking by the little girl pulled down her pants to show the little boy what was going on down there and then she sat down and they started giggling. Then she pulled his pants down and he had a underwear on and then she pulled those down. We were all dying laughing and in disbelief that this was happening. And then she kept his pants down and was checking out everything that was going on down there haha!!! It was hilarious. We could not believe that this happened. So funny. We made our way back to the hotel by the use of signs haha…or else we couldn’t have made it back. We grabbed some Calzones and took tons of pictures on the way back and then we are in the room now chatting with friends and getting rested for the Island of Murano tomorrow!!! This is the island where Murano Italian glass is made!

Thursday - Everyone woke up the next morning and ate breakfast and we caught a water taxi to the Island of Murano. It was about a 30 minute ride and we got off and went to a glass blowing show. This was incredible. We watched these Italian med use a furnace and mold, stretch, and blow glass into a piece of a chandelier, a Pitcher, and a horse. They used colored powder to dye the glass and they melted beads in the glass to make different colors. After the show we went and explored the hundreds of Murano glass stores. Looking at all of the different glass objects was fun after seeing the show because you knew how it was made and it was unbelievable how they made these things. Naturally I bought a TON of stuff because it is all irresistible haha. We spent about 4 hours on the island and grabbed lunch and ate while sitting on the water and looking out at Venice and the entire surrounding Islands. It was so warm and relaxing…I got a sunburn! We then took a water taxi to another Island called Lido, which is also off of Venice. On this water taxi my friend Jeryn and I saw two little kids no older than 8 years old with cell phones that they were texting on! We were thinking what?? How do you have friends that you can text right now at this age…what do you even have to talk about besides what’s on the Disney channel this afternoon…and do you even know how to construct a sentence?? This Island was more of a beachy and casual atmosphere. We laid on the dock by the water for a while soaking up the sun and watching all of the boats drive by and we decided to walk to the other side of the island (It is extremely long and skinny – we walked across the skinny part) and we ran into a beach! It wasn’t the cleanest of best beach but it was so much fun to see this and hang out here. We went and walked in the water and took a ton of pictures, saw an old woman’s saggy boobs (highlight of the trip, personally), and laid around by the water. It was a great view into the sea. We walked back to catch the water taxi and road back to Venice and then went back to the hotel. This was our last night in Italy so we got ready and went out for a nice dinner at an Italian place. After being here for a while…you don’t exactly look forward to the not so superb service here, or the pea sized servings that you get, or the 3 Euro water. But we went out and enjoyed ourselves while sitting outside and people watching on the alley ways and canals of Venice. After realizing that this was our last night in Italy and also Europe, it dawned on us that it would be our last night to be able to legally drink. So naturally we got wasted…JUST KIDDING! Haha We went to the store and got some Gelato and Bellini, which is from Italy and it is kind of like a peachy puree wine. We sat on one of the major bridges and drank, talked, and people watched and I did the occasional jig in the street. It was great to just hang out with friends and embrace the time that we had left with each other in an amazing city like Venice. As we were sitting there, one of the many men selling roses on the streets came up to us and tried to sucker us into buying one. We said no but he wouldn’t leave. So naturally we started growling at him…like we did with most creepy or annoying Italians. Hahaha! It was so funny I almost peed in my pants. After frightening this man we had a good laugh and then went back to the hotel to pack up and throw away everything that we didn’t need for going home and went to bed. Before we went to bed, my trip roommate (one of them) took a shower and when she was in the shower I heard a shout and asked what was wrong and our shower head/handle had fallen off the tube that it was connected to…so all we had was a tube that shot water to take a shower with. Something for me to look forward to in the morning.

Friday – I woke up at 730am and took the last shower that I would take in Europe until I got home! Which is gross but also very exciting. We had to check out at 930 but we stored our luggage at the hotel, a.k.a put them in a corner of the patio/garden in the back of the hotel. As everyone started to put their luggage away…the word slowly started to spread that most everyone in our group had gotten bed bugs that night. My room was one of the only rooms that did not get bed bugs or large amounts of mosquitoes. How lucky!! We walked all over Venice to shop and take our last pictures and took a Gondola ride! This is an essential to the Venice experience. It was so much fun and relaxing. We got our ride on one of the back canals and then we road through those to the Grand Canal and past Marco Polo’s house and also the first Casino ever. After this we decided to go out big for our last real meal ever in this Continent…HARD ROCK CAFÉ Venice! Yes…we ate complete American food for our last mean. But I have to say that it was much more appreciated because of portion size, large drinks with ICE and free refills, good waiting service (compared to the other Europeans, but not Americans), and good ole’ American Rock and Roll. It was great. To our surprised when we walked in to the restaurant we saw about half of our Italy group already in there eating. Great minds…No, American Minds think alike! The Hard Rock was right by the San Marco Cathedral (my favorite) so we went by that again to take pictures and then we went out to the “board walk” and when and sat by the water and laid down on the deck and soaked up some Italian sun. We got up because the polizia came up to us and told us that we were allowed to lay on the ground, haha but we could sit. It was quite funny. We got up and walked to down the way and got to the first bridge over a canal that led to the sea and down this canal is the Bridge of Sighs. This is called the bridge of sighs because whenever prisoners were taken to prison, which is attached to San Marco, this would be the last bridge that they would cross, the last canal they would see, and the last view of the sea and beautiful Italian sun. Therefore, they would sigh at the beauty of the sea and Venice as they crossed the bridge. We took some pictures and then walked to some shops and made our way slowly back to the hotel whilst getting lost a couple times along the way. We made it back around 3 and sat and chatted with all of our friends and listened to everyone’s bed bug stories and day activities. EVERYONE was sunburned haha! At 4:15 we walked again back to the bus station with all of our bags and waited to be picked up at 5pm. We got on the coach and made our way to Venice airport and took a flight at 8:15 to London Gatwick that landed at 10ish. We then took a coach to London Heathrow and waited outside in the freeeezing weather and rain (of course) for the luggage shuttles from Harlaxton. In the freezing and rainy weather we unloaded TONS of suitcases (naturally mine were in the very back of the shuttle and the last ones to be unloaded). At this time it is 12am.

Saturday – We go into the Departure terminal and started to unload all of our suitcases to even out all of the weight and throw out anything that we didn’t need…and things that we wanted but just couldn’t fit haha. Both of my suitcases were very overweight so I had to sacrifice a few things (that mom would consider unimportant and rejoice that I was throwing out…such as some dingy t shirts). Finally I got everything sorted…with only one overweight suitcase and a carry on that Hulk Hogan would have a hard time lifting. We were starving because we hadn’t had dinner at all so we went up stairs and the only thing open was Costa (UK’s Starbucks), so I had Orange Juice, a Muffin, and chips for dinner. After that we went and found everyone else and got settled in an area and shared pictures and music. We didn’t really realize that this was the last night that we would all be together. The hours passed by slowly…We didn’t sleep all night. As 7 approached we were getting to anxious to get our bags check so we went and got in line for check in at 730 and checked our bags which was a relief to get off of our hands for the last time!!! One of my suitcases was overweight but the lady didn’t charge me! BONUS! We went up to security and then got to the terminal and sat together waiting for out gate to come up. I was on a different plane than everyone else, so their gate came up before mine and then we finally realized that this was goodbye. I hugged Jessi and lost it and started crying and then we all started crying. As I watched them walk away to their gate, my gate showed up and it was the gate next to theirs! So I went running across the airport to catch up with them yelling their names and they turned around and we all started laughing! I went and checked into my flight and we were then separated by a glass wall. I sat there with tears in my eyes until I boarded the plane. It was one of the hardest things to leave everyone. The complex emotions that I was feeling from leaving them, coming home, and the impact of the whole experience and what it means to my future was incredible. I boarded my plane and watched their plane rolled out of the strip and leave. My 10 hour flight was long and something that I wasn’t prepared for but I got to sleep most of the way which was nice. I was anxious the whole plane ride because even though I was going home to the most familiar place, it felt like I was going into a foreign place…just like how I felt when I was flying to the UK. I arrived at 3pm – 30minutes behind schedule. I went through passport control, where I was made fun of hard core by the passport man for bringing a pillow on the plane. He had issues. Then I made my way to baggage claim where my bags were the last ones out on the carousel. And then got on the end of the line of customs which took about 45 minutes where I witnessed a middle aged man yelling at a women and her mother about their places in line. Jerk. They didn’t search my bags which was nice. I rolled my cart of suitcases out into the welcome area and was greeted by an ecstatic group of family members and then I proceeded to cry which made everyone else cry! We put on a great show for everyone else in the airport…I think they enjoyed it. Lauren, Christi, Mom, Dad, Danny, Derrik, and Aunt Jean were there…which was perfect in every way!! I was so completely happy to see everyone and so surprised that Aunt Jean came!! I was welcomed by hugs and kisses and balloons and candy. We finished our celebrations and walked outside to find the RV sitting there with a HUGE welcome home Ali sign on the side! I have the best family in the entire world! This was the most incredible welcome home ever!! The ride home was so much fun sitting with everyone, eating snacks, looking at souvenirs, and telling stories. The drive passed by fast and we pulled up into town and hit Outback so that I could get my favorite, Kids Mac and Cheese! I was so happy to taste an American coke with ICE and free refills! It was the best welcome day ever and I couldn’t have wished for anything better. Home is great…I laid in my bed and felt like I was floating on a cloud.

Recap of the last two days (Friday and Saturday) – I was in three different countries in two days. I used three different currencies. I was on two coaches and two plane rides. I slept all of 6 hours. I had to leave all of my new best friends and my life for the past 4 months. I got to come home to the most amazing family anyone could ever have. I slowly recognize the changes in me and my life and I expect to continue to be impacted by this experience for the rest of my life.

I love you all!

Look at Rome and Florence for pictures that I didn’t get to post! They are now up or will be soon! And make sure to read those if you haven’t already!

Arrivederci! (Till we meet again – in Italian)

- Ali

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