2010-2011- A year to remember... My International Exchange + Internship: April 2011

December 2010
-ITALY-

Venice

I took the train from Swansea, Wales to Bristol, UK in order to catch my plane to Treviso airport in Italy. As I arrived in Bristol, some people had already been sleeping on the airport floor for 3 days waiting for their flights! There had been delays and several flight cancellations due to continuous snow storms all accross Northwestern Europe. I was praying that the same would not happen to me.
As I was waiting at the check-in lineup I met up with some girls, one of whom I knew from Swansea University. But actually all of them were from my Uni!! These poor girls had slept at the airport for 2 nights already, cause they had decided to start their vacation early and miss a couple of classes...if they had just waited a little...see?, it pays to be responsible!! ahhahahah Anyway, as the lineup got closer, they let us know that the plane WOULD actually leave that same day, it would only be delayed by one hour ....I was sooooo happy!! well, and so were they of course...the poor things... :) so finally... I was not going to sleep on the floor at Bristol airport....

The group of girls was of approximately six, they were all Italian, and going home for the holidays. I had a very pleasant time with them actually, during our waiting period, just talking and eating at the airport burgerking until our flight was announced. Once on the plane, of course we were seated separetely and had different destinations in Italy, so I basically lost them once on the plane, cause it was full. I was now on my way to beautiful Venice.

As I arrived in Treviso airport, I took a bus that took me to Venice in about 40 minutes. It was nighttime already, around 8pm. Luckily, I had made myself a little map of where my pre-booked hostel was located. I had no trouble finding it, as it was only a 10 minute walk from the bus station.
Walking to my hotel, this italian guy starts walking alongside me and he just stared and smiled. He later told me that I looked funny dragging my carry-on bag on the steps of the high bridge and thought I may need a hand. Of course I can't trust someone to just take my bag!! so I said I was ok. However, this guy was very nice and we talked the whole way....well kind of...there was a bit of a language barrier. When we arrived to my hostel he offered to go together to the GRAN CANALE which is beautiful at night when it's lit, and then to have a coffee. He waited for me outside, I checked in, and we walked through the little narrow lit streets of Venice.
His name was Pacale, he was a security guard, and spoke only italian and very poor english. You can imagine how hard it was to communicate and how many times things needed to be repeated! pfffffff! Anyway, we went for a bite to eat and I had my first Italian lasagna, mmm mmm mmm good!! :D He didn't eat, so we then had a hot chocolate together. Pascale was 28, extremely nice, very handsome, beutiful eyes and as a typical italian boy, started talking of romance right from the start. hehehhee I will never forget, it even makes me laugh as I remember and write it down.

As soon as we arrived to the canal, I was just amazed with the place, I was in love with VEnice!...so I was all excited and didn't stop taking pictures. He tried to bring me to the ledge of the bridge many times talking to me in his mixed ita-glish in his romantic suave tone and words. He spoke of how beautiful the water looked with the reflection of the moon and the bright stars!...which they did by the way... lol, then of course he tried to kiss me...yup. Well, it would have been so nice and romantic...unfortunately, he was so pushy. Here I am, with a very handsome guy, in one of the world's most romantic spots...so I thought to myself...ok, why not... it may be nice, soooo I went for it.

A kiss can tell you a lot about someone, and this time it wasn't good :S... sooooo the romantic moment passed...tum tum tum :(. Everytime after that, when he tried to kiss me, it was just annoying. We said goodnight as what we were, two people who just met and had a very nice evening, so he went on his way.
The next day I spent it exploring Venice,with its narrow streets, the famous Piazza San Marco, which is spectacular, and eating Italian ice creams, yummy thin sliced pizzas and thick hot chocolate all day. I sat at a little coffee place with a great view of the canal and I just thought for the first time: WOW, IM IN VENICE!! this thought drew a smile to my face as I sat on my own at the coffee shop. Going to Venice had always, up to this moment, been a dream of mine.

The famous "Gondolas" are actually very expensive, around 100eur, and it fits 4 people. Now, if you are on your own and there aren't any others around, you gotta pay the 100eur alone. These Gondolas are the biggest ones with the nice velvet red seats. However, I was able to take the not so fancy Gondola taxi to go across the canal, and that only cost 50cents!! good enough for me :D :D :D.
That night....Pascale came looking for me again...we went out again. This time we both ate, and then went to a pub to have a beer. We spent a nice evening actually. Except for the fact that he insisted on coming up to my hotel room to just "talk" and spend time together getting to know each other better. hahhahaha Sometimes men think that girls keep their innocent 16 year old brain for life! I was laughing inside. So again, I declined, and this time he went on his way for good, cause the next morning I was leaving to Florence. Of course we exchanged emails to remain in touch as friends.

I will never forget my experience in Venice, it was full of typical "Italian" moments :D.

Florence

My arrival to Florence was by train, and it ran very smoothly. On the train I met this girl who was about my age and also travelling alone. We talked the whole way to Florence and became friends. Her name was Eunice, she was of chinese background, but lives in California, US. Eunice was taking a holiday from work, she's a fashion designer and works very hard and very long hours...so for her, this was a well deserved holiday vacation.

Eunice was staying at a different hotel, so we decided to contact eachother that night, so that we could go for a bite to eat...it was a plan. I previously mentioned in another one of my posts, that I am a member of a site called http://www.couchsurfing.com/, highly recommended for those of you who love to travel :D. You can really meet a lot of great people through this site, and most of them are also young travellers. So, I had been in touch with a girl through this site, her name was Serena. She actually lived about 5 minutes walk from my hotel right in the centre of Florence.

That night, Serena, Eunice and I met up and went out for pizza and wine. It was really great! and so yummmmyyyyyyyy. It's very refreshing to find like-minded people such as these girls and the other guys I met through Couchfurfing all around the world. We are all now of course facebook friends as well lol.

Florence is a very pretty place, it's nice to just walk about and see where the streets take you. I loved the old style architecture and the very unique common color of all the buildings and houses. Everything seems to have a yellowish hue. I visited the Duomo - Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and crossed the Ponte Vecchio which is full of shops and boutiques, it's like a Champs Elisee but smaller hehehe.

The best thing is going up to Piazzale Michelangelo, which is located on a hill top. The view from here is amazing, you can see the whole city with it's yellow buildings and red roofs and most importantly, you can see the whole cathedral at once, cause when you're standing next to it, you can't really see it all, you gotta walk around it.
The Cathedral sits on a nice old plaza, surrounded by old stone buildings and narrow streets with shops and terraces. It was December 22nd when I was here, and I was able to see a beautiful Christmas chorus right on the steps of the Cathedral. Everybody was so happy, full of Christmas spirit...u know...those moments that just make you feel good inside and you notice you just got an unfadable smile on your face... :)

I was very pleased with my trip to Venice and Florence. I think I really could not have chosen a better place in Italy to visit.

I only stayed 2 days in Florence, then had to go back to Venice-Treviso airport to take a flight to my next destination, Brussels. This is where my trip became a chaos...

I arrived to Venice around 7pm and stayed at the same hotel one more night. The chaos started the next morning upon my arrival to the airport. There had been really heavy snow storms all across northwestern Europe, like I mentioned previously, and a lot of flights had been cancelled, and this time mine was among them.

At the airport, I had to line up for 3 hours, just for the customer service lady to tell me that I needed to go to the train station and take the train instead because otherwise, my only option was to remain two extra nights in Venice, cause there were no planes available to Brussels that night. This was out of the question...I could not do this, it was christmas eve! and I had friends expecting me for christmas eve dinner that night in Belgium. So...I went to the train station (luckily I only had a small carry-on during these trips!). On the way to the train station, I met a guy in the bus who was in the same situation, and he was also headed for Belgium, but a different city. When we arrived they told us that the only train available was the night train. At this time, it was still only 3pm, and the train would leave around 9pm. In other words, we had to sit tight for 6 hours at the train station, where all there was, was a Mc Donalds believe it or not. We decided to eat there and leave the station to find an internet point so we could both contact the people who were expecting us at our destinations...so we did. This guy was so nice, he let me use his cellphone to call my friends in Belgium. So as you can see, I had to let them know that I would not be there for Christmas Eve....I would be spending Christmas Eve on a night train, on a 10hr ride!....

The Night Train ride...

At this point we were both so tired already...but at the same time, did not want to sleep through Christmas Eve!. Sven and I decided to have some drinks at the bar. There we met two more people in the same situation as us...how funny is this?!??! a guy from China and a German girl. Well, keeping it short, we had a great Christmas Eve finally, in good company, on a moving train, drinking and talking at the bar on our way to Paris, France. In Paris we would all have to go our separate ways...

When we arrived in Paris and said our goodbyes wishing eachother a Merry Christmas, I found out that the train that I had to take to Brussels was also delayed; a 3hour delay!!and after all I'd been through already!...I don't know how, but it actually sounds worse than it was...I didn't actually mind too much waiting at the stations...I always had my book or people to talk to. Everyboby at that station had been delayed for their Christmas Eve and were trying to get to their destinations.

It was very cold at the station, and we all huddled together with our backs to some warm heaters that were spread out throughout the station. I was ok...got a nice hot chocolate and a butter croissant, and I never felt alone,... it was a good feeling to see people around me going through the same thing I was going through...and there was always someone to talk to :)

The train to Brussels was 2 hours long...no big deal. But then when I arrived to Brussels I had to take one last train to Genk, which was 1.5 extra hours from Brussels train station. I think this is the most adventurous and longest journey I have ever had in my life!!

Well, I arrived safe and sound to Genk station, where two of my friends, Gigi and Yass were waiting for me. It was nice to see them....

......THIS IS CONTINUED IN POST: BELGIUM, HOLLAND, IRELAND