Frommes on a Journey: Italy

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Final Thoughts about our 5-Week Trip

While we've been living abroad on and off for the past 7 years, this summer we took our longest trip to date. A few years ago, we spent 2.5 weeks in Thailand, but have never done anything like this last trip. I want to start off by saying I know how fortunate we are to be able to do this. We are really, very lucky!

**Please don't think that I'm complain-a-bragging. Yes, I know we are living in a different part of the world, getting to experience some really cool sh*t. However, this is our life. And, in life, we all want to share our experiences. Not everything is perfect. Yes, doing all of this neat stuff is really great. However, many times, life is hard, frustrating, and confusing. Sometimes, I think people only ever hear about the really great times - or in contrast, only the really bad times. So, please don't take this post the wrong way. Life is just life.

When planning for this trip, I thought five weeks would not be enough time. Five weeks traveling around Europe?! What a dream! This is true. It really was a dream! However, we learned some things about ourselves, each other, and our life in general on this trip. Here is our "what we learned" list, in no particular order:

1. Five weeks is too long of a vacation (travel) for us.

I don't know how some people travel the world indefinitely. Maybe it's because we were constantly moving from place place. We were were posted up somewhere for weeks at a time, maybe I would feel differently about it.

2. Five weeks is a long time to spend together - just the two of us.

Vltava River, Prague

We spend a lot of time together in our normal life - more so than many other couples I know. We live together, work together, and hang out on our free time together. We love each other, but man, we also need some time apart. That didn't really happen much this trip.

3. Water.

I know this isn't sparkling water, but you could have drunk it. Lake Zurich, Switzerland

In Europe, when you ask for water, you have to choose between mineral water or gas (sparkling water). I cannot stand to drink sparkling water. When at the store, no matter how close I look at the bottle to make sure it's not sparkling water, I ALWAYS end up with sparkling water! Haha! Thank goodness Zach likes it.

4. I really hate tourists.

The Louvre, Paris, France

I know, I was a tourist too. I just hate "other" tourists. People are just so oblivious to what's happening around them. Please don't stop mid-way walking down the stairs without notice just to take a picture. Move to the side.

5. The world is so big, yet so small.

Lunch with a college friend and her family. Amsterdam, Netherlands

There is so much to see and do. However, after talking to people, you find out just how small the world is. It's crazy to me that we have friends living in all parts of the world. It was great to meet up with a friend and catch up.

6. I am not allowed to plan our next big vacation.

Berlin Wall. Berlin, Germany

Zach gets to do that. He hates going from place to place. His idea of a great vacation is staying in one place, relaxing.

7. Zach enjoyed Europe (...traveling through Europe #goals).

However, he would much rather travel around Asia and experience that culture - maybe because it's so different than ours?

8. Beer.

Zurich, Switzerland

Beer is pretty universal in all cultures. We really enjoyed our beer - too much - on this trip.

9. We miss friends.

Hanging out with Joe. Rome, Italy

This one relates to number two. While in Egypt, we miss our friends from back home. (Even if we don't always reach out, we still think about you a lot!) However, we have (good) friends here that we love doing things with. While traveling, it was just the two of. We missed having friends around, terribly. Yes, we met people, but it just isn't the same.

10. Schoolwork is a bummer sometimes - so says two teachers.

Hotel. Prague, Czech Republic

We both started graduate school this summer, so we had to make sure our homework got done...on time. There were days where we stayed in the room most, if not all day instead going out and doing things. We tried to do that only one time in a city. We get new assignments every week, so we tried to do most of our homework in a day (or at least get the bulk of it accomplished) so that we didn't have a ton of homework to do each night.

11. We've gotten really out of shape.

We stayed at the same hotel at the beginning and end of the trip. We were amazed at how far we thought we had walked those first couple of days compared to the end. That is one thing I miss about living in Korea - we walked so much more.

12. Planes still scare the crap out of me every once-in-a-while.

Sometimes, I get these death-coming fears that "that's it"! This will be the last moments of my life. It usually doesn't last long, and I don't panic, but the thought crosses my mind.

13. I packed too much!

Getting our lost luggage! Rome, Italy

I really thought I was doing really well. I packed everything for the trip in a 35-liter backpack. Yet, there were still some things I could have left at home.

Monday, July 31, 2017

Europe Vacation - Rome

Rome started out rough! For all of my job interviews, I make it a point to say that I'm flexible. That's a total lie! I appear flexible on the outside. Zach, however, knows exactly just how not flexible I really am when we are alone and I can let out my emotions. We had two flights from Vienna to Rome. Our first flight was delayed almost 45 minutes. That is exactly the amount of time we had to get to our next flight. We made it, thankfully! Our luggage did not! :(

Our hotel provided airport pickup. So, while Zach dealt with the missing luggage situation, I had to find our driver to let him know we would be later than expected. Zach was told that the luggage would arrive on a flight the next evening. Noooooo!!!! To make a long story short, we didn't get our luggage that next night. It came the following afternoon, about 56 hours after we landed in Rome. That first night, we bought deodorant and toothbrushes/toothpaste. Then, we hand-washed all of our clothes in the shower with shampoo. When we woke up, our clothes were still very wet. So, we spent a good 30 minutes using the hairdryer to help us dry clothes. See, I was trying to be flexible.

We walked around and saw the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain*, and the Roman Forum. We also went to the Colosseum! Out of all the things we wanted to see, I knew that I wanted to go inside of the Colosseum. When we got there, we saw the line! It was wrapped almost half-way around the building…and this is no small building! Oh well, we were going to wait! And wait we did!. It took us almost two hours to get to the entrance. Personally, I think the wait was worth it. The place is massive. It was so awesome to see.

*Funny thing about Trevi Fountain. I didn't recognize it from anything other than a runway show I had seen. The place that my friends and I get manicures and pedicures always has a fashion show on the TV. It must be on a loop, because I've seen this same show several times while there. I did some research and for its 90th anniversary in 2016, Fendi did a show on Trevi Fountain. #NowYouKnow

It was so hot that day that we sweated through our clothes. We knew that if we wanted to go to dinner, we were going to have to shower and put on new clothes. So, on the way back to the hotel, we bought some new clothes. While at the hotel, before dinner, we tried to call about our luggage. We just missed quitting time by only a few minutes. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. We weren't going to get our luggage that night. At dinner, I had a moment, but Zach snapped me out of it. We were in Rome! We decided we would just wear the same clothes we just bought during the next day.

The next day, a friend of ours was flying into Rome, and we were going to hang out with him for the next couple of days. With him coming in a little after noon, we decided to just hang round our area. We were a block away from the train station where we were going to meet him anyway. After almost 30 days of it just being the two of us, it was great to have a friend to hang out with. We grabbed lunch, and then accompanied him to his hotel which was across the river, near Vatican City. We grabbed drinks and just hung out.

The following day, we all decided to meet at his hotel and then get in line to go to the Vatican. We saw the line as soon as we got there an hour before it opened, and I jumped in line. Zach went to get Joe, and they met me in line. I remembered reading somewhere that the line usually gets shorter in the afternoon, so we got out of line and went to St. Peter's Square instead (which is about a 15 minute walk around the corner). It was practically empty. It was so neat to get to see the place where Pope Benedict XVI had been declared Pope in 2005 (I remember watching it on TV). I was also in the place where Mother Theodore Guerin (the founder of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, where I went to school) became Saint Mother Theodore Guerin in 2006. The line for St. Peter's Basilica looked long (ha!), so we decided that we would come back later in the afternoon, where surely the line would be shorter (ha!). (*Note* By the time we got out of the Colosseum, the line was pretty much nonexistent. Surely the same would be true for this (ha!).

We went wondering around and found an old castle. Neat! When we got back to the square, the line for St. Peter's quadrupled (at least) from where it was earlier in the morning. Zach really had no interest in seeing it anyway, and Joe didn't seem interested either. I told them that I was going to get in line with or without them. They could go do whatever they wanted and I would keep them updated with where I was. While I was in line, they decided to get in line to see the Vatican, because they were told that it would be at least two hours to get in from where they were standing. They figured that by the time they got to the front, I would be finished and would be able to meet them in line. Wrong! I got up to the very front, right before going through security when they sent me a message saying that they got tickets and were going to get in trouble if they continued to wait for me. Crying, I left the line I had waited in for 1.5 hours, and practically ran to meet them. As you can see, flexibility is not what I excel in. However, seeing the work of Michael Angelo was pretty amazing! Taking pictures is not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. So, that just means you have to go and see it yourself.

Zach and I had to catch a train to the airport by 1:30 pm the next day. So, we woke up bright and early, had the hotel hold our bags, and we met Joe at St. Peter's Square. We waited maybe one minute in line before going through security. Winning! As soon as we stepped foot through the front doors of the Basilica, I was in awe! That's not really even the word for it. There really are no words. Pictures don't do it justice. And, because we were there so early, hardly anyone was inside.

After we left, I reflected on how terribly I had acted the day before. If it had not been for the guys getting in line and making me leave, I would have seen the Basilica with hundreds of other people, all cramming in together. Instead, I got to take my time, not bumping into anyone. It all works out in the end. I just need to be more flexible! :)

We had heard from a friend of a friend that Rome is like the Detroit of Italy. While I've never been to Detroit, the images I've seen on TV make that statement correct in my mind. It was just very rundown. Obviously there are ruins everywhere…Roman ruins from thousands of years ago, but even the modern stuff seemed rundown. If it wasn't Rome and the tourist city it's known for being, I would have gotten the hell out of dodge. Don't get me wrong! I loved Rome and everything there was to see. It was just shocking to me the condition of the city.

Maybe it had something to do with all of the iconic landmarks to see, but Rome was one of my favorite cities on this trip…even with our lost luggage and my minor meltdowns. I would love to go back when it's not peak tourist season and a little cooler to explore Rome even further.

Off to Zurich, Switzerland!