Adventure of a Lifetime

Looking back at this past semester thus far, I can honestly say that much of the first month was dedicated to fall break planning. Trying to figure out where to go, who to travel with and how much it would cost. The headaches that came from logistics made me almost dread the whole experience and I found myself just wanting to get it over with and get on with life. Still, I had heard from past study abroad students how fall break (or spring break) was one of the best weeks of the whole semester so I was determined to make the most of it and have an adventure of a lifetime.

Who knew I would get just that…

First of all, never plan to go on a trip with 9 other people. The sheer number is bound to cause some problems.

Second of all, if you do plan to go with 9 other people, don’t plan to go to five different cities. Again, bound to cause some problems…

Third of all, make sure everyone knows exactly what your budget is so they don’t book things on the fly. And last of all, if you do not heed the first three advices, always attend every planning session and make everyone swear not to book things without approval first because once things are booked, they’re booked and there’s no one to blame but yourself for not putting your foot down.

Day 1- Train to Rome; Plane to Barcelona.

Outside our hostel in Barcelona.: Little did we know what was to come...

So far so good. Aside from the ridiculous number of hours spent traveling (about 8 hours), not actually seeing anything, and starving because you barely ate lunch, finally finding a Spanish restaurant at 11pm and enjoying the best meal ever seemed to launch the week off on a fairly good start.

Day 2- Walking around Barcelona with all your luggage because check out is at 10am and because at 2am one day someone decided to book a plane to Madrid without informing the rest of the group. Plane to Madrid.

Day 3- Madrid.

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu: I didn't actually get anything, but pretended I was cool enough to afford it.

After an almost failed night of trying to “party it up” in one of the top party cities of the world, enjoyed a pretty relaxing day visiting the parks, gardens, and museums. Then we went to sleep. With bedbugs. One girl did not come away unscathed…

Day 4- Back to Barcelona.

Because of the bedbug crisis, spent a good 4 hours of our last afternoon in Spain at the Laundromat. Saw a few famous sites but soon enough it was time for bed so we could get ready for more traveling the next day…

Day 5- Plane to Athens

Before departure, a medical emergency arises when one of the girls in our group becomes incredibly ill and refuses to leave without first seeing a doctor. With just 30 minutes until boarding, another girl is able to reach a family friend in Barcelona who will house the two and the rest of us proceed to Athens.

Problem: We had planned to take a ferry to Crete that very evening and one of the girls staying behind had booked half the group’s ferry reservations. Upon arrival in Athens, spent the first few hours trying to convince the ferry company to cancel the reservations and refund the cost. No luck; though they gave us some hope by saying if we faxed them medical documents, they might be able to give us a refund. Highly doubtful in my opinion. Found a hotel on the fly and walked through a pretty shady part of town to get there.

Day 6- A whole day in Athens!

Acropolis in Athens

Fairly successful sightseeing though people wanted to go to the beach since we were missing out on Crete. Found some random beach in a town outside of Athens where we had Applebee’s for dinner… How American are we.

Day 7- Another day in Athens!

More sightseeing; though at this point, people are fading. Some went back to the hotel to rest while the rest of us trekked onward. Greek dinner, finally? Nope, somehow those who went back to the hotel found out there was a Korean restaurant in town… (In all fairness, it was pretty good.) Also, because we had to book a random hotel in place of Crete, we had to move into a different hotel which was already booked for our last night in Athens. More traveling!

Day 8- Ready to board a plane for Rome

Arrived at the airport. Looked at the monitor. Flight to Rome: Cancelled. At this point, I found everything pretty hysterical and I wondered if this trip would ever end. Turned out there had been a strike with EasyJet in Rome so there was no way of getting there. After failed attempts to book a flight with other airlines, we decided to take the next available flight which was set to leave Sunday evening. Fortunately, EasyJet gave us free accommodations and meals. Little did we know that the free accommodations would be at Sofitel- a FIVE star hotel. Things were looking up.

Day 9- Sofitel Hotel

Woke up at 10am. Bummed in my 5 star single bedroom. Ate a free lunch provided by the hotel. Jumped in the pool. Hung out in the sauna. Took a bubble bath in the nicest bathroom. Bummed some more in the bedroom watching German MTV. Ate a free dinner. Jumped in the pool. Celebrated one of our friend’s 20th birthdays at midnight. Sleep.

Day 10- Back to Italy!!

Ate free buffet breakfast. Check out at noon. Spent the next 6 hours at the airport waiting to board our plane back to Italy. Finally arrived in Rome at 7:30pm. Now to get back to Florence… Took a train back which finally arrived at 1:45am in Florence.

What a week. And I’m glad to be able to write it all out now while the memories are still fresh. Definitely unforgettable. Most of all, I was able to share some very fond times with the people I travelled with and have gained a greater appreciation for them. So would I do this whole week over again? In a heartbeat!