Joshua-Dallas-London-Milan-Florence

I’ve been a Florentine for about a week and a half now, and still haven’t described the journey here! The 24 hours of travel time it took to journey over 5,500 miles from home is far too memorable not to document… So here goes!!

My trip started out in the International terminal of DFW, where I said goodbye to my mom and Ron after a somewhat rough car trip to Dallas. After meeting up with my roommate Morgan, we headed through security and down to our terminal. I think it finally hit me that I was actually leaving as we were waiting in line to board the plane. Everyone around me seemed so calm and collected, as if flying overseas was routine, you know, “another day at the office” type of thing. I couldn’t and wouldn’t manage to play it as cool... : )

On the plane, the stewards greeted all the passengers with an enthusiastic "Ello!," and used words such as "cheerio" and "smidge." I quickly learned to love British Airways, as the attendants passed out little wine bottles to all the passengers ;) hehe! The woman in front of me didn't hesitate to indulge, as she guzzled down about 4 bottles in a period of 2 hours or so! Although the plane trip to London was 9 hours total, I really didn't mind the ride at all. Each seat had a TV monitor where you could watch movies, listen to music, and track the location and progress of the plane on an animated map!

Once we arrived at the Heathrow airport in London, I really started to notice the change in culture. One of the most obvious differences was the fashionable manner in which men dress. They're all so attractive and proper! Once we got through a long security line, and past the rude British girl- "Excuse me, watch what you're doing, please!!", we made our way through the hustle and bustle to our deserted terminal with our 150 pounds of luggage- trust me, not an easy task!!

Since we had some time to kill, we decided we'd try to keep our energy up and grab a quick bite to eat at a cafe. After spending about 11 pounds (or $22) on two sparkling waters and a croissant, we realized we were running a bit short on time. After finally managing to pay for our food, we rushed back to our gate where another unfriendly teen Brit informed me in a rude tone that I had missed my flight, and that I should have looked at my ticket to see the boarding time. All I could think was, “Oh my GOSH! What are we going to DO?!” Then as we continued walking to our gate, a different Brit assured me, "No worries. We'll get ya on board!" So we were the last ones on the plane and all the snooty British passengers stared us down as we trudged through the isle. I was SO ready to get the heck out of London after all that drama!

The best part of our flight to Milan was flying over the Swiss Alps. Absolutely stunning. Probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The size and stretch of the mountains makes you feel so small.

After all the mayhem with nearly missing our flight in London, I was hopeful that it'd be smooth sailing from Milan to Florence. I couldn't have been more wrong. As we were hauling our luggage out of the Milan airport to go find a taxi to the train station, this man in uniform suggested we take the taxi of a man who was waiting just inside the entrance. I reluctantly agreed, as they couldn't speak English well so there was a communication barrier. We followed him out of the airport and across the street, only to realize he was taking us to his Mercedes! Sketchy, sketchy, sketchy! As he started to put my bag in his trunk, Morgan and I were growing a bit suspicious. Then we realized the cheap taxis were in a different part of the airport, and this was some sort of luxury/scary transportation service. We politely declined and took our bags back. By this point, every person outside the airport was aware of the two American girls (blonde with bright clothes- SO not the Italian norm) trying to get to the train station. Then an airport employee yelled to us to hop on a bus that was about to depart for the Milan station. So we hauled our luggage all the way to the bus-stop, paid our 5 Euros, and climbed aboard.

I was in such a daze from everything and astonished that more people didn't speak English. I thought it would be a cinch to get from A to B. I honestly didn't even know if we were going to the right train station. I just wanted to sit and rest for a few minutes.

Luckily, we ended up in the right place. After finally finding the entrance, we hauled our luggage through the train station. We still needed to validate our train passes and get our tickets to Firenze. Once again, NO ONE spoke english!!! And the train station was 3 floors of chaos!! I had NO CLUE what I was doing; I just knew that I had to find some way to make this work. Then we decided that it'd be best to leave the luggage in one place, have Morgan stay and watch it, and then I'd go figure out what needed to be done. Overall, to get our train tickets, it took THREE hours. THREE HOURS!!!! I felt like a fish out of water! So much more actually happened here, but I'll spare you the details. Once we finally did have tickets in hand, it was another struggle to find the right train and get on board. A super nice Italian woman overheard our problem, and in fumbled English explained she was on our train and we could just follow her. I was SO SO SO thankful!!

On the train, I sat across from this older Italian man, who wasn't very friendly. He proved true the statement I had previously heard, about Italian friendship being hard to earn. During the 2 hour ride, we passed through the beautiful city of Bologna. There was about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground, and lots of rolling hills crowned with castles and churches. This was my favorite part of the trip. Even the man across from me awoke from his slumber to gaze out the window at the powdery white landscape speeding by. I can’t wait to go back to Bologna and be able to really see the town!

Once we arrived in Florence, we were able to quickly roll our luggage out of the train station, past the Gypsy, grab a taxi, and instruct the driver to "Albergo Medici,” where we spent our first night in the city!!