The Flossy Flossy
Keeping it “on the real” the best I can.Archive for plans
Benvenuto a InterRail Italia!
It’s been a week since my train débâcle, and after some time and distance from it…I can still stand by my original opinion of TrenItalia. Det suger, liksom!
So what happened was this: after an amazing day walking through and getting lost in Venice (which, if I may digress for a bit, is the most beautiful city I have ever visited. I don’t care if people say it’s overtouristy–perhaps it is, but I like it that way; it’s romantic, picturesque, and it’s exceeded my expectations in every way.), I decided to take an earlier train home so I could get back to Lugano by 7PM in order to finish my schoolwork. And here begin my grievances:
They charge me €8 for riding on a different train than I had purchased tickets for. Well, I thought, “Va bene, at least now you know.” However, I didn’t have any Euros on me and asked if I could pay in Swiss Francs. He charged me 30CHF. Only after paying him 20CHF did I realize that he was bullshitting me. (For those who don’t know, €8 is roughly the equivilant of 13CHF.) Trying to stay positive, I had managed to convince myself that paying a little extra was necessary to ensure that I got home early. Little did I know…
My journey courtesy of TrenItalia!
The train that I was on, from Venezia Santa Lucia to Milano Centrale, unexpectedly stopped in Verona. After half an hour of waiting in silence, the conductor announced over the intercom that a man had killed himself sulla ferrovia. (Whether he jumped overboard or hopped in front of the tracks is unbeknownst to me.) So instead of continuing to Milano Centrale, we took a detour–to Bologna.
From Bologna, we slowly chugged our way up towards Milan, with stops in Modena and Piacenza. After six productive hours, we finally reached Milano Centrale. Ironically, I reached Milan even later than I would have if I had taken the train I originally purchased the ticket for. Needless to say, I missed my connection from Milan to Lugano, but was lucky enough not to have missed the last train from Milan to Bellinzona. With almost two hours to kill, I took the time to eat my apple and explore the outside of Milano Centrale and the metro.
In the end, I made it home at around 2AM in the morning. But considering how I did most of my homework on the train, I guess it wasn’t so bad after all.
These next couple of days are very exciting and eventful. Right now I’m still debating whether or not to go to Zürich today. (It’s currently 3:40AM and I would have to get to the train station by 8AM.) Will have a handful of midterms next week, closely followed by the arrival of my Norwegian family on Thursday. Unfortunately, I won’t have the opportunity to be with them for so long because on Monday, I leave for the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Academic Travel.
I’ve also finalized my plans for Thanksgiving! I will be spending the long weekend down in Vailate with Jessica! There are tentative plans to make turkey, which I’m very excited for.
And as for Christmas, hopefully I will be able spend a week over at Marie’s place in either Normandy or Paris before flying home to California.
Wow, I hope all this talk of traveling doesn’t make me sound spoiled rotten. The truth is, I am grateful for every moment of it and am loving life right now. La vita è bella. Ma adesso–devo dormire.
Plans
Back from Bergen, and school has begun. So, I have been doing a lot of thinking and planning lately, like I tend to do whenever I have a lack of things to do. Was at Rudi’s house last night and found out that there’s going to be a Norwegian X Factor audition in Oslo from the 20th to the 22nd of May! If I have no coinciding plans then I’m going to the audition days; it’ll be a great experience to say the least.
I’ve also been discussing a “final road-trip” with Marie la française. We think a couple of us are going down to possibly Kristiansand, in southern Norway. We haven’t decided on a date yet and everything’s still in the drawing-board phase.
Also, I’ve been talking with Mom about what to do after I get back to California. The plan is that I will have July off to “go do my own thing” and hang with friends. And at the beginning of August, we will fly up to Toronto, Canada, to visit a second-cousin. We’ll spend about a week there, and then we’ll head westover (I think it’s westover…) to Ottawa and meet up with Tilly, who will accompany us in Ottawa and hopefully Montréal. And I also really hope that we’ll get to visit Québec City as well.
And after I come back, I will have about half a week off to pack my things before I fly off to Switzerland on July 17th.
Anyway, that’s my travel forecast. However, there’s also still a bunch of immediate stuff that I have to focus on, including that visit to Dolly Dimple’s. “Har du en ledig stilling?” Haha, wish me luck. And this weekend, I will be going to Gol to visit Jessica and get sfasato!
As for today, I think I will go to volleyball practice. Haven’t been there since it started snowing. But now I can bike there again…
And I also need to withdraw money.
And I also need to print a résumé.
Life is good.
