On February 24, 2012, 6 girls set out for the greatest 9 days of their lives, but first portfolio class. After a very frustrating 3 hours and 7 minutes, Lauren and I met up with 2 of the other travelers to catch a 1:47 train. We had approximately 18 minutes to get to the train station, which would normally be completely doable, but we had a few items to factor in. First of all, we all had to put money on our train cards. Second, Sarah's bike tire was completely flat, resulting in me doubling on the back of LaRae's bike (also not usually a problem, but we had backpacks...). Because of the backpack issue, Sarah willingly securely strapped LaRae's bag to the back of my wobbly, rattly bike and we pressed on. About halfway to the train station, we realized just how flat LaRae's tire was as it carried the dynamic duo to the train station, increasing the travel time quite drastically. Then, we realized LaRae's backpack was slowly but surely slipping from the security of my bike, resulting in Sarah riding one handed to keep a hold on LaRae's only belongings for the next 9 days.
Now, this wouldn't seem like a huge deal if we were merely traveling by train because we could just catch a later one, but here is the real catch. This train would lead us to a shuttle that would lead us to a plane that would lead us to a bus that would lead us to a walk that would lead us to our hotel in Mestre, Italy.
Around 1:32pm we arrived at the train station, got our tickets and met up with our 5th traveler. All seemed to be going smoothly, until we realized our train was moving at a pace we could walk faster than. After about 20 minutes of that, the train picked up pace and we waited as stop after stop passed until we finally reached Nijmegen, the location of our shuttle. After an hour of waiting, we loaded our shuttle into the bandwagon, hopped in the shuttle bus, and made the 45 minute trek to Dusseldorf, Germany, where our plane was located. After waiting a few hours and making sure our bags could fit into the crammed RynAir carry-on size limitations, we hopped on our plane and arrived in a town 35 km outside of Mestre. We considered walking there as well when we realized the cost of a bus, but decided that at 9:30pm in a strange city it wasn't worth it. And let me tell you, we were certainly glad we didn't walk that. Around 10pm LaRae and I checked into our hotel and met the other girls for dinner: our first Italian pizza! Oddly, it was my favorite. If that was because of the fact that I was extremely famished from a full day of traveling, the egg and ham combo, or the chef's traditional fat Italian chef look, I have no idea, but I am sure thankful for that pizza! We then returned to our hotel where we had to sneak Katie into our 4 person room (not OK in Europe. TAKE NOTE) and went to bed to wake up early to head into the city of Venice to find a gondola, and better yet-- a gondola boy!
A long day of travel, it was. Just the thought of it makes me exhausted! Don't worry, tomorrow I will continue the blog-athon. But for now, ciao!
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