This doesn't fit in my new blog
Here's something I wrote for my travel blog, but I found it kind of personal, and stupid. So maybe you will find it funny, i don't know. Enjoy
I don't know why, but as a child I had all these tiny aspirations. Places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do for really convoluted reasons. There must be some psychological reasoning behind the dreams of youth, but I honestly can't explain the importance behind this one.
When I was 11 I had to write a report on a famous person. There was some sort of list, and being the indecisive being I am, I chose the one with my birthday, Florence Nightingale. I guess I figured it would at least be interesting to research a woman that did some cool things. She ended up being really interesting, changing the face of hospitals, despite her parents begging her to grow up and be a proper young lady. Oh well, you can't always win your kids over.
The best part of the story is her name. Apparently no one back in those days was named "Florence." In fact, her parents named her after the city in Italy, because they thought it was so beautiful, and they went there around the time she was born, and from the moment she became famous people started naming their daughters after her. Talk about trend setting.
From that moment on I had dreams of going to Florence, and the more and more I heard about it, the more and I more I built it up in my mind as this magical place. This was also cemented by the fact that everytime I've been in Tuscany, I have been wowed by how beautiful that part of Italy is. I've also always been frustrated by how close I've gotten to the city, and yet, never been there.
So finally, my trusty fellow au pair friend Kiera and I decided it was time to conquer the city and check it out, if only for the day. This is where things started to go wrong for both of us...Not only was my train full and I had to pay for a twice as fast at double the cost train ticket, but Kiera was meanwhile on her end of Italy jumping on and off school busses and then running after them to chase after her iPod. By the time we both managed to get there, we were ready to go check it out. Admittedly we didn't really feel like paying to go into museums, so we did what I call the "wandering technique:" this is where you put a map in your pocket, and without looking at it you just walk in no particular direction until you get bored. Then, you pull out the map and look for some sort of interesting shaped landmark, figure out where you are, and try to get there. I think of it more as a treasure hunt.
We managed to find some beautiful cathedrals (the largest closed for renevation), some nice bridges, and some really cool copies of famous Greek and Roman statues. Oh, and we got yelled at by the panini dudes for knocking over a wine glass (it didn't break, thank god!). The best part? I did get on my 3 hour long train ride home. Too bad it took 5 hours to get to Milan. I suppose dreams aren't always what they seem.
I don't know why, but as a child I had all these tiny aspirations. Places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do for really convoluted reasons. There must be some psychological reasoning behind the dreams of youth, but I honestly can't explain the importance behind this one.
When I was 11 I had to write a report on a famous person. There was some sort of list, and being the indecisive being I am, I chose the one with my birthday, Florence Nightingale. I guess I figured it would at least be interesting to research a woman that did some cool things. She ended up being really interesting, changing the face of hospitals, despite her parents begging her to grow up and be a proper young lady. Oh well, you can't always win your kids over.
The best part of the story is her name. Apparently no one back in those days was named "Florence." In fact, her parents named her after the city in Italy, because they thought it was so beautiful, and they went there around the time she was born, and from the moment she became famous people started naming their daughters after her. Talk about trend setting.
From that moment on I had dreams of going to Florence, and the more and more I heard about it, the more and I more I built it up in my mind as this magical place. This was also cemented by the fact that everytime I've been in Tuscany, I have been wowed by how beautiful that part of Italy is. I've also always been frustrated by how close I've gotten to the city, and yet, never been there.
So finally, my trusty fellow au pair friend Kiera and I decided it was time to conquer the city and check it out, if only for the day. This is where things started to go wrong for both of us...Not only was my train full and I had to pay for a twice as fast at double the cost train ticket, but Kiera was meanwhile on her end of Italy jumping on and off school busses and then running after them to chase after her iPod. By the time we both managed to get there, we were ready to go check it out. Admittedly we didn't really feel like paying to go into museums, so we did what I call the "wandering technique:" this is where you put a map in your pocket, and without looking at it you just walk in no particular direction until you get bored. Then, you pull out the map and look for some sort of interesting shaped landmark, figure out where you are, and try to get there. I think of it more as a treasure hunt.
We managed to find some beautiful cathedrals (the largest closed for renevation), some nice bridges, and some really cool copies of famous Greek and Roman statues. Oh, and we got yelled at by the panini dudes for knocking over a wine glass (it didn't break, thank god!). The best part? I did get on my 3 hour long train ride home. Too bad it took 5 hours to get to Milan. I suppose dreams aren't always what they seem.