So before I speak about where I’m planning to go – and don’t get too excited, I don’t have any completely set plans, I’m very flexible on that (but I’ve got ideas, so you can get a bit excited) – I’m going to talk about where I’ve been.
Ever since I was a little kid, I had always wanted to go to Paris. I think it’s because I was obsessed with Audrey Hepburn and she has a few movies there, or she seems French or something. Also I know I had an idea that the food was very good there. Anyway, I was obsessed. That is the reason that in middle school, I chose to take French instead of Spanish.
So when the opportunity arose to do a french exchange program, I was so all about it. It was surprisingly easy to convince the parents. Possibly because they knew it was going to be the best experience of my life, up to that point. And, it was. Oh, there were the bad moments. Like when I got lost in the streets before cell phones were invented and it was getting close to nighttime. Or when I got switched into the shadiest characters house (because my exchange girl’s fam was going on vacation) and had to stay with him. Like when I realized I’d only brought sandals and sneakers, and you needed real shoes to sneak into the after-hours discoteque (I got in anyway, the sneaks were black). Or when, after getting into the discoteque, I saw the kid I had a huuuuuge crush on kissing some other girl on our trip and I started crying. The worst may have been the flight back when I graciously offered to help my friend carry one of her many bags, and a HUGE thing of Nutella (couldn’t get that in the States back then) spilled ALL OVER me and it looked like I took a crap on myself and was sticky the ENTIRE trip home.
But there were the great parts too – pain au chocolat for one. For two, visiting my favorite museum ever – the Louvre. And I got drunk for the first time there. Whisky, straight from the bottle in a parking lot. I can’t even really describe to you how cool I felt. I remember how it burned, snaking its alcoholic way down my throat into my stomach. Two sips and I was wasted. Ah the joys of youth.
Anyway, it was a great experience and I think it was really the first time I was ever out of my comfort zone, and I liked it. I didn’t feel bored for once. I felt excited by everything we were doing, even though most of it was done in the freezing cold. I was bitten by the travel bug.
My next big trip was Italy, with my aunt. Who’s no longer my aunt anymore since she and my uncle got divorced. But anyway. I’d always been really close with her, and she was definietely (FYI I can’t spell that word, it’s a mental block and we all just need to deal w. it because I use it a lot) the “cool aunt.” So one summer she wasn’t working and she invited me to go on a two week trip to Italy. This was after my uncle had *first* cheated on her and they were separated and there didn’t seem any hope of reconciliation. We don’t enjoy him.
Of course I jumped at the chance. My mom only told me years later, but she was really put out that she wasn’t invited along too. But it wasn’t going to be a mom trip.
So we went first to Rome, then Venice, Florence and then ended up on the Amalfi coast near Cinque Terre (before it became the huge tourist attraction that it is) and Portofino, in a ocean coast town called Sestri le Vanti.
This was another amazing trip. I was a freshman in college by that time and none the wiser, unfortunately. A few incidents did occur. Mostly because I was way less mature than my aunt and I both thought I was. By that, I mean that she held the reigns pretty loose when they maybe should have been held a bit tighter. And me, I def. pushed it, sensing she’d go along with whatever I said.
I’ll say this – one night, at dawn I found myself in Florence, walking around by myself, trying to find my hotel…with a bruise under my eye. When I finally found the hotel, and came back into the room, I found her wide awake on the bed…she said she was praying I was ok, and that she was imaging the looks on my parents faces when she didn’t come back with me. She didn’t yell, I think she was just flooded with relief.
It’s actually not that cool of a story, basically going off with some idiots and getting lost on the way back. The black eye was more of a drunken stumble. Still, shouldn’t have gotten myself into that kind of situation.
The rest of the trip was amazing. I fell in love with gelato – pistacio, stracciatelli, strawberry, hazelnut. Picked up some more nutella and apple green mentos. Bought an expensive long brown suede jacket in Florence that I carted around with me the whole time that I still own, that is still HUGE on me and not sure if I was high when I bought it or what. Bought a red leather purse that I still use to this day. Stared at Italian men with dark blue eyes (didn’t actually speak to them, mind you, just stared). Got addicted to long fancy lunches and four course dinners, seafood with their heads still on them (think huge shrimp). Interestingly, my love affair with wine did not start here. Needed to wait until Australia for that to happen.
Overall, it was an amazing trip, but by the end I was missing home. Also my aunt was getting to be a bit much for a teenager to handle. She was still very sad about the separtion and impending divorce. I’m not even sure why she chose to visit Italy when she’d been there with him for a romantic trip at some point. She spoke about him constantly, what they’d done, where they’d been. It was like she was trying to torture herself by going, but of course, I didn’t realize it would be that way, at the time. I learned a lot about my uncle, I can say that, but a lot of don’t-need-to-know-all-that type of info. I felt bad for her, but was at a loss for how to make her feel better.
I learned a lot though: never to overpack, that time goes by much more slowly in Italy, that you can stuff your face there and not gain any weight, that Italian women don’t enjoy American ones, and Italian men do, and that the Euro is killing Europe for foreign travellers. Oh, and to watch out for that grappa.
So that ends the first part of this travel post. I’ve been other places, so stay tuned. I’ve also been a few places in the US, but I gotta say, they didn’t really resonate. Chilling with my grandparents at the old folks community in Florida, Amish country at Willow Valley (the highlight was the all-you-can-eat buffet and pool), and Disney World a few times…I guess they aren’t the most exicting of locales.
In any case, I’m going to be focusing on my foreign travels for now, which is where my interests lie at this point in my life.
More tomorrow ~
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