After three weeks of walking, buses, airplanes, trains, ferries, small boats, and more walking through Greece and Italy, I successfully made it back to my flat in Edinburgh! I honestly didn’t think that I would be looking forward to returning to the fish & chip shops, the uneven cobblestone, the odd looking 20pence coins, and the traffic coming from the right-hand side of the street!
For now, I can only think of two big adjustments I had to make upon returning to the UK: the language, and the traffic. With the last half of my trip being in Italy, I grew accustomed to responding with “Grazi” to say thank you. For two hours after landing in London, I caught myself responding in Italian to individuals with thick British accents. Furthermore, I had first trained my ear to listen for Greek, then changed to pick out words in Italian. When we landed in London, and then in Edinburgh, I could hardly understand anybody!!
Remembering the traffic patterns of the UK was a more dangerous adjustment to make, but a quicker one. In order to cross the street in Italy, a pedestrian must wait for a slight gap and simply enter the road. The drivers stop and wait for the individuals to pass before zooming along. After exiting the airport bus, my flatmate and I entered the street (surprisingly enough, we did remember to look to the right first) expecting the cars to stop and wait for us to cross. After some angry looks, we hurried while realizing our mistake – Oops. We had a good laugh, and today I remembered to push the little white button on the street sign before I crossed.
My three week vacation was absolutely amazing — a trip to remember. Before we left, we came up with a rough plan of where and when we wanted to go, but the only actual plans were our airplane tickets on either end of the trip. We arrived in Athens with the intent of heading directly to some of the Cyclades islands (still part of Greece). While in Athens, we spent a large portion of our time at the Acropolis and in the nearby area. Due to unexpected weather prohibiting ferry travels, we spent three nights in chilly Athens before heading down to the island of Santorini. Even though my face was green from the rough ride to the island, I was awestruck by the natural beauty of the volcanic island and the smaller ones surrounding. Three days in Santorini left us with beautiful weather (still freezing, but sunny), a small sailing trip to an active volcano and hot springs, a sun burn, and plenty of cheap but delicious gyros.
After Santorini we island hopped to Naxos, where we spent only one night. With warm weather, or during high tourist season, I am sure the island is amazing. During our visit however, the beaches weren’t that tempting while we shivered in the streets. Our host for the evening was the mother of the owner, who spoke to us in a combination of Greek, French, and English (none of which we could understand). During our time in Naxos, we were able to play an ebony & ivory piano that Leonard Bernstein once played on. So many stories . . .
After the one night in Naxos we began our trek to see a Gustie in Sicily, Italy. The ferry from Greece to Italy was where I had my first and only real breakdown on the trip. As some already know, I tend to overreact when I am overtired. On the ferry, I misunderstood the printing on our tickets which said “deck” and asked a worker where my friend and I would be sleeping. Misunderstanding my question, he told me we would be outside! After visualizing all of our belongings falling off of the deck in the middle of the night while the two of us were freezing to death, I broke down into tears – which soon stopped after I was told that we were not going to spend the night outside on the deck. Hee hee. That’s what happens when I don’t get enough sleep . . .
2 overnight ferries, 2 buses, one long train ride, and 48 straight hours of traveling later, we arrived (eyes barely open) in Syracusa. The five nights allowed us plenty of time to fully experience Sicilian gelato, as well as pizza and other great Italian cuisine. Not shocking to some, at an internet cafe I ran into a girl from my hometown – our families have known each other for over ten years! Small world, isn’t it?
After Syracusa/Sicily, we headed up to Naples and experienced pizza from World Champion pizza makers — actually at the location where the Margherita pizza was invented! A day trip to nearby Pompeii was amazing (Pompeii was an entire city covered and in turn preserved by the eruption/explosion of the nearby Mt. Vesuvius).
Due to the passing of the Pope, we decided to completely skip Rome (instead of risking being in the middle of Rome when the new Pope was elected). Florence was our next stop where we tasted world famous gelato (twice in one day — so long for the diet). I was thrilled to see Michaelangelo’s “David” in the morning, but not so thrilled to stand in line for four hours in the afternoon in order to enter the Ufizi Gallery. I must say that works by Da Vinci, Michaelangelo and others were worth the wait, although I wasn’t to happy about it at the time.
After Florence we made it to Venice in time to spend the afternoon and early evening drinking coffee in la Piazza de San Marco. Two coffees cost a total of $34, but we did have a great time being served like royalty. A stroll through the streets of Venice ended up in more gelato (no surprise there). While standing on a dock innocently enjoying our treats, we were unexpectedly caught up in a flock of paparazzi as a famous man emerged from a secure speed boat. Later finding out that we had seen the newly elected Mayor/Leader of Venice emerge from his escort on the day of elections, we thought it would be funny if two Americans slurping melted gelato could be seen in the background of any of his pictures 🙂
We made it back to Edinburgh with no catastrophes (although missing an alarm clock the morning of our early departure was not great) and I am very glad to be back in one location. I had so much fun on the trip, and I can honestly say that I have backpacked through Europe. By this week, my backpack weighed in at 26lbs, plus a day-pack of about 7lbs, and the contents are now spread throughout my room (again, no surprise there). I was sad to see my cash flow so quickly through my fingers for transportation, food, and accommodations (especially after reaching northern Italy), but I should be back on budget sooner than later.
Edinburgh is in bloom – the people and the plants. Although a jacket is still absolutely necessary, the longer daylight hours are definitely welcoming. Much of the scaffolding has been removed from the castle, displaying a side which I haven’t seen since I first arrived. I am excited to see people enjoying the sunshine while strolling through the gardens and/or sitting in the parks. As soon as my exams are done, I will be sure to join them!
Just as I say that I am happy to be back in Edinburgh, I am leaving for a weekend excursion into the highlands of Scotland. At least I will be staying within the same country, but if I am exhausted now, I have no clue how I will be feeling next week. I have one exam to prepare for at the end of next week, which in addition to much needed sleep, will take up most of my time.
By the way, if anyone was interested, my essays all came back with very pleasing scores – which proves that I didn’t spend ALL of my time “experiencing Edinburgh” during my first few months here. Now that I have returned from my trip, I have just over 2 months left before my family will escort me from Edinburgh back to the Twin Cities — but I won’t think about that quite yet.
Until next week. . .
Cheers!