Ciao, Seattle!

Oh man... what a long journey! Especially alone! 

My mom and sister dropped me off at the airport at 5:30am on Monday.  I was a little apprehensive and nervous because I've never traveled that far alone before.  So I went to go check my bag and I put it on the scale... 72.3 pounds.... ummm excuse me? That can't be right, I'm just tired, right?  Nope, my bag weighed 72.3 POUNDS!  So, basically, I'm traveling with a small child.  The woman looks at me says, "The fee for an overweight bag on an international flight is $200."  She then suggests that I put 22.3 pounds in my carry-on, which wasn't going to happen so i just said, "You know what, its ok.  I'll just pay for it."  I put my card on the counter and dropped my kid off at daycare and carried on with my day. 

The flight to DC was uneventful.  I sat next to an interesting guy who grew up in Africa.  His parents were missionaries and traveled a lot, which made for good conversation.  He was a pharmasist traveling for business.  Nice guy.

My layover was super fast, just enough time to get to my next flight.

I sat next to a firey redhead from Alabama (who reminded me of my stepmom, Lisa) named Amy on my flight to Rome.  Amy lives in Rome with her husband, Ziggy, who was not traveling with her.  Ziggy works for the UN.  They met in Bangkok, Thailand (which is somewhere I have traveled to, so we bonded about that).  They fell in love so she uprooted herself from her home and career in Alabama to be with him in Rome.  Amy was a Godsend, I don't know what I would have done without her!  I was never too worried about how to manage flying alone, I've been flying alone for a long time.  Traveling via train in another country, on the other hand, is a whole different story.  I was really nervous about this, I had heard from multiple people that the main train station in Rome was huge and full of people who like to pickpocket.  So, my new friend Amy helped a lot!  She basically held my hand through the whole thing.  She told me exactly what to do, where to go, and what to say.  She told me, "Don't let them get loud with you," in her southern accent, "If they start to get loud, just get loud right back.  Tell them exactly where you wanna go and don't let them get loud with you!"  Haha she was so great!  She gave me her email address and hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out with her again while I'm here! 

Anyway... OF COURSE my bag was the last one off the carosel.  I just kept telling myself that they were busy hand-carrying my bag from the special daycare center because of how much I had to pay.  I was expecting some poparee and bath salts to be delivered along with my bag for $200!!!  geez.

It took all my strength (which is a lot) and another guy to get my bag on the train.  The wheel got stuck... ugh... I don't even wanna relive the trouble I went through getting my bag on and off the stupid train... so just know that it sucked... like it really, really sucked.  And now my back hurts.  The end.

The train ride was pretty... Beautiful scenery.  The hills, the grass, the orange trees (minus the ridiculous amount of grafiti)... It was all very calming.  My mind was racing while I was on the train.  Everything started to get real for me.  I was no longer in America, everything I've ever known (besides my Paige jeans) was thousand of miles away.  I almost started crying multiple time on the train (not gunna lie).  The question of why the HELL am I doing this kept popping in my head.  No matter what I did to try to calm myself down, I just couldn't shake these thoughts.  As a result... my fingernails have seen better days (sorry Eric!  I'll do better, I promise!)

I arrived in Florence around noon, and Alessandra met me at the train station.  I saw her drive up and immediately waved her down.  She got out of the car and I threw my arms around her and told her how excited I was to see her!  I needed a familiar face, a familiar language, a familiar anything. 

All in all, I got here safely.  Fewf!

Peace. Love. Travel.

b.