Time spent with friends is never wasted

Well this is going to be the longest post yet, it’s been a crazy end to the trip! It’s almost time to go home J

 Hallo! Thursday- what a day! As I said Wednesday was the official end to our program so we’re chaperone-free now. We had a late night just hanging out and reminiscing about all the good times we’ve had. Then ‘The Romans’ got to get up at 5:00 am to catch the 6:00 shuttle to the airport. Believe it or not everything went as planned, we got our bags into lockers at the airport, printed our boarding passes, made it through security, and were seated outside our gate 45 minutes early. Our first flight was less than 1 hour to Amsterdam. Way back in June when I booked the flights it seemed like a good idea to pay less money for the flight and have a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam so we could see another place along the way. That almost turned into a disaster when we went through the wrong passport control gate and nearly got into trouble for it. Then we finally made it outside (after putting our luggage in small lockers before passport control so we wouldn’t have to go through security with them on the way back in) and checked a map to see which way to walk to The Anne Frank House. Of course it started raining almost immediately and the group agreed that it was acceptable to take a taxi. We arrived at our destination to learn there is over an hour wait just to get tickets and it is still raining so we decide to stay with the taxi and head to The Heineken Experience. If we had more time we would’ve done the whole tour to see how the beer is made and what makes this brand unique. But instead we just bought some souvenirs and followed signs to The Hard Rock Café (5^th one this trip now). Since the weather had cleared we began our walk back to the train station, stopping at McDonald’s on the way for lunch. Shortly before we got back to the station it decided to start pouring rain again, not 2 minutes after we stopped at a pub for some beers. Since we had to get back to the station we had no choice but to walk through the pouring rain. But we did make it and we got back to the airport on time, struggled to find the right gate, got extra searched by security, but then we found our luggage and arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare, enough to hop on the internet. Our flight was delayed 30 minutes but it was a great flight to Rome with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. It was about 2 hours but we stayed up and chatted some more to stay alert. And finally we’re in Rome! We found the train station, got on a train and made it to the transfer station where a nice stranger helped us find the right train. Of course I doubted whether he could be trusted but we had no choice and he didn’t do us wrong so thank you to him! We got to the second station and decided to walk to the apartment because it was close enough. And we did so with no wrong turns. Wow. This place is amazing, it is a legitimate apartment with 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, and our own large patio with furniture, aka Friday night family dinner site. We got a great deal and we all love it here, there were lots of pictures taken so I will nab some for my collection. After getting settled and enjoying the place for a bit, we decided to walk to find some food and we found a great pizza place for relatively cheap, enough to satisfy us. Tomorrow we will be doing a double decker bus tour of the city where we can get on or off at any stop we chose and get on as many times as we would like in the 48 hours following check in. So we will be very busy with that, seeing all of the good sights! Have a great day!

Love,

Jenacious

Bonjourno Bella!

It is now Friday night in Rome and Sharon, Amanda, and I are back in the flat, packing our bags and waiting for the rest of the group to get home from their adventures. We had a slow start this morning, enjoying our new place a little too much. But we did find a fresh food market right around the corner from our place so we were able to get some breakfast before trying to find the first stop for our bus tour. That was a task in and of itself but we did make it to the Vatican City. Before we made it to the bus stop we were approached by a man selling tickets to a Vatican City tour that would skip the 3+ hour line. We followed for a bit but then some of us decided we weren’t interested in it for that price so we decided to try something different. (The 3 that did go on the tour said it was well worth the money.) We did find the bus stop and began our double decker journey around Rome. We got off at one stop to find the Hard Rock Café where we got souvenirs with some drinks before getting back on the bus. The next stop that we chose to get off for was at the Coliseum where we grabbed a late lunch at a local restaurant across the street from the Coliseum.  We hit a few souvenir shops on the way back to the bus which we rode back to our first stop to do the rest of our souvenir shopping; there are so many great things for cheap compared to other countries! For dinner we went out for pasts to celebrate Michelle’s birthday. We chose a small restaurant that was relatively cheap and the waitress spoke English well enough to help us order. We all loved our food choices and moved on to get some real gelato. That was the highlight of my day. There were two men working when we walked in so we were trying to decide what flavors we wanted while mentioning that it was Michelle’s birthday so they started singing to her right there. Then they were laughing and teasing us the whole time, we all got a kick out of it. Now everyone is going to get packed up! Tomorrow we have to have our bags out of the flat by 2:00 so we’re getting an early start so we can get more use out of our bus ticket and see more of the sights- hopefully the weather is good for pictures! And then it is off to the airport to fly back to Belgium for the last time, it’s starting to feel real that this is the end and that is far more depressing than I actually expected it to be. I am so thankful for everything I’ve learned and experienced during this time, wouldn’t change a thing about it.

Love,

Jenacious

Hello!

We survived another day- our last day. This will qualify as the longest weekend of our lives as far as I know. Saturday morning we were all packed, apartment cleaned, and on our way by 8:15 am. Our first destination was the Double Decker Bus again to visit Trevi Fountain and anything else we thought of along the way. We made it there quickly and discovered the Spanish Steps were a short 10 minute walk from there so we can cross those off our list as well. We hopped back on the bus to get off a stop before the Coliseum where we climbed up some big steps to get a great view of that part of Rome. Then we walked along the road to see some cool looking ruins before passing the Coliseum and on to the Circo Massimo or something like that, a stadium built to hold 250,000 people but currently in disrepair. We caught the bus again to get back to the flat to get our luggage since we had to be out before the cleaning lady came through.  Not only were we out on time, we were out earlier than they requested of us- GO TEAM! We headed our separate ways again, this time walking a bit to see the Pantheon. It pays to pack lightly on trips like this! We had approximately 4 hours to waste before boarding a train to get to the airport so we rode the bus one last time to Termini Train Station, the main transportation hub of Rome if you ask me. Again, the whole group arrived earlier than planned, probably because it wasn’t easy to do much while carrying full backpacks or duffel bags. In our search for a counter to buy our train tickets, a man informed us of the bus that goes directly to the airport that was less than half the cost of the train. Well thank you strange man because you saved us time and money! We printed our boarding passes, found the security lines, and got inside an hour and a half before loading time! It’s a good thing too because the flight changed gates about 30 minutes before boarding so we were able to regroup ourselves and move. Long story short the plane is now in the air, expecting to arrive in Brussels around 11:15 pm where we will sleep and camp out until our flight for home leaves around 11 am. Luckily we’ll be able to relax and repack all of our bags to be more efficient and hopefully within weight limits. Rome was a beautiful city, definitely lots to keep a tourist busy for a week! I don’t know that I will come back for a week but who knows, I don’t even know what I want to do with my life so maybe a little intense travel will work its way back in to my life?

Love,

Jenacious

Spending the night in the airport makes for a long morning. We landed in Belgium around 11:30 last night and just camped out right outside the gate we entered through. Unfortunately that was the coldest part of the airport so we were all freezing cold and uncomfortable. We stayed there until 5 am when enough of us were ready to be warm again so we made our way out of security to get the rest of the luggage. We’ve drawn quite a bit of attention today, especially when we were sitting on the floor, unpacking and rearranging all of our bags so we could get them home. I managed to weigh in around 45 pounds again, although my suitcase was completely full. I also have a carry-on bag full of souvenirs this time. Anyway, we got our tickets, made it through security and found our gate, all with 3 hours till plane takes off. After picking up the last of our gifts in the airport we will be boarding a 9 hour flight to Chicago where we have to pick up all our luggage again to go through customs. Hopefully our 3 hour layover is more than enough time. I’ll try to post the final update when I’m back in Fargo but who knows what the evening will hold! Thank you for following along these last 5 weeks, hope you enjoyed the stories. Can’t wait to see you all soon.

Love,

Jenacious