Isa- Venice and Trieste

[March 21-24]

Hi all!

As usual I am behind on my posts. This time my "slacking off" is different though, I used to ACTUALLY be slacking off in my blog posts, but now, I am too busy traveling to keep up!! The days I'm not traveling are the middle of the week, and on those days I have to remind myself I'm in school and try to remind myself where I am in all my classes and what the heck I'm supposed to be learning about! All I can say is, I am glad I started the semester strong, because with the weekends I have planned these last few weeks of the semester I will be amazed if I remember the middles of the those weeks at all! :)

So, I left off with a (rather rushed) post on Barcelona. Right after I got back from Barcelona, I got into my apartment, spent about 20 minutes here and then turned right back around to catch a train to Venice, to see Venice and visit with Isa for the weekend!

Everything about this weekend (aside from one story which I will share...) was absolutely wonderful! But there are two things I would like to highlight for you all...

The first thing, is my stay with Isa. Isa, for those of you who don't know, was an exchange student who stayed with my family my freshman year of college, and has become part of my family. Even though I wasn't even home most of the time she lived at my house, I still felt blessed to have her as part of my family, and as a sister. Staying at her house that weekend (March 21-24) confirmed that I AM blessed to have her as a sister. Isa is a wonderful hostess, she waited to meet me at the train station and greeted me with a huge hug when I got into Trieste. She asked how the train was, and I was thrilled to tell her about earlier that day...

When I had gotten into Venice, before I went to Trieste to meet Isa, I had about an hour or so to spare. The sun was shining, and it was a PERFECT day:

AS SOON as you step out of the Santa Lucia
train station in Venice, you see this.

It was a beautiful day!

Then, after getting some gelato and eating it in the sun, I hopped on the train to Trieste. This train ride was gorgeous. It started with snow-capped mountains on the right, and as we went along the sun began to set and light the sky up with BEAUTIFUL colors, then as the mountains began to disappear, the sea showed up on the left. It was the prettiest train ride I have ever been on, and I dare anyone to try and top the beauty of this ride at sunset.

After telling Isa about the train, we went back to her place, where she had waiting for me a tasty treat, and had baked a chocolate bunt cake with nutella filling. It was delicious. That night we went out for Pizza with her friends, which was very fun because they are all Italian, and half the time I was just trying to figure out what they were saying! Most of them could speak some English (and of course Isa can) so they did a good job of translating what was going on, and I had a really fun time! It was an awesome experience actually being with ITALIANS in Italy!

The next day we packed a lunch (Isa makes delicious sandwiches) and went out! I got a tour of Trieste, and fell in love with our pretty it is!!

I loved the rocks in the water.
In the distance is a castle we visited that day too!

No, she wasn't posing!
She didn't even know I was taking the picture!

Trieste.
Right near where James Joyce's statue is!

I had a lovely time staying at Isa's. She was a great hostess, and it was really nice being able to stay with family for a weekend!





My other story that is notable, is Venice....

The day I actually went in a saw Venice... Oh boy. On the way there, the train broke down. I got there much later than expected and ended up with only a few hours to spend there! Then it started raining. At the end of the night, by the time I got back to the train station I was SOAKING wet (through my shoes). Then I realized that the cell phone Isa's boyfriend had let me borrow so I could call them when I was back in Trieste... was gone. I LOST his phone!!! So I had no idea how I was going to get into contact with them once I got back into Trieste! But I didn't worry about it then, I just went and waited for the train (in the freezing cold. For an hour. After being soaking wet.... I have no idea how I didn't get pneumonia, I was SO COLD). Well, luckily on the train I found a superhero. His name is The Trenitalia Worker. His superpower is that he speaks English, and his weapon of choice is the iphone with 3G internet connection!! He let me borrow his phone to get on my Facebook and write Isa a message! Luckily she checked it and got back to me and she was waiting for me at the station when we got to Trieste!!


So, that was my visit. But despite that, I got some cool souvenirs, and I was able to know for sure what I had always thought. I love Venice. In a way I'm glad it wasn't perfect, I'll just have to bring Stephen there someday to enjoy it together. It's so beautiful, I'm sure it's always better with good company : )

Here are some of my favorite pictures though!!

  

Ciao!