Back to the Clouds! No Literally this time!

FEELING BETTER!

So Where did i leave off? Going to bed in Venice, ah. I woke up feeling much better! Not entirely, but noticeably better. Thank goodness to a hefty dose of Vitamin C and 12 hours of sleep!

Yesterday we climbed on our trusty bus and headed for Verona. The countryside was amazing alone,  we went over the top on the tourist label by continuing to take pictures outside our bus windows, but we honestly couldn't help it. It just all looks like an opening scene to a movie...Villas, farms, horses...vineyards, just everything is surreal. Truly.

Pulling into Verona, I was uuber excited. I was feeling better, had a camera battery (2!) and was set for our 3 hour excursion. We went on a mini sightseeing tour- Again, I was doing a bad job at listening being that I was taking pictures. i really have to follow through on my personal promise to read up on everything I am seeing so that I can appreciate it even more. We ended our mini tour in Juliet's house- the tourist attraction I was most excited to see.

It was alright. I guess I thought it would be like it is in the recent "Letters to Juliet" movie? It looks drastically different in real life, is extremely overcrowded, and has a huge tourist blackhole shop right in the same courtyard. I wanted to get some sort of souvenier that said "Julie" or "Juliet" since that is my name, and also Juliet's name, but no such luck. I got a picture with the statue of Juliet for good luck and long lasting love, I sure need that! ;)  But I really wanted to write a letter to Juliet like in the movie. I thought that was real :(  I had a whole thing in my head ready for how I was going to explain the heartbreak turmoil constantly racing through my head. But, in my head it stays I suppose. I guess the good news is that it isn't drastically different from the movie in the letters to juliet terms--you can write a simple message to Juliet, or whomever I guess, on the surrounding entrance gate walls. Millions and millions and millions of people have written messages, so many that it starts to just look like a big blotch of ink with messages continuously written on top! But still cool.

Juliet's Balcony

Some messages to Juliet written on the wall, and just statements of love (i.e. Initials, hearts, etc).

Just crazy filled with message over message...just lots of ink!

There were actually messages written out on these little hearts, to Juliet, and they were just left on the street to float away to meet the grime and sorrow of the public. I hope they find a home.

Being that I took so drastically long to stare at Juliet's wall, hoping something would happen, I found myself alone for lunch. But no worries--I headed to the main square marketplace where apparantly fruit is the main attraction! Perfect!! I bought a giant cup of FRUIT for only 2 Euro, could life be better? I sat on a goregous fountain again (Italy likes fountains) with lots of others, and enjoyed a delightful fruit cup in the sun. I then walked around, avoided tourists, shopped around a bit....I then got my last italian Gelato (SO YUMMY! I can't believe America is stuck with Ritas. I will never look at Ritas the same after dying in heaven with Italian Gelato). 

After that my friends and I met up and being that they are normal college girls, they wanted to shop (like....clothes shop) so I went with them despite the fact that I usually have to ask my sister if something is a shirt, skirt or dress. The shops we went in were insane, as expected. Adorable and amazing clothes, obviously, but each sold for no less than 98 Euro, crazy.

Overall, I really liked Verona! It was sweet, cute and kind. Nice people. Gorgeous architecture. Exquisite detail to the city. And, yay for TONS of fruit! Its a good life.

Then....another six hours on the bus. Besides hilarious happenings, chatting and getting to know each other better, playing games on iphones, listening to great music, and lots of sleeping, the bus ride really is uneventful and there is nothing else to share about our bus happenings.


Our arrival in Switzerland is amazing! We are back to the language of the German (Well, Swiss-German), where I am again as lost as a monkey in a supermarket. Our hotel is wonderful, and is is so chilly here! Which I like. I would rather be chilly any day than sweating. Perfect hoodie weather, eh? 

Anyway, last night was spent updating ya'll on this blog and facebook, and calling home to many loved ones. Note: To all those I promised a postcard, they will not be arriving until I get home. Its kind of a long complicated story that basically revolves around the fact that I am an idiot. But, they are already written out as I go, they will only just be arriving late is all.

Today we hit up the town of Lucerne, Switzerland! I think everyone was bummed because we have collided into our first bout of extremely unpleasant weather. Rainy, windy, very cold, etc. I think we were all really looking forward to Switzerland for its known beauty but unfortunately Switzerland could only show us rain clouds this trip. It was still pretty, though. And as the old photography saying goes (Actually its not a saying) : No fear if its raining, you'll get a more unique picture! I learned this somewhere when I was first starting the photography shebang, as a young teenager on a photoshoot thing with my dad I think. It was pouring rain and our photography director taught us that even though it sucks that it is raining on your big day to whatever you are photographing, you are one of few that will have a unique picture because of that, so make the best of it! So I got some really nice rain shots of the town of Lucerne. No complaints.


Some Rain shots:

After that was our optional excursion to Mt. Pilatus- one of the highest mountains in the swiss Alps! Crazy cool! We got to take a 90 minute ferry ride to the base of the mountain, where a train takes you up to the top of the mountain. Everyone thought the train was hilarious until we reached 2,000 m up, when people were starting to get nervous. It was not a slow train and it was about a 30 minute ride up!

The beginning of the train...

Taken from inside the train...Gettin' high!

Tunnel ahead! Oh boy.

Lookin' Down!

Gettin' into the clouds.....

Pure CLOUD outside. Crazy.

AND WE SAW SNOW! My tour guide said she was not expecting there to be snow, so it was a rare thing that we got to see snow. Not very much snow, but snow all the same. Also, we passed the elevation of the clouds and our windows were open, so clouds sort of just came through and were in the midst of our personal train car, it was so cool. I got some SWEET shots of the clouds and the mountains, even if that was all we could see.

At the top of the mountain, it was a mix of rain and snow and literally so many clouds it was hard to see your hand in front of you. But being that we are stubborn and persistent college students that are for the most part healthy, strong and athletic, we totally went on a miniature hiking tour to the VERY top of the mountain. I forgot to look at the exact elevation but I'm pretty sure it was pretty crazy. My hair was soaking wet due to the moisture in the air, but breathing in that fresh mountain air was like no air I have ever breathed before. Just exquisite. We got some cute pictures at the very top, even though all that you can see behind me is white abyss. Still cool, though. It helped our afraid-of-heights- people not realize how high up we were. Then me and and another friend opted to continue on a more crazy hiking tour and it was a lot like cave exploring on an unbeaten path down the other side of the mountain! We went down as far as we felt like, and then came back up and took a chairlift thingy down the other side. Pretty rockin awesome is what I say!

Tonight is all about rest....tomorrow we have a 5:30 am departure to catch our train to Paris! Ouch! It will be a long day. We arrive in Paris by train around 1, then have a sightseeing tour, a cruise around Paris, and then reservations to go up the Eiffel Tower. :-)

I can't wait to start drawing and painting some of my photography shots I'm getting! I have so many ideas. I also have FULL intentions on making a book of all my Europe photography. SO FAR, I have exactly 731 shots, and thats not counting Venice being on the iphone, and I also still have Paris and London to go. And, I will go full out crazy monkey beans when I am in London. I will photograph like I have never photographed a city before. London won't know what hit it after I'm gone! So I plan to be coming home with at least ~1200 pictures. After that I want to weed through, edit, and then select which ones to put in the book in chronological order. Then this book, will be something I can easily show friends, coworkers, etc or anyone that wants to see. Yay!

Apparantly I am known as the "photographer" of the trip. A girl that I bumped into on the tour yesterday, whom I only just learned her name, said to me, "Are you the girl thats getting all the crazy good pictures? I saw you taking pictures before and I thought- I have to get her name So I can see them later!" I just sort of stared at her, and I was like, "Is that really going around?? " I thought it was funny. My close group of friends likes to look through my pictures so this is good because it reminds me to delete the bad ones as I go, so they don't see all the "attempt" shots. I think it is perfectly acceptable for even a professional photographer to have to try 2-3 times to finally get or pick the perfect shot. And then there are times (and everyone laughs at me for this) that I literally don't look at anything on the camera, and literally just point and shoot and hope for the best, if I see something but am moving too fast to safely stop and capture. Sometimes those photos come out the BEST. While travelling, I have learned one very thing about photography: Sometimes you have literally five seconds. You see something with your eye and you can't think about it. You turn your camera on if its not already, get the lens cap out of the way, bring it up to your eye, find your subject, zoom in/out and click- all within five whole seconds- otherwise you miss it. I am certainly not one to sit there playing with "What effect should I choose? what should the lighting be? Let me wait for that person to move first..."   no. Just, shoot. Take the picture. Otherwise you miss it. After you get that first golden shot, then you can experiment and try taking it again but slower if the moment is still happening.

Even with perfecting that point and shoot speed, I even miss a lot too. Sometimes you can only just see things with your eyes and remember them, and thats OK too. Otherwise you'd be walking down the streets with your eye in a viewfinder, and thats not exactly safe or wise. Other times its just really not appropriate to take a picture, as much as you really, really, really, really want to. Especially when it comes to people. Also, many europeans in big cities, will dress up so that you will take a picture, and then they want a Euro! So, funny.

Anyway, enough about pictures. Is this blog getting to be long enough? Shabam, I thought this would be a short one!

One more really important delight  I want to share with you and then I will let you resume on your imporant daily activities:

 I FINALLY found the PERFECT postsecret postcard I plan to use to send in the secret I have been rewriting in my head, over and over, just waiting for it to be OK to let go of it and send it. I promised myself that I would find myself the perfect European postcard to perfectly fit my secret, and I did today. Of course, I can't tell you what it looks like or what the secret is, because thats a secret,and it might end up on the website! ;) But I found one and that makes my day SO happy!


Anyway, I think thats it for today. Not sure when I'll be in wifi coverage again, being that tomorrow Is Paris, and who knows with Paris. Even if we do have wifi, we will be out late on our cruise and chances that I am going to sign on and update is slim, but we'll see! We shall just see.

Thank you for reading everyone, It really means so much! The blog stats went crazy high yesterday with the four posts on at once- and its all thanks to you guys!

Miss you!

~ A Writer in a Nurse's Body

From Cloud Nine to Breakdown

So, today was our day in Venice, Italy. It was…….well, Venice itself was surreal, amazing, magnificent, tremendous(ah, new adjective, yes!)…But, my day was not as good. It started out by me getting on the bus and realizing I left my backup camera battery sitting in its charger back in the hotel room, and my first battery was on its last leg, after having surviving two full days and a bus ride with lots of pictures, AND taking pictures at night AND taking pictures with special effects. I just KNEW that it was gonna die within the first ten pictures in Venice. So, I hate to be a Debbie downer but breaking it down by reasons I came to Europe, it goes like this: Photography 60%, Experience 20%, London 18%, Meeting new people1%, and trying new food 0.5%. So , you can see that photography was a major portion of this trip stimulus and reason for going, and is really important to me. So, upon arrival to Venice I was in a sour mood knowing my camera would not be working with me. These types of things have happened before, for whatever reason (forgot it, battery, memory card full, etc.) and each time, I would rather NOT go to Venice than go without a camera, because it is so painful. It tears my heart when I see magnificent pictures with my eyes, and each time I reach for my camera. Tears. My. Heart. People just don’t get that. You don’t get that unless you’re a photographer. Luckily, I had my handy dandy iphone and it was at 100% battery charge. So, it was me and the iphone that day. I LOVE my iphone camera, it has the best camera out of all previous phones, and has exquisite editing techniques. However the zoom does not impress me and you just don’t get that photographer-feely thing of taking a shot with your actual high-tech camera. But- the iphone pulled through even still, and I still took about 250 pictures and looking through after, they are still just as magnificent as they would have been on the camera. So it all worked out.

So on the way to Venice on the 30 minute ferry I realized that despite sleeping well the night before, I was exceedingly tired and even fell asleep on the ferry. For those of you that know a lot about me on a  really personal level, you know that this is not good. I shrugged it off and we arrived to Venice, as happy clams. We started walking around for a sightseeing tour. As the tour was ending I realized that my throat was really starting to hurt. Rather than opt for personal free time in venice as originally planned with my camera, I changed my mind to stick with the tour director and group in case anything were to happen. This worked out beautifully as by doing this we went to a beautiful glass-blowing demonstration (saw how beautiful exquisite glass is made), a lace demonstration, and went to an authentic Carnivale mask shoppe, famous in Italy. However through all this my throat was getting progressively worse to the point of it being largely uncomfortable to swallow. It was also getting  uncomfortable to breathe, and it was then I was afraid I was coming down with the flu or something, despite my best efforts to maintain perfect health on the trip thus far.

At this point I realized I needed four things desperately: Food I could eat (I hadn’t eaten yet that day because of my newfound realization I could NOT eat Italian food), Any kind of multivitamin to boost my immune system, internet access (It had been like 5 days at this point and I was starting to feel really disconnected from loved ones), and I needed somewhere to just sit and recoup. So, I started at the beginning. My tour guide let us loose for free time for the rest of the day (5 hours), and we were “stuck” in Venice as we could not cross the ferry ride alone back to hotel. I flagged down my tour guide and asked her to help me find something I could eat, being that she could translate to the food services to get me something without cheese or tomatoes. She luckily found me a type of sandwich I had never heard of, with white bread, egg, ham and mayonnaise. Easy and simple enough. This is good because I got my protein in from the egg. She then also found me a big bowl of fruit, God bless her.

After that she needed to meet up with some others, but directed to two other things I needed most: A pharmacy and ANY source of Internet.

It just so happened that I found the internet café first, and came down the desperate-American level to pay for internet access, at 2.50 Euro for 15 minutes. I immediately ran to my assigned computer and went straight to facebook to update everybody, and try and talk to my dad, but he wasn’t there. I also couldn’t remember my blogger login in all my boggled mind, nor either of my email logins. I just couldn’t think clearly and really just wanted any contact with someone back home. So, in order to remain under 15 minutes, I got off when  I could do no more on the internet, and was on my way, defeated.

I found a pharmacy next, or a “farmacie”. I remember reading in my guidebook beforehand that pharmacists are looked upon very highly throughout Europe. People often go to their local pharmacist first for their problems, and he gives them whatever they need. He then is often the one to decide if the person should seek further medical attention or more medicine. I think this is GREAT, because it cuts out all the stupid visits in America where people go to the doctor for the smallest things and waste valuable money. So knowing this, I knew the pharmacy was the best place for me. However, being that I was in a back corner of Venice and out of the general tourist locations, everything was in complete Italian, and I didn’t even recognize any common brands. This is where the cool part comes in….I went directly to the pharmacist and told him IN SPANISH! That I was feeling ill, and needed some immune support (i.e. Vitamin C) and that I had a sore throat. He gave me a mega dose of Vitamin C that I could put in my water, and sore throat with some sort of “disinfectant” (that’s how he put it) to “get rid” of whatever bacteria may be in my throat. So I thankfully took them and went to go sit outside in a more touristy area. So at this point I got everything I needed, I just needed time to recover.

Being wary of taking drugs I don’t know, and in a country I am not familiar with, I tried to read the labels…in Italian, for drug information for how much in a 24 hour pd and what the maximum was, because I wanted to take the maximum. However Italian was a lot more different than Spanish than I’d prepared for, and couldn’t make out much.  I took one VC, and had a throat lozenge, with a full glass of water. Call me crazy but I started to psychologically feel better knowing the Vitamin C was in me starting to do its fighting work. I sat on a major famous fountain thing, with millions of others and just waited. An elderly gentleman came to sit next to me (another special moment!) and I said confidently, “Ciao!” With a smile. He said it back, with a great smile, and told me in Italian that it was so hot out and that the stoop we were sitting on was also very hot. I agreed, with a smile laugh and smile, without letting on that I couldn’t exactly speak Italian back. He then said a much longer phrase that I had no clue what it was, and again I just nodded in agreement. We were both then silent for a good while, and I realized I was feeling well enough to get up and walk around and take some more pictures. I turned back to the gentleman and wished him a good day in Italian and he returned it! It was just very sweet.

We then got back together as a major group, and all went on a gondola ride. If that doesn’t scream Venice, Italy, I don’t know what does. It was like what I always pictured Venice to be: Gondola. Our gondolier even sang for us! It was about a 45 minute ride, I was able to sit down, got some great pictures with my friends, and he took us to the sea as well. Perfect. It was a perfect opportunity to rest a little and not miss Venice’s perfection due to feeling ill.

I got myself a Gelato (SO GOOD! ITS ITALY!) which felt really nice on my now mentholated throat. After walking around for about an hour, I started to develop a strong headache and nausea, which I attributed to the heavy dose of vitamin C on an empty stomach. I re-read the ingredients of the Vitamin C and realized it had aspartame AND sodium bicarbonate in it, both of which cause me migraines from drinking soda. So, good. I basically just drank a large amount of soda, had a large migraine, nausea, a sore throat, was exhausted, and couldn’t breathe….all in the middle of beautiful Venice. I couldn’t believe any of this was actually happening to me, everything I tried so hard to prevent. I attributed it all to not getting enough sleep on the trip thus far, staying out late, getting up early, not sleeping on bus, etc. I realized at this point that although I would love a life of adventure, I don’t think my immune system can handle it if it means not getting a consistent and lengthy amount of sleep every night. Bummer.

So again I sat down on my trusty fountain, while guarding my belongings from quick theft, but also sitting in a way I wasn’t too nauseous. I prayed and prayed and prayed again to God to feel better, that if I could just feel better for today and not be developing some huge illness, that I would do something really good in return, some awesome good deed at some moment, which I still have yet to complete…

Both of my roommates just happened to find me, and I explained what was going on, even though I really, really, really don’t letting people know when I’m ill. I find it extremely embarrassing and did not want the pity call. Also it hurt to talk and I was afraid that if I started venting out everything that was wrong, then that would give me permission to cry, which I obviously did not want to do in the middle of VENICE.  They suggested I get out of the hot sun, and go to see Doge’s palace, which we already had free tickets too anyway, and that it had some nice calm, quiet, dark places to just sit and watch the beautiful palace in. I took this suggestion very appreciateively and decided to do just that. After getting up and walking around the palace, I realized my medications were all starting to kick in some and I was starting to feel better.

Doge’s Palace was amazing, and huge. I found it funny because outside the palace, I just kept thinking, “Disney, Disney, Disney, DISNEY.” Because in Italy’s section in Epcot, Doge’s palace was remodeled and put in as well as the huge tower right next to the palace. Disney even got it right down to the very sculptures on the building to the light towers next to the palace, to the floor even. It was fascinating. I never thought that upon arrival in Venice, I would feel an extreme sense of “I’ve been here before!”. It was too funny.

So thanks to all my medications (at that point I had about four in me- VC, lozenges, antiemetic, and Excedrin) and being able to relax in the palace- It was finally time to head back to the hotel for the evening, and I was feeling much better. I said goodbye to Venice and felt sad that I couldn’t have been happier while in Venice, and that I let illness rain on my parade. I hate that when one health problem goes awry, I let it all spiral out of control because of my psychological anxiety.

We went back to hotel, and I went to the beach again to get some day pictures, and went to the supermarket to pick up some dinner with another third (and new) roommate. She needed lotion, and needed the Cashier who spoke minimal English to help her find some. When the cashier came back to check me out, She spoke to me in Italian about the girl who was with me, and I thought it was funny that she choose to talk to me in Italian, simply because I had greeted her in Italian. Greeting people in their native language when you are in their native language does a long way and does a lot for you!

Upon arriving back to the hotel, I arranged to skip out on that evenings nightly drinking activities, and I relaxed on my Italian hotel balcony overlooking the street, eating my grapes, baby food and new Italian chips with olive oil. It was then 9 pm and I decided sleep was the best thing for me, and I went to bed, and didn’t wake up until my alarm went off at 8 am the next morning. YES.

This morning I felt a lot better. I had taken another dose of Vitamin C before bed, this time WITH an Excedrin to prevent the imminent headache. My throat felt dry but didn’t hurt as much. Throughout the day so far It has hurt still but the menthol is working a lot. I think a large part of it is allergies, luckily, which I am able to take care of. I think for the second half of the trip (starting now) I will start trying to make more of a stronger effort to go to bed at a decent time, rather than living the night away, ignoring my health. I honestly don’t know how other people do it, every night. They are lucky. Gosh, I feel so old. Bleh.

Anyway, hopefully I can put that whole Immune system breakdown behind me. I am disappointed that it had to happen in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it put a huge dent in my day, but even so I tried to make the best of it and still got a lot of great pictures (268!) and experienced a lot of venice, AND spoke Spanish in times of dire need!

I feel like I still have so many “miscellaneous” things to tell you, but that every time I am done with my blog explaining my day, it is so long I can’t include miscellaneous things! I will have to dedicate a post at the end to throw in all my miscellaneous moments…

Ciao!

~A Writer in a Nurse’s Body