So here are some pictures from Milan and Venice, as promised.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/MilanoVeneziaYMia
As well I would like to note. Coming back from Milan has been a "downgrade" for me so I'm trying to keep my spirits high. I would love to hear from all of you, especially with a little package or a letter. The mail here is slow, but getting a letter would make my day. Emails are great too!
Hope everyone is doing well.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Back from Milan
Hello all,
I know that posts have been lack as of late, however have no fear. I have much to say. :) Along with literally a thousand pictures from Italy.
So on Thursday morning around 9:00 AM my 5 friends and I (the kids from Westmont [Shala, Stephanie, and Clayton], Andrew, and Laura) all jumped onto a tour bus headed for Riga, Latvia. After a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride to Riga, we arrived in the Riga airport 6 hours before our flight. Lucky for us hungry travelers there was a TGIF's and we all had a burger (or two).
Our flight to Milan was through Ryan Air, which if you don't know is a Irish budget airline, and we have heard some awful stories about this airline losing luggage or changing flights, but ours was completely uneventful. The funny thing about Ryan Air is that there are no set seat assignments, so unless you bought a 5 euro priority boarding pass, it's literally a free-for-all to get a seat. Fortunately, Shala had accidentally bought priority boarding so she ran onto the plane and dumped her stuff in two rows so that all six of us could be next to each other. We ended taking 3 rows for more room and the flight was great.
We arrived in Milan's 40-minute away airport, around midnight and then we grabbed another bus to city centre. We finally got to our hotel, after some more walking and a cab ride, 3 of us stayed outside the Holiday Inn Express, because we only booked a room for 3. Travelocity guaranteed us 2 double beds and a pull-out couch, so we assumed we had at least 5 beds. We the 3 that checked into the hotel saw the room it was 2 twins and a roll-away. The other three came up stairs and then we had a dilemma. Do we push the issue even though we're already cheating the hotel? We thought, yes. We're cheap. :) haha So we called travelocity, but unfortunately there were no rooms available and we let it drop. We finally figured out that Andrew, by far the largest, and would barely would fit into a twin bed, would sleep in the one sleeping bag we brought. Clayton can sleep on the roll away and then we'll push the two twins together and the girls will share that big bed. It worked alright, except for the few times we would wake up in...awkward positions.
Our first day in Milan, we woke up early and we to the continental breakfast that was provided. It ended up being amazing. It usually consisted of fresh orange juice or grapefruit juice, cappuccino's made by the barista, cook-to-order eggs and sausage, and then the best variety of cakes and pastries I have ever witnessed. Compared to the food that we have to buy and make ourselves in Lithuania, all of our eyes went buggy. Let me just leave it at that, it was more than fantastic. Breakfast puddings, chocolate croissants, etc. :)
We saw the Duomo the first day in Milan, which if you don't know is the 3rd largest church in the world. It was pretty impressive. We had only see a very industrialized part of Milan, and all were kind of thinking, "Italy's not as beautiful as everyone says." However, we used the subway to get around our entire vacation, and we we got off at the Duomo stop we started walking up the stairs and the moment we arrived in daylight all of us stopped. It took our breath away. It is so enormous and gorgeous, we had to pause for a second to process this. (I think there is a picture of it as soon as we realized we should capture this moment, but it doesn't do the feeling justice).
The Duomo pictures are beautiful, and please do go see it someday in your lifetime. The church reminded me that whether or not you believe in a God, imagine the hundreds of thousands of people that have worshiped here; the time it took to carve on cherub or to paint one face of Jesus. You have to appreciated that. For me personally, it was nothing least than an encouragement to my faith. It was almost for a second I could literally picture the others that have put there trust in Jesus, or became a Christian in this church. It was a beautiful moment.
We saw the roof of the Duomo, which by the way was over 200 steps, and I had the funniest asthma attack I ever had. (I wanted to keep climbing since I wanted to see the top, but because of vertigo and asthma I kept wheezing and had to let the hundreds of people behind me pass. Anyways, no harm done. I made it all the way up, eventually).
We went shopping the first and last days in Milano at the mall by the Duomo (pictures) and saw the original Armani store, complete with models shopping without paying for fashion week. The mall was beautiful. We also saw a variety of markets and fruit stands.
Probably the craziest part of our whole adventure was the trip to Venice. We had researched before we left how far away Venice was from Milan and had decided that if we could do it for cheap we would all go. We found a rental agency that let us rent a mini-van for 210 euros, which is about $60 each. We left early Saturday morning and Andrew was the only one who was allowed to drive (Westmont strictly forbid us) and could drive stick well. Haha. If only you could imagine. Try driving stick, with the touchiest clutch, during rush-hour, in a city (Milan) that you've never been too, with directions translated with and online translator.... it was hilarious and terrifying all at the same time. For the first 20 minutes, any time we got to a stop we stalled out. Making the locals pissed at us. We also for the first hour didn't know how to reverse. *See pictures of Clayton pushing the car* The locals honked and screamed, but we just kept encouraging Andrew. Long story short, it took us an hour to get out of Milan. After asking a man who was for sure on some sort of drugs for directions, we finally made it out of Milan onto the Autostrada. *See pictures* The Northern Italian countryside is absolutely beautiful and ever 2 miles or so an old winery or mansion would be tucked up in the hills. The drive to Venice was about 3 and half hours, maybe more, but our director (And designated Mom) Shala got us to Venice.
Then comes the next funny part. We drove onto Venice, making jokes about how gross the water was or how hilarious was that fact that we blindly drove to Venice the first time we got to Italy. We all were excited, with bated breath for the sites of Venice so often shown in the romantic pictures. And next thing we know.... we're on the highway headed off the Island back to Milan. With no where to turn around. We all laughed and found the way to back on the highway headed back to Venice. Then we did it again. Even after taking a different way right after we got off. Oh my goodness. It was ridiculous. So after the 3rd time of driving onto Venice getting lost and then driving back on it, Andrew was done with driving. He was so angry (understandably) so we all just payed 30 euros to park in this tourist parking lot. Then we took a ferry onto Venice. It really is an amazing city. It was so picturesque and beautiful and everything the pictures look like that it's almost too much to handle. Every where you look is something worth remembering forever. Fantastic. *See pictures*
Alright. Now I understand that if you made it this far, you're probably tired of reading, so I'll let the pictures/captions do the talking. Give me a day or so to collect them all, weed out the bad ones, and then I'll post them.
Love and blessings to all of you.
In Christ,
Hannah
I know that posts have been lack as of late, however have no fear. I have much to say. :) Along with literally a thousand pictures from Italy.
So on Thursday morning around 9:00 AM my 5 friends and I (the kids from Westmont [Shala, Stephanie, and Clayton], Andrew, and Laura) all jumped onto a tour bus headed for Riga, Latvia. After a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride to Riga, we arrived in the Riga airport 6 hours before our flight. Lucky for us hungry travelers there was a TGIF's and we all had a burger (or two).
Our flight to Milan was through Ryan Air, which if you don't know is a Irish budget airline, and we have heard some awful stories about this airline losing luggage or changing flights, but ours was completely uneventful. The funny thing about Ryan Air is that there are no set seat assignments, so unless you bought a 5 euro priority boarding pass, it's literally a free-for-all to get a seat. Fortunately, Shala had accidentally bought priority boarding so she ran onto the plane and dumped her stuff in two rows so that all six of us could be next to each other. We ended taking 3 rows for more room and the flight was great.
We arrived in Milan's 40-minute away airport, around midnight and then we grabbed another bus to city centre. We finally got to our hotel, after some more walking and a cab ride, 3 of us stayed outside the Holiday Inn Express, because we only booked a room for 3. Travelocity guaranteed us 2 double beds and a pull-out couch, so we assumed we had at least 5 beds. We the 3 that checked into the hotel saw the room it was 2 twins and a roll-away. The other three came up stairs and then we had a dilemma. Do we push the issue even though we're already cheating the hotel? We thought, yes. We're cheap. :) haha So we called travelocity, but unfortunately there were no rooms available and we let it drop. We finally figured out that Andrew, by far the largest, and would barely would fit into a twin bed, would sleep in the one sleeping bag we brought. Clayton can sleep on the roll away and then we'll push the two twins together and the girls will share that big bed. It worked alright, except for the few times we would wake up in...awkward positions.
Our first day in Milan, we woke up early and we to the continental breakfast that was provided. It ended up being amazing. It usually consisted of fresh orange juice or grapefruit juice, cappuccino's made by the barista, cook-to-order eggs and sausage, and then the best variety of cakes and pastries I have ever witnessed. Compared to the food that we have to buy and make ourselves in Lithuania, all of our eyes went buggy. Let me just leave it at that, it was more than fantastic. Breakfast puddings, chocolate croissants, etc. :)
We saw the Duomo the first day in Milan, which if you don't know is the 3rd largest church in the world. It was pretty impressive. We had only see a very industrialized part of Milan, and all were kind of thinking, "Italy's not as beautiful as everyone says." However, we used the subway to get around our entire vacation, and we we got off at the Duomo stop we started walking up the stairs and the moment we arrived in daylight all of us stopped. It took our breath away. It is so enormous and gorgeous, we had to pause for a second to process this. (I think there is a picture of it as soon as we realized we should capture this moment, but it doesn't do the feeling justice).
The Duomo pictures are beautiful, and please do go see it someday in your lifetime. The church reminded me that whether or not you believe in a God, imagine the hundreds of thousands of people that have worshiped here; the time it took to carve on cherub or to paint one face of Jesus. You have to appreciated that. For me personally, it was nothing least than an encouragement to my faith. It was almost for a second I could literally picture the others that have put there trust in Jesus, or became a Christian in this church. It was a beautiful moment.
We saw the roof of the Duomo, which by the way was over 200 steps, and I had the funniest asthma attack I ever had. (I wanted to keep climbing since I wanted to see the top, but because of vertigo and asthma I kept wheezing and had to let the hundreds of people behind me pass. Anyways, no harm done. I made it all the way up, eventually).
We went shopping the first and last days in Milano at the mall by the Duomo (pictures) and saw the original Armani store, complete with models shopping without paying for fashion week. The mall was beautiful. We also saw a variety of markets and fruit stands.
Probably the craziest part of our whole adventure was the trip to Venice. We had researched before we left how far away Venice was from Milan and had decided that if we could do it for cheap we would all go. We found a rental agency that let us rent a mini-van for 210 euros, which is about $60 each. We left early Saturday morning and Andrew was the only one who was allowed to drive (Westmont strictly forbid us) and could drive stick well. Haha. If only you could imagine. Try driving stick, with the touchiest clutch, during rush-hour, in a city (Milan) that you've never been too, with directions translated with and online translator.... it was hilarious and terrifying all at the same time. For the first 20 minutes, any time we got to a stop we stalled out. Making the locals pissed at us. We also for the first hour didn't know how to reverse. *See pictures of Clayton pushing the car* The locals honked and screamed, but we just kept encouraging Andrew. Long story short, it took us an hour to get out of Milan. After asking a man who was for sure on some sort of drugs for directions, we finally made it out of Milan onto the Autostrada. *See pictures* The Northern Italian countryside is absolutely beautiful and ever 2 miles or so an old winery or mansion would be tucked up in the hills. The drive to Venice was about 3 and half hours, maybe more, but our director (And designated Mom) Shala got us to Venice.
Then comes the next funny part. We drove onto Venice, making jokes about how gross the water was or how hilarious was that fact that we blindly drove to Venice the first time we got to Italy. We all were excited, with bated breath for the sites of Venice so often shown in the romantic pictures. And next thing we know.... we're on the highway headed off the Island back to Milan. With no where to turn around. We all laughed and found the way to back on the highway headed back to Venice. Then we did it again. Even after taking a different way right after we got off. Oh my goodness. It was ridiculous. So after the 3rd time of driving onto Venice getting lost and then driving back on it, Andrew was done with driving. He was so angry (understandably) so we all just payed 30 euros to park in this tourist parking lot. Then we took a ferry onto Venice. It really is an amazing city. It was so picturesque and beautiful and everything the pictures look like that it's almost too much to handle. Every where you look is something worth remembering forever. Fantastic. *See pictures*
Alright. Now I understand that if you made it this far, you're probably tired of reading, so I'll let the pictures/captions do the talking. Give me a day or so to collect them all, weed out the bad ones, and then I'll post them.
Love and blessings to all of you.
In Christ,
Hannah
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