Adventures of January
5-6 January 2020
My journey started on 5 Janurary 2020. I was driven to the airport by my mom, dad and sister. We had said our goodbyes, and I was off on my way through security. The traveling to Italy had seemed like the longest day of my life. My flight was not until 18.00 Chicago time. I had finally gotten on the plane after sitting in O’hare for two hours. I was lucky enough to have an aisle seat with no one sitting next to me. I had watched four movies throughout the first flight: Zooptia, Toy Story 4, A Star is Born, and part of Vice. After what seemed like an entire day, eight hours later Jenna and I landed in Munich, Germany. Unfortunately, we had a long five hour layover there. So I tried to catch up on some sleep, but did not. We got on our second plane, which was only an hour. By 15.00 Italy time, we had finally landed in Verona, Italy. We got picked up at the airport by our director, Claudio and Anna, who kindly brought us to our little apartment. We had gotten settled in, and went out to get dinner. We stumbled upon a little pizza shop called Vesu. It has become one of our favorite pizza places in town, and it is very cheap (we both love that). Since it was such a long day, we went back home unpacked, and went to bed.
7-15 January 2020
It is officially my first day in Europe! I had to wake up very early to get to orientation, and let me tell you it was not easy waking up early being so jetlagged. But we met at our new school, and got the basic information. Claudio had then taken us all around Verona, and taught us to much about the city. There is history in just about every single building and street here; it is unreal. Claudio took us to a small cafe called La Contadina for lunch. It was delicious. We started out with various meats and cheeses, then we had bruschetta, then we had eggplant parm. I was very full by the end of the meal. But I realized how many amazing foods I was going to have to try while in Italy. Claudio sent us out on our own for a scavenger hunt, but no one wanted to do it so we cheated to finish sooner. We met him again for dinner at L’orologio for dinner. We had another amazing meal. It started with a risotto and pasta. Then, we had two types of meat. One I did not like but still tried it. We ended the meal with amazing tirasmu. Classes had started on Wednesday, and I had art history for three hours!!! It felt like forever. Since I was so jetlagged the first few days, I did not do much. I tried to adjust so I could make the best of the upcoming days. The weekend of the 10-12, we stayed in Verona to see the city. I met up with Julia, another girl on the trip, to get coffee and breakfast. We went to a little cafe. I got a chocolate croissant and espresso for only 2 euros! I got to walk around and see the city on my own. It was so refreshing to not be in negative temperatures. Our director was also nice enough to take us to the Mantova fashion outlets on Sunday. But they were very expensive so I did not buy anything besides one little lipstick. We had a very relaxed weekend, again to catch up on the time change. The week was very easy-going, I met all my professors. It seemed more natural to be in Italy after the first week.
16 January 2020
Today, me and the other people on the trip took a cooking class. We met at ladies house, and she taught us a few recipes. We started off by making foccia with tomatoes and capers. She did not give us any recipes she just kept telling us a little this and a little that. So I still do not know how to make the recipes. We then started to make gnocchi. She had us peel about 20 potatoes, and then we had to put them into the shape of the pasta, which was a lot harder than I had expected it to be. We also made sweet and spice peppers with raisins. It had some sugar in it and I do not remember the rest of the ingredients. But they were delicious, even though I normally do not like peppers. The last thing that we cooked was veal, which was my first time having it. All the food was delicious. To relax after dinner, we talked with the lady who taught up to cook over a traditional carnival dessert, which tasted like funnel cake but was crunchy. The lady also opend a 24 year old bottle of walnut liquor that she made for us. It was very bitter, but was only drank as a digestive after dinner. She was so sweet for letting us in her house and sharing her recipes with us.
17-19 January 2020
Today was the start to our first trip outside of Italy. Julia, Jenna and I went to London!! We had to wake up at 2.00 to make our bus to get to the airport. We luckily had more than enough time to catch our plane in the morning. We landed in London around 9.00, but had to take a bus from the airport into the city. We did not arrive in the city until around 11.00. We immediately got lunch. We stopped at a place called Leon, which was part vegan. I got a vegan burger and fries. We made our way to our hostel so we did not have to carry our bags around all day. We shared a room with two girls from France; they were so sweet, but we did not spend much time with them. Once checked in, we went to the Westminster Abbey. It was beautiful even on a gloomy day. We also walked all around parliment square and looked at the London Eye from afar. We walked to a lot of different attractions, but did not pay to go in any. After a lot of siteseeing, we were all pretty tired. So we headed over to The Red Lion, and had a cider. After some down time, we went back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. Since we were in London, I had to get fish and chips. We went to a place called The Laughing Halibut. The fish and chips were so filling, but I ate it all. Once dinner was over, we wanted to find something to do during the night. We had seen a sign in our hostel for a pub crawl. We ended up paying 12 euros for a pub crawl in Camden Town. So we hopped on the tube and headed out for the night. We got to the first bar, got our free shot of vodka, and all had a mixed drink before heading to the next day. The next bar was a lot more fun! Some London locals, a few boys from Switzerland, and we met a guy names Soso from France with his mom. We all took our free tequlia shot together, and got to know each other. The first bar was my favorite. It had an underwater theme to it. We all took our free shots of something and headed upstairs. I got a jagerbomb, and it was very different than ones I have had at school, much better. We, then, headed to our first club of the night. Again, another shot of mixed something, and we started to dance. They were playing a variety of music, so we had a lot of fun dancing. We headed to our last stop of the night, another club. This one was more chill but still fun. We started out until 2.00, and then headed back to the hostel. Saturday was again filled with a lot of siteseeing. We went to the London Bridge and tried to see the Big Ben but it was under construction sadly. But we went to the Borough Market. It was unbelieveable; there were foods from all over the world there. But it was very crowded so we did not stay for very long. We also headed to the Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. All the attractions we saw today were far apart so we spend a lot of time on the tube. We had an early night since we did not get much sleep from the night before, and we had an early flight back to Italy. Overall, London was very different than I had expected. I, personally, thought it was a very dirty city. It was also very Americanized, so it felt more similar to home.
20-23 January 2020
The start of another week in Italy. The weekdays are a time of rest for me since we do so much on the weekends in other countries. But Jenna, Julia and I decided to go out in Verona to see what the nightlife was like on Tuesday. We tried to go to a cafe, but it was not open when we arrived. So we ended up at a place called Pistacchio. There was karaoke going on; me and Julia were going to sing. But we had just missed the last song. The night ended very early since the place we went to closed at 00.30. But Jenna and I rode a scooter together home, so we wasted no time getting back. For class the next day, we visited the arena of Verona, which is older than the Colosseum. It was gorgeous, but also scary walking up the stairs. Later that night, I also went out with some Verona locals. We went to Piazza Erbe, and had a few drinks together before heading to the bar Campus. There was a mix of Italians and Americans there! I got a ride home on a scooter, but we both fell off of it. No one was hurt, but it was very funny.
24-26 January 2020
Time for another weekend trip! This time to Nuremberg, Germany. We had to wake up very early again to catch our bus and flight. Our flight was delayed for almost an hour so we did not end up getting to Germany until 12.00. We headed straight to lunch again. We went to a place called Mam-mam. I had a onion burger and fries; holy yummy. It was one of the best burgers I have eaten. After lunch we headed to our hostel to check in, we shared a room with two other guys. One was from the states, and he had been traveling for 2 years. We chilled for a little and then explored the city. Nuremberg was very small so there was not a lot for us to do besides eat and drink. We walked around cute little villages and then headed to a Irish pub. We had a couple beers before we got hungry for dinner. We went to a place called Bratwursthausle for dinner. I got brats and saurkraut. I ate every last bite of it; I did not want it to end. To end our first night there, we went to a disco that was having a 2000’s throwback night. We got aviator classes, candy necklaces, gum and slap bracelets when we walked in. The nightlife was not what we were expecting so we ended up back home around 1.00. On Saturday, we headed to a waffle place for breakfast called Wonder Waffle. I got a peanut butter waffle, and it had my name written cute on the plate. After our breakfast/lunch, we went out to see the very limited attractions in Nuremberg. We went to the castle. It was up and hill; and in that moment, I realized how out of shape I was. It was a long journey to the top, but the view was unbelieveable. We went back down the hill. We visited a couple of local churches. Since it was colder, we headed to another pub in the city. We hungout at a pub and had a couple of beers before heading out for dinner. As we were leaving the pub, a group of people were celebrating something and were giving out free shots with a sign “girls get free shots.” Julia and I decided to take the free shots. For dinner, we went to McDonalds to save a little money. I tried one of their McFlurries and it was carmel and waffle pieces in it. It was delicious. We had an early flight the next day so we hungout at the hostel and went to bed pretty early. Overall, I really enjoyed Germany. It is a small town just as depicted in the media.
27-30 January 2020
It is the start of another relaxing week in Verona. I had headed out with some locals on Monday night again. We went across the river to a little cafe and had a few glasses of wine before going back home. It is weird being out with people from another country because they can switch languages so often and easily. Other than Monday night, the week was very relaxed. We went to the cathedral of Verona on Wednesday for class. It was unreal how large it was. There was also so many stories being told in the walls or by paintings. It was definitely not what I had expected. Later that night, Jenna and I did not want to cook so we went out to dinner at Mamma Mia’s. I had a spicy salami pizza with onion and gorgonzola cheese, unreal. The pizza here is so much better. We rested up for Thursday since we were off the Switzerland for the weekend.
31 January-3 Feburary 2020
This weekend we are off the Switzerland! We had a very long bus ride to Interlaken in the afternoon Friday. We left around 13.45 and did not arrive until 22.00. It was the longest bus ride I have ever been on. But nonetheless, worth it. We got McDonalds when we got there because nothing else was open. I got my classic burger and fries but I also tried one of their McFlurries, called ovo. I do not know what was in it but it was amazing. But we went back to the hostel and went to bed for the night. Saturday morning we decided we wanted to be out of the hostel by 8.00. We headed over to the local lidl and got chocolate croissants for breakfast before our hike. Our hike was around 40 minutes until the top of the Rugen, the name of our hike. Luckily, when we reached the top, the sun was shining and we could see everything. It was the most amazing view that I had ever seen! We just sat at the top of the mountain for 30-40 minutes. We watched the paragliders fall to the ground and life start to become active in town. On our way down the mountain, we decided we wanted to paraglide. So we called up the place and booked a 13.00 paraglide. Cyrus and I got picked up at the hostel and were taken to our location. We had to drive about 20 minutes up a mountain to get to where we were jumping from, 13000 meters or something like that. My instructor, Simu, hooked me up to him and we ran off the mountain side. The view was unreal. The lakes, the moutains, the towns, everything about it seemed fake. I did not even feel like I was in the air. We looked like we were going to even hit a moutain side at one point, but he is a professional so we did not. We started to spin us in circles and make the journey down more fun (I was definitely getting motion sickness, but I sucked it up). It took us about 20 minutes to get back down to the ground, but it felt like 6. I loved every second of it. It took a few seconds to feel like I was on the ground again, but after we headed back to our hostel. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to a lake. When we got to the lake, there was a rainbow peaking out from the clouds. It was phenomenal beside the mountains. We stayed there for an hour just taking in the beauty of the town. We went back to hostel around 19.00, got dinner, and rested before our big night out. We made some friends from London, Amsterdam and Korea in our hostel. We all went out to a club called Hangover together. It was all dancing and talking, super fun. We decided to head to another disco called Balmers later in the night. This one was not as fun so we went back to the first. Julia and I stayed out until 3.30 because it was her 20th birthday and we had to celebrate properly! Since we had a wake up call of 7.00 we did not sleep very much. We got up, got on a train and headed to Lauterbrunnen for the day. We were suppose to hike a lot but it rained all day so we did not get to do much. We hungout at a cafe for about three hours and we did a puzzle. We also seemed like the only people in the whole town, so it felt very strangle to be there. But we made the best of it. We headed out early Monday morning, getting back to Verona around 19.00. Overall, Switzerland has been my favorite weekend yet. Even though, it is very expensive everything I did was 100% worth it. The beauty that comes with these country trumps the money it cost to be there.
Jessica's Journey Across Europe 