Tag: santa croce

Giving Thanks for Travel

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Train stations are so much cooler than airports!

Wow, I can’t help but be thankful for this amazing year. Foremost, I’m thankful it happened at all. It could have remained a dream forever. Instead, it became an actual goal and then reality.

And it could have been awful. I could have failed to learn any language. I could have gotten sick. I could have been robbed. Stranded in Italy and forced to huddle in the shade of a marble cathedral surviving only on focaccia sandwiches and Brunello di Montalcino wine.

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“Can you spare some prosciutto?”

So after 10 months of traveling, here’s what I’m most thankful for. Friends, art, and of course, languages.

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Top 5 Cities (This Year)

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Sail Away!

A friend said to me “Now that you’ve seen the world, tell me where to go.” The simple answer is everywhere. This year I’ve visited 30 cities outside the US. Most of them for the first time. None of them were terrible, not even Napoli. But some were definitely more amazing than others. Here are the top 5.

  • Köln
  • Sapporo
  • San Marino
  • Venezia
  • Prague
  • Firenze

(Yes, that’s actually 6. Read on to see which one stole it’s way into my heart and onto the list. Any city that repeatedly inspires that much delight can’t be denied a spot.)

Köln

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“It’s even bigger on the inside!” (Not actually possible)

As your train crosses the Rhein and pulls up to the Hauptbahnhof (train station), an enormous monolith towers over you. It’s the Dom cathedral, it’s huge, and it’s so close you can’t see the top of it. It may not sparkle like Italian marble, but it dominates and amazes.

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The International Package

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When things don’t go your way…

I’ve traveled enough to have low expectations for physical mail overseas. Why is it easier to get a person across the Atlantic than it is to get a Fedex envelope? So I knew that trying to receive something here would be a plan of last resort. I hoped to go the entire trip without needing anything. I made it about a week.

Short version:

  • I needed a replacement credit card
  • I can’t get packages at my Airbnb apartment
  • I tried sending it to my host’s mother’s house
  • No one understands international addresses
  • A nearby coffee shop came to the rescue

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Rugby, Butcher Shops, and Wine Growlers

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Medieval Rugby guard

In case there was any doubt, I’m really enjoying this trip. Every day I have a new adventure, some big some small. On Tuesday I had three adventures in the same day. (So maybe I’m having trouble staying on a publishing schedule…)

Here were my adventures:

  • Calcio Storico – traditional Italian rugby-style football
  • Macellaio – visit to the butcher shop
  • Wine growlers – refillable bottles to protect the environment and enable alcoholism

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I Made It!

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I’m in Florence, in a beautiful apartment with all of life’s essentials: water, heat, and WiFi. It’s been a bumpy ride since Saturday. I moved out of my apartment, flew to Italy via Philly, and got moved in to my apartment.

Saturday was a disaster. I alternated between three scenarios of certain doom. The first was that I would have to miss my flight because I would not get everything done. The second was that I would lose a bunch of money by forfeiting my security deposit or having to pay someone to clean my apartment. The third was that I would lose a bunch of money and still miss my flight. I spent the entire afternoon cursing.

Leonard Bernstein said “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time” I’m not sure I really had a plan. But with the help of several people I was able to pack my bags, store the most important things I wasn’t taking, and give away the rest. Thank you – you know who you are.

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