I've left Venice and all the people I met there and am now in Milan. Last night we went to the opera and saw Carmen and that was pretty cool. I hadn't yet really thought about the fact that it was our last day in Venice, so it didn't feel any different to me. After the opera ended we walked with professoressa to get our notebooks and grades back, and then said goodbye to her. At that point I started to realize that this journey was ending. A group of people went to the bars, but I decided to go back with the other group who I'd spent the majority of my time on the trip with. Piazza San Marco was in between our apartment and the theater so we walked through it on the way home. I still wasn't really grasping the fact that it would be the last time I walked through the Piazza but I made sure to turn around and get a last glimpse of it before we turned the corner towards our house. The guys stopped to get some food to eat at the girls' apartment, and then we proceeded to hang out for a bit over there. I just sat there enjoying the company of these people who, back home, I never would have met or hung out with. After spending pretty much all of my time with them for the past six weeks I guess I could almost call them close friends. After we hung out for a while we all decided that it was time to go because most people had early flights in the morning. I don't really care for goodbyes, so I kinda just shook the guys' hands and gave the girls hugs and just kinda said "Ciao."
When I got back to the apartment there was nobody there. At the beginning of the trip there were six of us living there. One of the guys started going out a lot and was never really home, and then four weeks into the trip my roommate moved out. During the last week, one of the other guys' family came to town so he stayed with them and another started sleeping over at another apartment. By the last week it was just pretty much only two of us living there. But on the last night the last remaining person besides me went out for drinks so there was only me. I thought whatever it's not a big deal, and finished putting my clothes and things away and then went to sleep. This morning is when everything went to hell.
I woke up, and the apartment was empty. Everyone had already left and all of their stuff was gone. The other guys weren't there too often but their stuff was still at home so I didn't really feel like I was the only one there. But this morning, it hit me like a punch in the face that everyone was gone. We're not going to be eating dinner together every night anymore, we're not going to just hang out at each others' apartments anymore, we're not going to see each other every day anymore. It's not a nice feeling to have. I gathered all my things (well, almost all of them... I forgot my box of Crispy M&M's in the fridge) and headed towards the train station to leave Venice. While I was on the train passing through the Italian countryside the song Daniel by Elton John started playing and it made me really sad. I've heard that song a million times and enjoyed it but for some reason it just was really depressing to listen to it at that moment.
After a long train ride I arrived in Milan by myself. The train to Paris took thirteen hours, but this train ride of three and a half hours to Milan felt so much longer. I got off the train and went down to the subway station to go towards my hotel. As soon as the change came out from the machine where I bought my ticket this dude was right there asking me for money like a vulture. In Venice there are homeless people but they don't approach you they just sit on the steps with their change cup. I don't know, it was just interesting. I didn't give him anything because I didn't like how he just waited for me to get my change and then ran over to me for money. After that I got on the subway and got off at my stop, and headed towards my hotel. After the nightmare of getting lost trying to find my hotel in France I was smart enough to use Google to look at the street view so I could identify which landmarks to follow in order to get to the hotel. I had no trouble at all finding it this time. I checked in to my tiny hotel room, and just thought for a few minutes about how almost everyone else was on their way back to America and I was still in Italy. One of the best parts about the trip was going to see all the landmarks like the Basilica or the Doge's Palace together, and now that I'm by myself I won't get to share my experience of the Duomo or The Last Supper with anyone. Also, the fact that Milan isn't really a huge touristy city like Venice makes it feel even lonelier here. The people I've seen here are all people that live here and aren't on vacation. I really don't know if I'm going to enjoy my time in this city. I know I'll enjoy the blink-182 concert but right now that seems like it's 100 years away. I'm not really feeling homesick, but the fact that all my new friends are back home makes me kind of want to go there. But even when I do eventually go back home I'm probably not going to see them so I don't know why I really feel that way. Perhaps if I go out later I'll feel a little differently, so we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment