Tomorrow night’s the big night. It feels like I left the United States a million years ago, and yet it’s only been two months since I left. It’s been a very interesting journey with many unexpected twists and turns along the way. And tomorrow it all culminates with ten thousand other people watching blink-182 at an arena in Milan. I thought I’d make a list of my top ten moments from the trip. These aren’t necessarily in any specific order; just a general list of ten memorable moments in Europe.
· The first day in Venice – Admittedly, when I first arrived in Venice I wasn’t particularly impressed by it. I remember being really tired and hungry, but I was still in shock over hearing so many people speaking Italian fluently and I couldn’t bring myself to try and order food at one of the food places. Instead, I sat on a rock under a tree and ate a Poptart from one of the two boxes I brought with me. I also turned on my iPod to listen to Neighborhoods by blink-182 since I’d be going to their concert at the end of my trip. I then took a little walk around the area near Piazzale Roma, although I didn’t stray too far because I had all of my bags with me. I actually ended up walking past our school unknowingly, and the next day when they showed us where the school was I was totally like, “Dude I was here yesterday!” Anyway, after sitting around for a few hours I finally met up with the group and sat there for a while waiting to get our Vaporetto passes. I remember having stupid little conversations with random people that I don’t remember, which is kind of funny because looking back I got to know most of those people pretty well but I can’t remember a damn thing about who I talked to on the first day under the bridge. The lady took us on the Vaporetto to our apartment and I put my stuff away and rested for a bit. At the time, there were only four of us in our apartment because the other two guys hadn’t gotten in yet. At some point we tried to walk back to Piazzale Roma but had no clue how to get back, which was interesting. After the other dude arrived later that night I decided that I wanted to walk back by myself like an idiot. I bought a map and headed on my way through the maze that is Venice. I went down so many weird streets where there wasn’t a single person in sight and hit a bunch of dead ends along the way. I finally found myself at the Academia Bridge and from there tried to use the map to find my way, which didn’t help me at all. I stumbled into Piazza San Marco by accident and from there found the apartment because I knew where I was finally. It took me over an hour to get back, and the other guys were saying they weren’t sure if I was going to make it back. Once I returned everyone had gotten in so we went to get some late-night dinner at the little café down the street. After eating some lasagna I decided it was time to sleep, and I remember lying down in bed and feeling the building moving as I was trying to fall asleep. Previously, I had never really been outside of Florida for anything longer than a week and I didn’t go away to college at UCF like I originally planned to so this was finally like my big adventure (except nobody stole my bike). I thought to myself, “I’m not in Florida anymore,” and fell asleep.
· Discovering an empty Piazza San Marco – On one of the first nights in Venice we tried to find Santa Margherita and got horribly lost. By the time we got there the bars were closed and the people we were going to meet were nowhere to be found. So, we decided to try and find our way back to the apartment. By this time it was probably around 1:00 in the morning so there was pretty much nobody in the streets. We passed by the Piazza and there was nobody there, so I stopped to take a bunch of cool photos. It was so much different than the day-time Piazza because it was totally empty and there were also no pigeons either. It stops looking like such a lame tourist attraction at night.
· The club in Lido – LOL. I had never gone to a club before so this was bound to be an interesting night. The first time they went to the club I wasn’t feeling it so I went home instead. Before going to the club we “pre-gamed” at the girls’ apartment with dinner and a bunch of wine. I think I had maybe three glasses of wine while we were there so I was basically still sober. The others, however, were already feeling pretty good when we left for Lido. After a rowdy ride on the Vap we arrived on Lido and headed towards the club. After being there for a bit I thought to myself, “This is stupid,” so I did the only logical thing and drank more alcohol. I myself ordered three rum and cokes and downed them pretty quickly so I started feeling pretty, pretty, pretty… pretty good, but I also remember everyone sharing their drinks with me so I definitely had way more than just that. I went on the dance floor with everyone and the whole time all I could think of was the scene in It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie! when Kermit sees what happened to the Muppet Theater if he had never been born. Basically, if Kermit had never been born the Muppet Theater would have become a club, and Kermit sees Sam the Eagle with glow sticks and whatnot. I don’t know why, but that was the only thing on my mind for at least an hour and I couldn’t stop laughing about the image of Sam Eagle clubbing. I don’t think I was dancing, but I was out there on the dance floor for a while in a weird trance and moving in some way. I honestly don’t know how anyone can enjoy going to a club without drinking because it’s so stupid (Jerry: I never go dancing. Girl: Why not? Jerry: Because it’s so stupid!). At about 3:00 am we left, and that’s when the fun really started. Somehow, two of the others became totally sober as soon as we left the club, but Drew, Gina, and I were still in the zone. According to the others, we turned into children. Drew stole a bike, and then somebody let go of me by mistake so I started running down the street yelling, “I’m free! I’m free!” We got back to the apartment at around four, and we were being extremely loud while my roommate was sleeping (he ended up moving out the next day lol). Gina demanded a mayonnaise and cheese sandwich, and after seeing her eating it I wanted one too, and eventually I think all three of us were eating these mayonnaise and cheese sandwiches. I’m sure it tasted horrible, but I enjoyed eating it. The next morning I felt terrible but I ran to the Coop and got us all blue Powerades and eggs for breakfast so it was all good.
· Getting locked out of the apartment – One day we were over at the girls’ apartment hanging out before the soccer game started. Just recently Carlos figured out how to turn on their air conditioning so it was actually cool inside their apartment so they didn’t need to keep the windows open all the time. We were just chilling before the game started and I think the two girls and Drew went out to smoke for a minute, and somehow everyone managed to go outside on the front patio and the front door closed. In Venice there are no door handles you just turn the key and the door opens, and, of course, the keys were inside the apartment – along with everyone’s shoes (except Drew’s), wallets (except mine) and phones. The only person with a key to the apartment was Natalie, and she had gone on a trip to Padua that day with some other people from the group, so we were stuck outside. After sitting around for a while, we decided to go barefoot through Venice to our apartment because I had my key on me. Of course, the one time that none of us had shoes there would be an entire flock of pigeons blocking the street. Everyone had this look on their face, like, “Are you fucking serious right now?” It was pretty ridiculous. Anyway, the short version of the story is we went to our apartment, ate some kickass pizza while watching How I Met Your Mother, and had some interesting conversation until Natalie finally showed up with the key. It doesn’t seem like a good story but it turned out to be a fun time and a good memory.
· The Dolomiti Mountains – I’m pretty sure I already posted about this trip so I’ll keep it short. The day we went to the mountains was actually one of the best days of the whole trip. It started out pretty badly, when we left the house late and then I realized I forgot my headphones so I ran back to the apartment and then basically ran all the way across Venice to be on time. But after that, it was great. We took this cool Monorail thing to the bus station, and then from there it was off to the mountains. We stopped at this little café thing on the way and they had a playground, so I ran to the swings before everyone else got there. Pretty much the entire group played on the playground which I thought was hilarious. From there we stopped on the lake and rented paddleboats, then I followed a few guys up the side of a hill, which turned out to be way scarier than I thought. It was like straight up; one slip and you were dunzo. After that we stopped and had a pretty good lunch and then we went up to the top of the mountain. I had fun in the snow, made a video, and did all sorts of other stuff up there. See the other post for more details.
·The last group dinner – The last dinner was also particularly memorable. They stopped bringing water to the table and I was still thirsty, so I started drinking the wine. I don’t know how many glasses I had, but I know that I drank enough to be feeling pretty, pretty, pretty… pretty good. My Italian professor kept telling everyone that Gina and I were in love, and she was like, “No way!” I, of course, replied that I would kill myself before even thinking about her. I think some people laughed at that, but it may have been only me. I don’t really remember but I thought it was hilarious and that’s all that really matters. While I was still in the zone I told my professor that since I had drank enough wine I could speak Italian really well. I said that to her in Italian, and then she said something to me in Italian and I didn’t really hear her so I asked her to say it again. I heard her the second time but had no idea what she said, so I asked her to say it another time. After about five times I still had no clue what she was saying until she told me in English. I thought it was hilarious because I had just told her that I could speak and understand really well right before this happened. But the night we went to the club I really was speaking and understanding really well after a few drinks! Maybe it depends on the type of alcohol you drink. I don't know. I did think it was pretty cool that I could drink around my professors and they didn’t seem to care. Of course, I wasn’t the only one drinking so it’s not like I was wasted while everyone else was perfectly sober. And I wasn’t drunk I was just in the zone. After that we took some photos; I got a couple nice photos of the whole group and also the little group I spent most of my time with on the trip. Many other things happened that night that I don’t care to write about, but it was a great night.
· The Night of The Speech – One night there was a group of us at the girls’ apartment hanging out. I think we ate dinner there, but I don’t remember. We probably did, or at least I probably did because I usually went over there like every night. I just remember everyone sitting on the patio kind of in a circle, and on the laptop the song “You Can Go Your Own Way” was playing and Carlos started saying something about how if you be yourself and do what you want to do things will work out for you. I think he was just making a general comment about life but in my head it was a speech that the main character from some 1980s movie would make at the end of the movie. The music was perfect for what he was saying and it was epic. This was also the night that I went to the moon while listening to Pink Floyd after everyone else went to the bar. The best part was how everyone left as the album was fading in and they all came back right after the last note played. After the album ended and everyone came back it was fun to just hang out with everyone. I don’t think anyone was sober at the time so it was pretty fun to interact with everyone haha. I’m sure anyone reading this probably thinks I’m an idiot, but there were also some other (green) forces at work to make it an epic night.
· The Basilica – The day we went to the Basilica was pretty cool. I had never looked at any photos of the inside of it before so it was pretty cool to see all the mosaics and stuff for the first time when I was actually inside it. It was still really early into the trip when we went to the Basilica, so I hadn’t really gotten to know everyone yet. The day we went there was the first time I really remember spending time with the group I ended up spending most of my time with so that was pretty cool. I don’t think I had previously brought up The Human Centipede at that point in time so everyone probably thought I was still somewhat normal. Also, on the same day I went up to the terrace of the Basilica and saw the Piazza from above and I was actually really impressed by it. I thought it was great to look out and see the two pillars and behind them see the lagoon with the sun reflecting on it. It was one of those moments that will be burned into my memory for a while.
· My weekend at Disneyland – Several weeks before I went on this trip a few people told me they were interested in going with me, but they were going to Paris way before I was so I almost changed my plans to go with them. They got excited about the idea and I actually thought it would be pretty cool to go with a couple of people instead of just by myself, but after a couple of days they forgot about it, as is par for the course. So I ended up waiting four more weeks and going by myself according to my original plan. My other post has more details about this.
· The general day-to-day happenings – I enjoyed the normal daily activities more than other people probably did, but I’m weird like that. Getting up at six o’clock in the morning and walking across Venice every day to go to school, waiting for everyone else to get out of geography class, and walking by myself to get lunch at the cheap pizza place are some of the things I’m talking about. Even going to the grocery store with everyone else to get food for dinner was fun. In my opinion, if you only think about the big events like the trip to the mountains or going to Torcello then you won’t have very many memories to go home with. In a lot of ways I think that the everyday moments are better than the big, exciting trips because those moments laid the foundation for the fun that we had on those trips. Also, my walks around Venice by myself while the others were in the late class were enjoyable because I got to walk slowly and observe more closely the details of the city. It was always nice to observe the minute details of Venice that I would have missed if I was walking with a group somewhere. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me enough to take a lot of photos, which is my only regret. But I’d rather have the memory instead of a few photos that probably would have turned out like shit anyway.
So these are just ten of my favorite moments from the trip to Venice. They’re not in any particular order, just ten things I enjoyed a lot. There were several other moments that I didn’t include on here but if I tried to include everything from the trip this would be even longer than my review of Disneyland. And I’d also like to have some of those memories to myself that aren’t posted on the internet for the whole world to see.
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