The Weekend

Friday

     It was finally the weekend and we were all ready for it. It had been a pretty hectic but overall successful first week of camp! After work, we watched one of my favorite movies, She's the Man, and just hung and relaxed for a little while. Then we went to the Arena for a little while where we met up with some people who took us out on the town! It was so much fun! At the clubs, EVERYONE dances and it's just great. I love Italy.

Saturday

      Saturday morning, we woke up and got ready for a day in Venice. We heard that it was going to rain but, we didn't care because we were in Italy. We walked to the bus stop and took the bus to the train station and got our tickets for Venice. The train ride is about an hour long which is not bad at all. While we were on the train, as we were getting closer to Venice, it started hailing and raining very hard. It was not good. Nina wore her lucky wishbone earrings and I think that had something to do with the weather because by the time we arrived in Venice, the skies had cleared up, it was not burning hot, and the weather remained perfect for the rest of the day. 

We stopped at a few bakeries where I got to try a chocolate Italian cannoli which was delicious! Venice itself was gorgeous with the gondolas and small rivers as the streets. It was amazing. 

Venice is like a huge maze where you have to get lost to actually see everything. As we wandered the streets, we saw the Venetian masks hanging in the windows, which were absolutely gorgeous. The city was just lovely. 

Bachelor Party

They are very popular and public in Europe!

We stopped for dinner on the water at a little restaurant and while the food looked amazing I had lost my appetite and wasn't really hungry for the day. After dinner, we stopped by the Piazza San Marco which was this huge square where there were tons of pigeons. It was unreal starring at this beautiful site. I love traveling. After visiting the square, we began to head back to the train station except we had no idea which way to go to get there. We decided to take a water bus which was super neat. 

    

We got to the train station and caught a train. We had a train change in Padova, or so we thought, but when we got to Padova, there was an 85 minute delay on one of the trains and it was causing all of the other trains to also be delayed. Padova is a city right outside of Vicenza, about 15 minutes by car. There were no more buses running so we had to take a 70 Euro taxi back to base split six ways. It wasn't too bad and we had to get back somehow so taxi it was. Once we got back to base, we got dressed for another night on the town!

Sunday

     We had planned on traveling to Lake Como but we were all once again exhausted from the week and Venice that we decided to travel a bit closer to home and return to Lake Garda and the town of Sirmione. Once we got there, we crashed on the beach. The water was so fresh and felt so good. It was once again amazing. I love it there.

Sunday night we came back home, had a quick meeting with our camps and then went to bed and prepared ourselves for the week ahead of us. 

June 21, 2012

Country Night

     Thursday night after work, a few of us headed to the Arena to have dinner! It was country night so a lot of the guys were dressed in flannels and blue jeans. We just stayed for dinner and listened to the great music that was playing, then headed back to the hotel. It had been a long day.

Zip-lining With Kids.

Field Trip #1

     On Wednesday we traveled high into the mountains to the city of Asiago to attend our first field trip with the kids. We were going zip-lining and everyone was super excited except the counselors. How were we going to take 70+ kids zip-lining? The drive up was beautiful. We were pretty high up in the mountains and the view was pretty great. I got a little car sick on the way up but, felt better when I finally got to get some fresh air. I was so happy that it wasn't so hot where we were because we were in the mountains/tree so it was very breezy and cool! When we got there we split the groups up, my group was second to go. My group had lunch first and since the center provides lunch, the menu was sandwiches, chips, juice, and vegetables. They didn't know if they even had enough food for the kids so the counselors and staff of course couldn't have lunch. After the kids had lunch, they took us on a "sensory walk" where you walk barefoot through different textures of ground. It was not very safe and the kids were all complaining about the pain. I felt so bad but we made a lesson out of it saying to be thankful for the shoes on your feet because some people don't have shoes and have to walk miles and miles on this type of ground. On our walk, we went to the shoreline of the little lake that was there and saw baby tadpoles and frogs. There were thousands of them! It was kind of disgusting because I know the kids were probably stepping all over them because they were EVERYWHERE. I felt so bad and disgusted at the thought.

 After we got done with our walk, we put our shoes back on and headed for the trees. While we were getting suited up, the staff bought us all sandwiches from the little shop that was very close by. The sandwich consisted of really hard but baked bread, and meat. It wasn't that great but we were all starving. We had two groups combined that were going together which meant about 30 kids that needed to be suited up. There was only one guy working on getting them in their harnesses so I offered to help. Bad idea since I probably only did 5 in about a 30 minute period, but at least I helped! Now I can say I know how to suit one up to go zip-lining. They showed us a mini course that we had to go through for safety reasons and the kids were in charge of hooking their carabiners to the ropes and going through it themselves. It was not even two feet off the ground. After going through that course, we moved to a course higher up. The instructors let us go and stayed on the ground while we hooked ourselves to the ropes. It was the scariest thing ever, especially considering we had so many kids we had to look after too. I couldn't believe that they were letting us do it all by ourselves! It reminds me of the time LSH took a trip zip-lining and how we weren't even allowed to touch our carabiners!! It was really cool but just very risky. We went through two courses with the kids and then got some gelato. We then headed back to the center. No one got hurt so that was the best part of my day. :-)

Lake Garda-Sirmione

A Little Piece of Heaven.

Lake Garda-The Biggest Lake in Italy.

Sunday morning Emily and I woke up at 7:30am and got dressed for a day at the lake. We were both exhausted from the previous day but we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed for the train station. We were traveling to Lake Garda and Sirmione which is a city that borders the lake! The lake is the biggest one in Italy and is a sparkling blue color, surrounded by mountains and is just simply breath-taking. We were pretty much going exploring on our own because we didn't have a game plan. We just wanted to sleep on a beach. The train ride was about 25 minutes long because we took a fast train. When we got to the train station we didn't know which way to go. We couldn't find a map so instead we just followed our senses and walked down a hill until we finally met the lake. It was wonderful.

Such A Lovely Outfit.

There was a light house and we walked down to the end of the dock where we did a self-timer picture. There was a guy with his children walking by when we were about to take it and when we looked at the picture later we noticed him in the background. We were dying.

Photo Bomb To The Max.

There were a few beaches on the lake and most of them were very small and rocky. But, we found a little spot, laid out our towels and fell asleep. The Italian sun is hot. We were sweating like crazy. When we got in the water it was so refreshing because it was so cold, and fresh. It was so relaxing. We stayed on the beach for about 3/4 hours. We packed a lunch for the day, which was nice to have a little picnic. It's funny because there were a lot of kids in the water and it seemed as if none of them had proper bathing suits on. Everyone was either in their underwear or actual clothes that they were wearing on the street just a few minutes ago. It's like Italians don't care, if they are hot and there is water close by, they will swim. I wish America was like that. An Italian girl that goes to camp told me that Italians don't care about being seen in their underwear or naked. Haha.

After having the sun beat down on us for a few hours, we were ready to go exploring a little more and grab some gelato along the way. I of course got my new two favorite flavors stawberry and lemon and Emily followed. As we were walking we found a shop that said "Sweet Sweet Way" and I couldn't help but smile an miss my momma who always reminds me to be sweet sweet. 

<3

We decided to go up a hill to see a castle. When we got up to the top, after a few stairs, we got to see another amazing view. I wish I could live here. The city was not touristy at all and I just fell in love.  

I want to live here.

Lake Garda from above.

Self-Timed Photo.

After visiting the city of Desenzano we took a 20 minute bus ride to the city of Sirmione. It's another city on the lake that is once again, absolutely beautiful. There is a castle on this side of the town along with more little shops, restaurants, and gelato places. I swear, everyone walking the streets had a gelato in their hands.

 The Castle in Sirmione

SHOUT-OUT TO MY SPIRITHUNTERS.

All in all, it was a splendid day on Lake Garda. I am so happy with my life right now and thankful for where I am.

Verona, Italy

Verona

     Saturday morning, Nina, Emily, Morgan, Maggie and I woke up to travel to the home of Juliette. It was our first trip of the Summer and we were all very excited. We took a bus to the train station and bought our train tickets!

Such A Small World.

The train was about an hour long, so not too bad at all. As we were walking out of the train station, someone noticed that we were speaking English and started talking to us. After asking where she was from, we found out she just graduated from University of Florida and was in Italy for the summer working as a nanny! She was in Verona by herself and asked if she could join us which was totally awesome. Her name was Sasha and even though she was a gator, it was so nice meeting her and hanging out with her all day!!

Sasha and I, GO NOLES <3

The first thing we did when we arrived in Verona was take a bus inside the city where we saw the big arena where they hold Operas every year. I hope I will be able to go see one this summer! As we walked around the Arena and took pictures of street performers we found a nice little restaurant to eat at. I of course had another pizza! 

Stepping Out of the Box.

After being refueled with food and drinks we continued our walk to the Casa de Giulietta. On our way we of course stopped for some gelato and I decided to step out of the box an try and different flavor besides cookies. I ordered the Lemon and Strawberry flavor and they are now my favorite. They taste like the frozen lemonades you get at amusement parks only, twenty million times better!

GELATO.

Casa de Giulietta <3

We finally made it to Juliette's House and saw the infamous balcony! It was unreal. You walk under a tunnel and on the walls are loads of names, I am assuming of couples. Then, you see the balcony and of course the statue of Juliette. It is said that if you touch her breast, you will gain fertility. I thought it was for luck so of course we all touched it. There is also a gate with tons of locks that you put on it to signify a relationship lasting forever. So amazing.

Wall of Love.

The Balcony

The Breast of Fertility.

Locks of Love.

The green gum in the middle is mine.

BON BON.

Teatro de Romano.

After leaving, we wandered around to find the Teatro de Romano. On our way we came across a bridge with a river underneath it and a breathtaking background. Later on we climbed to the top of where you see that dome/buildings on the hilltop. It is called the Teatro de Romano and it provided a beautiful view for us over the city of Verona at the top. Although there were a lot of stairs to climb, it was totally worth it. 

Lost in Verona.

It had been a successful day and we were all getting pretty exhausted. We headed back to the bus stop to catch a bus to the train station and then catch a train home but we got a little confused along the way. We didn't really know what bus to get on so we kind of just hopped on one thinking it would go in a big loop and we would end up at the train station somehow but we were wrong. As we were riding, we slowly exited the city of Verona and started heading into the country side, this couldn't be right. So, we got off in a different city and were told to go to the other side of the street to catch the bus. We waited for probably a good 20/30 minutes until a bus finally came and come to find out, it was the SAME bus we got off of to cross the street. I really wish I could speak Italian because it could definitely help out, a lot. We finally made it to the train station, 6 minutes before our train left for Vicenza!

Saturday Night!

It's like we all had Saturday Night Fever when we came home from Verona because we were all ready to go out and dance! We met some friendly army guys on base who took us out to a few clubs and we danced the night away. It was amazing. The only bad thing about the night was that there was no air in the clubs so the amount of sweat was horrendous. Other than that, it was an amazing day.

Emily and I on our first night out, out.