Italia: Il Primo Giorno

A fairly accurate image of how tired I was.

Today started at 8:00AM. Mind you, I had gone to bed around 2:00AM because I was packing and socialising (mostly the latter) and I was neither alive, awake, alert, nor enthusiastic!

By the time I got to the airport, it still had not quite hit me that I was going to Italy. Me. I was going to Italy! By myself! It was cray! Although I was really excited and looking forward to it, at the moment I was mostly nervous. It had been a while since I had spoken or used in any manner the Italian I studied in high school. And in the time between now and then I had studied a bit more of Spanish, and now it is all quite the mess in my head! But mostly, I was going alone. Which was scary.

I like my independence and all. A lot. But I also worry. A lot. I blame this Worrier Gene on my mom. What if something happened? And I had no way to contact anyone either in Stirling or in the States? And what about when it would get dark? Wandering around alone in the dark in a foreign city does not strike me as the smartest thing to do. But it gets dark so early now! So what was I supposed to do?

I got the the airport incredibly early, and was left with lots of time to mull these worries over. My backpack fit tightly into the carry-on measuring gauge, so I shifted things around, worried (of course) about Easy Jet going crazy about it. This ended up not being a problem, because as soon as boarding started they asked for volunteers to check their luggage-I did so, deciding that it would be easier to slip the backpack past them this way.



Unfortunately, I was in a middle seat. Now, I have not been in a middle seat in a very long time. And the last time I was I am pretty sure I was travelling with at least one parental unit and the sibling, so I could colonize some of their space as my own. However, I don't think my fellow passengers would have appreciated me doing this, so I was stuck in my little spot. As a testament to how exhausted I was, I fell asleep. On the plane (which I rarely do). In the middle seat. I fell asleep in a middle seat.

I was amazed too.

Getting through customs was surprisingly speedy! I did not have to fill out a landing card, or even tell the agent how long I was to be in Italy. However, he did glare at me when he saw my passport. Hey now, I may be American, but I am not Uhmuric'n!. So there was no need for that!

Once I made it to Milano Centrale, things got a little bit sticky. You see, for all my planning and inability to do spontaneous things, I had forgotten to print directions from the station to the hostel I would be staying in. But no worries! It's a train station, there must be city maps somewhere!

I had no such luck, and eventually (after entering the information room and exiting several times) plucked up the courage to ask the agent at the counter:

Dove posso incontrare una mappa della città? (Or "Where can I find a map of the city?" Although at the time I did not remember that incontrare means "to meet" rather than "to find" unlike encontrar which is Spanish for "to find"-understand how it can get mixed up in my head now?)

Fortunately, the man understood what I meant and was kind enough to print out directions from the station to the hostel, give me a map of the transport, and point me in the direction of the bus! I was quite pleased, and went on my way!

I had a bit of trouble finding the bus stop. And by "a bit" I mean "a lot". The printed map was a little grainy, and street signs were...less than present, shall we say. I stopped outside a McDonalds (No, I did not go in!) to get my bearings and figure out where I was on the map. However, there was a kind of creepy person just standing around and staring/glaring at me. So I quickly moved along.

Eventually, I found the bus stop after seeing the bus I wanted go by, and hopped on the next one. After this it was pretty easy sailing all the way to the hostel.

Okay. Let's pause. I have never traveled by myself. I mean, for a holiday, that is. Obviously I go to and from school by myself. And I came to Scotland by myself. And I go to the grocery store, orthodontist  and Chinatown/Japantown by myself. But I have never gone somewhere so far away without really specific plans alone. This all leads up to the fact that I have never stayed in a hostel. Ever. In my life. I really had no idea what to expect, having heard horror stories and been warned against seeing the movie Taken.

The place was ah.may.zing. If you ever go to Milan, you should definitely stay here. The porter at the desk was so nice. And friendly. And when he realised that my Italian is pretty broken he easily switched to English. He showed me where the room was, and told me there was a movie showing in the common room at 9:30.

I shared the room with a few Australians travelling together (It's their summer holiday), and some other people I didn't really meet. Everyone was so friendly and sweet! After the movie (Ted), I went to bed-very excited to explore the city the next day. =]

Christmas!

Hello Ya'll =]

As you know, or as I HOPE you know, Thanksgiving is not a holiday over here. And I don't mean "not a holiday" as in "not a big deal" I mean "not a holiday" as in "it does not exist". Which means we get to skip right from Halloween to Christmas.

I like Thanksgiving and all. I mean, I love food, and I love family, and I like being happy. So of course I like Thanksgiving. However, it is not my favourite thing in the world and recently, I saw something online that sums up my general feelings about the whole ordeal:

So, while I like food and family and being happy, my more cynical self sometimes thinks the whole holiday is a little ridiculous and full of empty sentiment. Not to mention what we did to the Native Americans after they were so kind to share their food with us.

Anyway, this all leads up to the fact that I really do not mind skipping Thanksgiving right to Christmas. Which  I realise also has a lot to do with material goods at this point. But fo realz I just like making gingerbread houses, listening to Christmas music, and being happy. 

With all this in mind, Christmas activities here start very early. As in the first week of November. There are Christmas Markets already open! 

Last weekend I went to a parade and "Switch-On" (Or a tree lighting) with my friend.

Unfortunately the parade lasted all of two minutes. I think I have gotten too used to Macy's-style parades. Or parades in larger cities, at least. However, I DID get to see real reindeer. And that definitely made the trip into town worth it =]

THESE GIVE ME THE HEEBEE JEEBEES

So after the parade we wandered around the mall and looked at the Christmas decorations.

I think I can fit.

I was also, erm...Unfortunate enough to come across these creepy penguins! I mean, I LOVE penguins. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. But these were so flippin' creepy:

After this, we went and had lunch. And I'm not gonna lie to you, I had chunky chips and hot chocolate because I was craving them. Not a real lunch, but delicious nonetheless. The hot chocolate even came with two mini oreos!

Mmmm, so good

It gets dark QUITE early here (By 4:30 now!), so the Switch-On was at 5. It was so cold I couldn't feel my toes! Perhaps I should have dressed more appropriately? (Hint: The answer is yes)

When they turned on the lights after a countdown, all the lights on the street went on....Except the tree. Something blew out, and there was a slight delay. But once they were on it was so pretty! I haven't been to a tree lighting in so long! (There was one in Worcester I meant to go to last year, but I was kissing babies at the YW at the time and forgot about it).

All in all, it was really fun and I am excited for all the Christmas activities here. I will post later about our makeshift Thanksgiving, but at the moment I am waiting on pictures.

Adventures in Family Hunting

If ya'll don't know, way way way back in the day I had family in Scotland. In fact, they were fairly close to where I am right now! So, my mom emailed her aunt and gave me some addresses to go check out! Most of the places are in Paisley, which is just outside Glasgow. So yesterday, I set out on a trek to complete this loop:

This journey began at 7am. Which, after not being able to fall asleep until 1 was not pleasant! But I pushed through the sleep-without coffee, no less! 

Sunrise over campus

Before going into town to catch the train to Glasgow, I had to print out directions from Google, which was an adventure in itself. I could not get the document to send to the printer at first-even when trying from different computers! I decided instead to print several screen-caps of the directions.

After this, the bus took forever to come! AKA ten minutes, which was cutting it close! However, I made it, and had just a few minutes to spare in the station.

The train from Stirling goes to the Glasgow Queen Street Station. However the train to Paisley leaves from Central Station.

Now, I need to put something out there. I have trouble rotating things in my head. At first, I thought it was just faces (like when people are upside down-I know that logically their eyebrows are not in place of their mouth, but it does take a minute for me to rotate their face in my head so they look normal), but I am pretty sure it's maps as well. Probably just things in general.

So, despite it being a short walk between the train stations, I had to keep stopping and looking at maps posted around the city centre to make sure I was going in the right direction. Because unless I have the physical map and can move it around so I can have it facing the same way I am, it takes lots of double-checking!

Anyway, I got the train to Paisley-it's only a ten minute ride! But the ten minute ride was long enough for me to realise some things:

1. I knew nothing about Paisley. It could be nicknamed "Shanksley" or "Stabsley" or "Cannibalsley" for all I knew!

2. In event that it is nicknamed one of the above, I had not told anyone that I am here!

3. I had no phone, so if I got mugged or pickpocketed, I would not only have lost my return ticket to Stirling, but also money to buy a new one, and NO WAY TO TELL ANYONE.

I was a little bit worried. I was also very tired. No coffee, remember?

I got off at Gilmour Street Station , and looked around. And well, it was not the cute little Scottish town I had pictured. It reminded me extraordinarily of main south (Worcester). I mean, a lot. Which, after spending the last few months in Stirling and the posh Bridge of Allan, was....not aesthetically pleasing, let's say.

I pulled out my directions to start the walk. I had also taken pictures of the map on my iPod, so could use that for reference as well. 

Head west on Old Sneddon St/A726toward Moss St. Continue to follow A726

West. Right. Let's be real, even if I were good at telling north/south/the rest from looking at the sun, this is Scotland, the sun is a myth! Luckily there was a sign pointing toward Moss street, so I went in that direction. 

Here is where it got messy. According to my picture of a map, I should go one way. According to a sign for "A726" I should  go the opposite way.

I followed the sign. The next direction stated:

 Continue onto Underwood Rd/B7050

After a while of walking, I had not passed B750. Oops. Not to mention that I was possibly the most sketched-out I had been in a while. Now I know what it is like to go from the suburbs to Clark! I looped around back toward the station to find a real map and found myself in a very nice city centre! Still not the cute little town I thought it would be, but at least it was populated!

I found a map, and realized I should have listened to my little picture map instead of the sign, and set off again. At this point though, I had to walk on the other side of the street, because I had already passed the same group of people outside the courthouse a number of times and did not feel like making it clear how lost I was! I kept a look out for B750.

I never saw B750, but instead reached the roundabout the next direction talked about.

At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Well St

Seriously google? You couldn't just say take a left on Old Sneddon until the roundabout? Cool.

I kept walking. And walking. And walking. And saw some pretty things. And was offered a ride from a stranger (The third time since being here-I still can't tell if people are just really nice, or all kidnappers)

I like this house. A lot. 

Finally, I reached my first destination. The Inkerman Schoolhouse.

Now, this was not on my original list of places to check out, however it came up on a google search when I was looking up an address on Inkerman Street (which does not exist anymore, since the town was a mining settlement). Apparently this place has been here since the town was established, although now it is a private residence.

At this point, I had another good distance until my next destination. I walked down this long road that followed farms and the highway. Even though my feet were cold, my hands hurt, and there was no one to talk to, I was very content and just very...happy. Mostly it reminded me of when I went to Rochester once, and walked one sidewalk-less roads to everywhere because public transit was, well, lacking. And I was just overwhelmingly cold and happy.

At one point, I passed some horses. And they followed me as I walked parallel to their fence. I wish I had an apple for them! One of them even came right up to the fence to look at me! I think we're friends now. :)

As I neared the end of the road, the scenery went from farms to industrial...things. Finally, I reached Bridge Street!

At 6 Bridge street I had a Great-Great Grandmother. The part of the town I was in was undergoing a lot on construction. This specific address is no longer here, but according to google maps (and we know how great they have been) it would have been somewhere here:

My next stop was just around the corner. Unfortunately, the street sign was missing, so it took me a while to find it. There were also a couple of people out and about so I had to subtly take this "creep" picture of 28 Dunlop Street where my great-great grandmother and grandfather lived together. I think the door that is farther away is 28.

After this, I had another long journey with 6 roundabouts. And once again, I ended up in a mess. I left Linwood and walked back towards Paisley, carefully counting the roundabouts. Google maps led me to a very subtly labeled Broomlands Lane, when I was looking for Broomlands Street. It was a large, new-looking group of flats (Much like the Union Street flats for Stirling Uni housing). I had passed two people in a phone booth  (I think they were brothers) a couple of times at this point, and they kept giving me the evil-eye, so I snapped a picture of the outside, and got out of there!

At this point, Google had some directions that did not quite make sense to me, telling me to take lefts on rights on streets I was not near. However, I picked a direction and went with it until I realized I was on Broomlands Street. Although, I should not have been on there to begin with since I was supposed to turn on to it, yet had not made any turn. I located the approximate area of 25 Broomlands Street, where my great-great-great grandmother and grandfather lived. Only some of the storefronts had their number posted, however after some clever counting, I think it is this one (one of those above the bar, not sure which):

Now, the google directions made sense! And I followed them to 40 Storie Street (Where my great-great grandmother was born), on the Edge of University of Western Scotland-Paisley. Google said that the destination should be on my right.

Erm...whoops. On my right are odd-numbered buildings. And I am pretty sure that although I am in a different country, odd and even numbers are the same! However, on my left was a parking lot and the back/side of a church, then University buildings.

So, I wandered around. I assume that 40 Storie Street used to be where the Uni buildings are, or the buildings have been re-numbered. Or both. I did walk by a REALLY OLD looking nursery. Seriously. This place looks ancient:

Finally, I made my way back to Gilmour Street. I was super hungry at this point, and bought a mini christmas mince pie from Greggs.

It was delicious. I like mince pie! Though  I later learned that you have to specify a Christmas mince pie, because a mince or mincemeat pie have actual minced meat in them. Whew!

Later last night we watched Fight Club. It has been so long since I have seen that movie! I have also decided that Brad Pitt, for the most part, is really not that attractive. Except in this movie. Because, let's face it, he is no Tim Lincecum or Jack Nicholson.

I also had some shortbread and hot chocolate. So good, ohmygosh!

All in all, it was a lovely walk! Although I was very frozen and stiff! I also woke up this morning with a swollen ankle. But I think it's gotten better! I am hobbling less now, at least. And My joints are less stiff and I can move around again!