The Holiday

Last week I had a whole week off from work and school and it was glorious! However, I definitely earned my time off after Friday's mishaps. The Belgian transportation employees decided to strike on Friday October 26 which delayed my train to work and my train home (really, what is the deal?! Go to work.). I left a couple minutes early to make sure that I made it back to Midi in time to meet my friends to take the shuttle to the airport in Charleroi. My train back to Brussels from Enghein, the town I work in, was the only train not cancelled. Thankfully it was only delayed by a couple of minutes so I made it back to Midi on time but I was pretty stressed by then. On the bus ride there Alayna looked at her ticket and realized that she bought an airline ticket for 6:30 AM and not 7:30 PM-- darn military time! Fortunately the plane did not fill up and she managed to get a seat on our flight.

We flew RyanAir, the cheapest, most hilarious airline ever. I will try to describe this flight as best as I can but it will probably fall short of painting a true picture of the chaos. They call themselves "The On-time Airline" and yet our plane did not leave until 45 minutes after the scheduled departure time. False advertising? I think so. Really, the plane is like a cattle car. They do not assign seats on the flight, so people form this massive herd around the gate, pushing and shoving to be first. If you make it through the gate alive, you walk outside to board the yellow and blue plane. Everything in the plane is bright yellow or royal blue, from the seats to the carpet to the attendants attire. There are three seats on each side of the plane, a total of six per row. If you are over 5'5" your life pretty much sucks for the next couple hours because you have to hold your knees up because there is zero leg room. There are screaming children and un-phased parents evenly dispersed throughout the plane so the flight is enjoyable for just about no one. There is advertising on the panels of the overhead storage bins and the flight attendants even sell lottery tickets during the flight. IT IS INSANE.

We arrived in Milan Friday evening, found the hotel, then ventured out at 11:00 to find a restaurant. We ended up at this place nestled behind vines and overgrown flower/shrub boxes with signs in pink and black, making it look more like an adult video store than a restaurant. The food was excellent and we actually went back on our way home. On Saturday morning we "trained" to Florence. I spent most of the train ride with my face pressed to the glass, admiring the mountains and the countryside. I loved Florence: the water, the architecture, the bridges, the museums, the food, the gelato, all of it! The city was much smaller than I expected and I am pretty sure that I saw every inch of the city in two days. I visited San Marco, Uffizi Gallery, and the Accademia museum. I saw famous art and breathtaking cathedrals but my favorite thing about Florence was sitting on the steps of Michelangelo Plaza at night, soaking in the beauty of the city at night. Confession: I ate gelato five times in my 2 1/2 days in Florence.

On Monday morning we left Florence and trained to Venice. Venice was like an adult Disney World. Glass stores, designers stores, overpriced restaurants, and vendors selling cheesy souvenirs were crammed in every square inch of the city. People just flooded the narrow streets. It was difficult to move, to walk any place took a lot of time and patience. Alayna, David, Taylor, and I took a gondola out at sunset and it was incredible to see the city from the canals. The gondola ride did improve my outlook on the city, but honestly, I really did not like it. We did find some cool trattorias(sp?) and cafes and I enjoyed my visit to Santa Croce.

On Tuesday afternoon we took the train back to Milan, then a bus to the airport, then a cab to the hostel. I felt like we were on a revolving door of transportation hopping for five days. By the end, both guys were sick and the rest of us were suffering from exhaustion. It was so tiring and expensive, but I would do it again in a heart beat.

We had about 18 hours to rest, unpack, do laundry, then repack for Amsterdam. Antwerp was on the way, so we spent the afternoon on a guided tour of the city. I felt like a zombie sleep walking and cannot recall one word that tour guide said for the life of me! There is no place on earth quite like "Am-Dam." The city itself is really cool and the waterways are charming, but after a couple hours of walking on the street you feel as high as a kite. "Coffee shops," bars, and sex shops line the streets. It is really unreal. We had a bus tour of the city one day and visited the Rijks Museum, Van Gogh, the Anne Frank house, and a diamond museum. We had a lot of free time, so Austin and I found a little park and ran in the rain one afternoon. Our last night there we sat out on a bridge with our feet dangling over the edge, singing along to random Alabama and George Strait songs at the top of our lungs. It was so fun. We did eat at a Mexican restaurant and a pancake place one day which satisfied two of my cravings!

That's all the "stuff" we did on holiday last week. It only took me 6 paragraphs to get to what I really want to say. I woke up really early one morning in Amsterdam, really early. Not knowing what to do I showered, wandered down to the lobby, curled up on a couch, opened the first page of my journal and began reading. I smiled, I laughed, and at times, I wanted to cry as I read all my thoughts, stories, and prayers from the past 10 weeks. I want to share an excerpt from an entry I wrote at the Madou laundromat on October 31, the day I came home from Italy.
"There is nothing more terrifying than spending five whole days with your peers because they see everything-- the good, the bad, the brokenness, all the things that you try to hide, they see it. They notice all your quirks, sense your frustrations, and learn to read you like a book. There is nothing more frightening to show yourself and yet, there is nothing more real or freeing. This past weekend my friends saw a glimpse of my heart, my true self and they continued to show me with love and patience. Perhaps our situation forced us to cling to each other and deal with each other's nonsense. Or perhaps it is the most beautiful picture of grace, of Christ's love, and of relationships as they are intended to be."

The museums were impressive. The cathedrals were breathtaking. The gelato was delicious, even on the fifth go round. What left an impression on me most, what I will never forget about my trip to Italy is the people I shared those five days with. I am so thankful for each of them, for all they have taught me, for the laughter, for the hilarious stories, and for the grace and love they showed me. I stumbled upon this quote while flipping through my journal that provides a beautiful image of friendship that I want to share:

"But Oh! The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearless on any subject; with whom one's deepest and most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh ones thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, right as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with a breath of kindness blow the rest away." - from "A Life for Life"