I had been waiting for this day for an extremely long time!
I had been planning out my European vacation for months, and it was finally
here. Tara graciously drove us to the airport. We had a Starbucks drink, of
course, before Emily and I went on through security. It was hard to say goodbye
to Tara also because I don’t know when the next time I will see her will be,
but I know without a doubt that I will see her again soon. She is also planning
on playing volleyball again next season, but she doesn’t know where yet. I am
certain that we will see each other again during the next volleyball season. It
would be awesome if we were really close by each other again like this year.
Our first stop on the trip was Rome, Italy. We had no issues
with our flight, but we did have a little difficulty getting to our hotel. We
had to take a bus from the airport to the main train station in Rome. Next, we
had to take a train from that station to the closest station to our hotel. The
directions ended with saying that the hotel was right at the top of a specific
exit. We learned later on that we did not take the correct exit! We came up on
the opposite side of the street. We found some street numbers and starting
walking in the “right” direction. After walking three long blocks, I realized
that all of the numbers were odd so we needed to cross the street to the even
side. When we crossed the street, we learned that those numbers were not in
alignment with the odd side. We ended up having to walk the three long blocks
back to exactly where we came from, just on the other side of the street. Our
hotel was right there.
We checked in to our room, but we still had about 4 hours
until my parents would arrive. We ate some pizza at the restaurant right next
to our hotel before going for a walk. We knew that our hotel was very close to
the Vatican City, but we didn’t realize how close. Emily and I had walked about
four blocks when we saw some rather large pillars. We decided to just go and
look to see what was on the other side before we headed back to the hotel. As
it turned out, we walked right into the heart of the Vatican City! We were in
the large square with St. Peter’s Basilica right in front of us. We found it on
complete accident, but it was so awesome. We took some pictures and headed back
to the hotel to take a little nap before my parents would arrive.
It took Emily and I about 2 hours to get from the airport to
our hotel so I figured it would be about the same for my parents. I set my
alarm to wake up when I estimated that they would arrive. Emily continued to
sleep when the alarm went off so I went outside by myself. I just stood on the
street by myself looking at the exits from the metro. I waited for 9 minutes
before I decided to go wake up Emily to keep me company while I watched for my
parents. I had just pressed the buzzer to go back upstairs when for some reason
that I don’t know besides just God turning my head, I looked back one more
time. There standing at the top of the metro exit were my mom and dad. Thank
goodness the green walking man was on because I ran straight across the street!
I really can’t begin to explain how happy I was to see them. I had not seen
them in 7 months. I don’t know if I have really ever experienced so much joy
before as I did in that moment.
We dropped off their bags
in our room before going out for a walk and dinner. Our hotel owner/receptionist
was a little tiny old man. He was really really old! He was very nice though
and drew out a walking path on a map for me. The location of our hotel was
perfect. We were able to see all of the big sights with a 10-minute walk or
less between each sight (except for the Coliseum which is away from everything
else). If anyone is planning a trip to Rome, I would highly recommend our hotel
for a great location. We started walking the path, but we didn’t get too far
before stopping for dinner. We all had pasta and pizza for dinner along with
some wine. I went with the basic but classic spaghetti. When in Rome!
