April 9- Rome

     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!

 

April 8- Copenhagen

     Happy Easter! Unfortunately, I was not able to go to church at all. Easter weekend is probably my favorite time of the church year. It was really hard for me to not be able to go to a Good Friday or Easter church service. I am really looking forward to being home this summer and being able to go to church every Sunday. Even more, I will be able to go to church every Sunday, and it will be in English!

      Tara, Emily, and I went back to Copenhagen today to show Emily around. It was pretty cold out, but we still had a really good time. We saw the typical sights like Nyhavn (the canal street), the Little Mermaid statue, and just wandered the streets. On this trip we also found a big old-fashioned windmill in the middle of the city. We decided to stay in Copenhagen and see a movie. I read the first 9 pages of The Hunger Games, but stopped there. I just don’t really enjoy reading fantasy that much (like Harry Potter), but I did really like the movie a lot (like Harry Potter). We grabbed a pizza for dinner and headed back to Tara’s place. Once again, we were tired. Also Emily’s and my big trip was starting the next day so we went to bed.

April 7- Leaving Ljungby

     Today, I left Ljungby. Over the past week, I had said many goodbyes to all of my teammates and friends. My friend, Joel, was driving Emily and I to Copenhagen, but we decided to make a pit stop on the way. A bunch of my friends were taking a bus to Helsingor, Denmark for the afternoon. Daniel was supposed to go on the trip, but he drove there with us instead. We met up with the entire group and had lunch in the city center. We didn’t stay too long, but I’m still happy that we went so that I had one more opportunity to say goodbye to a lot of my friends.

     Joel, Emily, and I headed on to Copenhagen. This part of the trip was quite stressful! I was still trying to work out a place to leave my bags in Copenhagen while we traveled around for 3 weeks. I couldn’t get in touch with the girl that I was originally was supposed to leave my bags with. My friend, Tara, was sick so she couldn’t come and meet us in Copenhagen at the time that we were originally supposed to meet. Joel needed to get back to Ljungby, but we still had no place to take our bags! After many phone calls, I finally got in touch with another friend that was playing volleyball in Denmark, Jess. She was extremely nice and helpful in the whole situation. We were able to bring our bags to her apartment and leave them there until we would return on April 29^th. We also planned it out that Emily and I could sleep there on the night of our return before we flew to America the next day.

     I had to say goodbye to Joel, and that was really difficult. He became one of my best friends in Ljungby. We hung out a lot especially in the end because he started working nights. It was so nice to have someone else to hang out with during the long boring days. He had also helped Meghan and I out in different situations throughout our stay. He drove us to Copenhagen airport at Christmas time and also came to pick us up at the end of our trip. My flight got in about 4 hours before Meghan’s flight so he even came over to hang out with me until she arrived. He cooked us dinner on multiple nights when I didn’t want to cook. Yet again, he drove me to the airport for this trip as well. Moral of the story is that it was very difficult to say goodbye to such a good friend.

     Meanwhile, Tara was feeling better so she came to Jess’s apartment to pick up Emily and I.  We had a nice dinner at a pub where I got a cheeseburger with actual cheddar cheese! It is impossible to find cheddar cheese in Sweden. All three of us were pretty tired so we just headed back to Tara’s house and basically went straight to bed.