Personally, I LOVE planes and airports, and the whole traveling sha-bang, but I can’t say that this trip was anything short of exhausting. When we boarded, I had the privilege of sitting in the isle seat, next to two middle aged ladies, who just so happened to feel the need to get up every couple hours. To make matters worse, the plane seats weren’t the most comfortable in the world, and falling asleep during the long flight was nearly impossible. When I at last started to doze off in an awkward position on the tray in front of me, I’m woken up a half hour later by the attendant who was serving breakfast to the ladies from over my head. Can’t say it wasn’t an interesting trip though!
When I finally arrived into London, I reunited with my fellow trip mates and we made our way to the counter in which we were supposed to get our next boarding pass. I discovered something during that time. Europeans have a tendency to come off as rude to people who are used to the friendliness of Americans. But I realized it isn’t that they are necessarily rude. (Granted, the lady that yelled at our group of at least 25 to go back through the other door to get our boarding passes could have been more pleasant.) In America, we’re accustomed to automatically approach a stranger with kindness and a smile, while in Europe, I found that strangers get a passive attitude. Until you strike up a conversation with a European, and have some type of interaction with them, chances are you’ll be met with a less than friendly front. Good news is that once you do interact with them, they can be some of the friendliest people.
Anyway, when we finally all had our boarding passes and were getting ready to board the plane, we find out our plane is the tiniest thing mankind has to offer. Ok, not really, but it was so tiny, our carry on luggage had to be taken to be put with the checked in baggage. To top it all off, we were all expecting to get some kind of decent snack to hold us up since the plane before it served a mediocre breakfast, and customs took so long we didn’t have time to stop and grab something to eat on the way. We were sadly disappointed when we were given three little unidentified (yet fairly tasty) cookies. Again, we let that slide (like we had a choice 
) and sat through the next two hours in hunger and exhaustion.
Now the interesting part of the day (or two?) starts. As we prepare for landing in Florence, we realize that the airport not much more than a cluster of a few buildings put together near a landing strip and some airplane parking spaces. It was interesting to see such a tiny, yet functional airport. As we bumpily descended, and then stepped off the plane (yes stepped off, there were no terminals!) we were met with a gust of wet, cold wind that somehow made its way to the center of your bone, instead of the anticipated warm, cheerful, and sunny atmosphere. Regardless, we boarded the bus that awkwardly drove is to the nearby building where passports were checked and baggage was claimed. After waiting for what seemed to be entirely too long, we gathered our luggage and were clustered into a tiny room which just so happened to be the lobby of the airport. About 150 people, and the room was overflowing. To make room, we were ushered outside to wait for the busses that would take us to our check-in points at the Palazzi School. You guessed it, the busses took an insanely long time to get here, enough time for it to get even more cold, and for it to start drizzling on our tired bodies and exposed luggage.
When the bus finally made its way around, we were taken to Palazzi (the school). Along the way, we passed my remarkable landmarks that made it almost impossible to not feel like this whole ordeal was nothing more than a dream. The bus drove on as we snapped pictures here and there, until we finally got to Corso Tintor 21, the main site of the school campus. This building happened to be located along Fiume Arno, a river cutting through the heart of Florence. The amazing view, coupled with the new realization that we were finally here and about to begin our amazing trip, we soon forgot about the troubles and exhaustion of our day. We were checked in and given keys to our apartments as well as cell phones for communication.
We dragged our luggage across the cobble stone road for what seemed to be hundreds of miles (it’s way harder than it sounds!) until we got to the apartment that would serve as our home for the next 6 weeks. As we toured the giant apartment, our excitement grew more and more. Dibs were called on rooms, and we dispersed our stuff into each room.
Next, we decided we should finally give into the painful cries of our stomaches and go find somewhere to eat. As we left the apartment and walked through the street, slowly soaking from the drizzling rain, we realized that many of the typical restaurants and shops that would be open were closed due to the fact that it was sunday. We decided to settle for a quaint yet delicious pizza place not too far from our street.
After eating and then making tools out of ourselves in a nearby market by not weighing our fruit before bringing it to the cashier, we made our way back to the apartment to freshen up and unpack. Unpacking was unusually fun, considering we had all this space to store our stuff. Next came the reception in which the school was holding in a nearby cafe run by the school’s culinary program, called Via del Macci. Finding the place tight, and seeing how it was already crowded enough, we decided not to waste too much time here. Instead, we gathered many of our fellow study abroaders and headed to a nearby cafe that serves a splendid cappuccino. After warming up and resting in the cafe, we headed out to wander the streets and visit the apartments of nearby friends. (Queue the comparisons and complaints about whom has a better apartment than whom.)
Along the way, we passed by many amazing architectural buildings and parks and cafes. Although it was cold and gloomy and pretty empty, the streets carry a certain charm to them, almost magical I would say. Makes you feel at ease and happy in the simplest of ways. Maybe this is just the excited little girl in me talking, but I do feel this city carries some sort of a charm that just seems to make its residents happy. I plan to take full advantage of this magical charm while I’m here, and hopefully, the weeks to come will be as amazing and hopefully not as tiring as my first day in this wonderful city.
Ciao!
Hiba
) I spent the morning at Stadshudset aka Stockholm’s City Hall. I took a guided tour and it was definitely worth it! I saw a bunch of cool things but my favorite was probably the Blue Room and the Gold Rooms. The Blue room (which is actually red brick), is the place where the Nobel Banquet is held every Dec 10th. It’s designed by the architect to look like an Italian piazza, and is extremely beautiful!
