A twinge of pain in my neck wakes me up suddenly as I feel the area around me vibrate and rock gently. Not wanting to open my eyes just yet, I attempt to stretch my limbs in the cramped car, but instead I push Pavlina into Julie and have now made not only myself more uncomfortable, but my friends as well. Oh well. Slowly I open my eyes and see only a blaze of gold and pink. Squinting and trying to make sense of my surroundings, I see that we're on the Slovenian highway traveling towards mountains. Discomfort is the furthest thing from my mind now. I am vaguely aware of "Quelqu'un m'a dit" playing through my iPod and the only other thing that I can comprehend is the fact that I am watching the sunset over the mountains in Slovenia and its one of the most beautiful things I've seen since I've been in Europe. I did not bother to take a picture because I knew it would be impossible to capture exactly what I was seeing. The combination of the sunlight and the fog made seem flawless, more like a painting than anything else. In that moment nothing could have torn my concentration away from this perfection.....
Exhaustion: weariness, lassitude, and/or the perpetual condition I was in during this trip. But was it worth it? Ten thousand times yes. I can't even begin to describe my feelings about these three days. For those of you who don't know, I traveled with 9 other Erasmus students to Zagreb, Croatia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; and (by far my favorite) Venice, Italy. Each city was better than the last offering more history and breathtaking architecture. I barely had time to take it all in. Absentmindedly I would become quiet, look up and just feel the old, rough stone underneath my fingertips. Yes, I know it sounds weird, I was told that it was, but still, I don't care. All I wanted to do was take in the moment, and the best way to make a memory is if you use as many senses as possible, so I would try and take in everything that I could and be as reverent as possible (which was hard sometimes because it's virtually impossible for the 10 if us to be serious all at once).
Zagreb:
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| Cathedral in Zagreb (one tower is under construction). |
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| The inside of the Cathedral was absolutely beautiful, and to think, it's not even one of the popular European Cathedrals. |
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| The theater in Zagreb, also beautiful. |
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| Group picture in Zagreb! |
Ljubljana:
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| Me looking out over the city of Ljubljana (pronounced loo-blee-ah-nah) |
Here we spent the night in a hostel where, like in Budapest, there were many Americans (and one that went to St. John Fisher for a year, go figure). That night we also went out for Mexican food, not Slovenian, but did I complain? NOPE! It was nice to have familiar food for once, not to mention that it was absolutely delicious.
Ljubljana really was a picturesque European city. Absolutely beautiful. While we were here the city was celebrating Carnival (which is like a mix between Marti Gras and Halloween... very interesting to say the least).
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| Group picture on the tower over looking the city |
Venice:
What is there to say about Venice other than the obvious? It was breathtaking, amazing, surreal, wonderful, etc. etc... At one point Loes and I were walking through the city together. I turned to her and said, "Loes... we're walking through Venice, during Carnival, eating gelato.... I don't think life can get any better."
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| Like I said... breathtaking. |
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| Masks they were selling for Carnival |
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| Me on one of the many bridges in Venice |
While walking through the streets in Venice you constantly come across bridges that span the canals. Every time we crossed a bridge, without fail, you could always hear at least one of us girls gasp because we thought it was so beautiful. Even though every bridge and surrounding buildings were basically the same, we were still compelled to take a picture. Now I have about 10 pictures that look like I took them from the same position.
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| Group picture in Venice |
Overall? This trip was amazing and I can't wait for the next one. This is why I came to Europe: to see and experience. And now that I'm finally here and doing what I've always wanted? I couldn't be happier.
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