the World got smaller

A few weeks ago, my cousin (she's 1 year older than I am) emailed me, and said she was flying to Italy for a week long vacation. She also told me that she thought I should meet her there and hang out with her for the week. Italy? THE Italy? It was such a crazy thought to me. Who in the heck would, with only a 2 week notice, just up and fly to Italy? Certainly not Little Miss Responsible herself.. and certainly not the unexpected stay-at-home wife of a Soldier.

After much poking and prodding, I ended up looking at the airfare, just to make her stop asking. There is no way we could afford airfare to Italy. Yep, that's what I thought all the way on the drive to the airport. Seems as though from the airport that's about 1 hr away from us, it's a 40 minute flight to Zurich, followed by a 40 minute flight to Milan. Then, bing bang boom you're in Italy. For cheap. Cheaper than I could have flown to Italy, Texas when I lived back home.

So, I spent the week enjoying my cousin's first class hotels, the first class train tickets, and definitely first class meals. She didn't want to spend a week by herself, and she knew that we didn't have the extra money for the trip - so all I had to do was pay for my transportation and souvenirs, and she took care of the rest.

We took the train to Rome, and stayed there for 2 nights, then took the train up the coast to Rapallo and stayed there for 1 night, then took the train to Milan and stayed 3 nights. I was blown away.

This time last year, the Boy & I were busily planning our wedding. I was trying to finish up some big projects at work, and I was still in school working on my Master's degree. This time last year, the only country I'd ever been in was the U.S. Now, I've been to Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland and Italy.

Living in Europe and travelling to different countries is like driving to a different state back home. In less time that it would have taken me to drive to Cincinnati, I was in Italy.

I was so pleased to be able to utilize all of my language skills on this trip. When we got lost, I managed to find someone who spoke Spanish. In a taxi, the driver asked "Italian, German or English?" and I was tickled to converse with him in German. Simple sentences, mind you - but I still spoke in German. Even on the train rides, I always seemed to make friends with my neighbor, and speak a bit of German or Spanish with them. Usually, the conversation then switched to English, but still - I made the effort.

Even looking back through the pictures I took, I am just astounded at the places we visited. I went through the Vatican Museum. I saw the Sistine Chapel. I saw the Duomo.

I am still blown away.