A Cruel Teacher

Before embarking on the first weekend of traveling in Italy, I envisioned myself illustrating to readers about a relaxing weekend, soaking in all that Florence has to offer. I would like to tell you about how I woke up without a care, and went to bed without a woe. Yet I don’t feel like being misleading.

A wrongly booked hostel, a debit card that disappeared, and the anxiety of not knowing how to get home, brings me to say I was wrong. I was wrong thinking it’s easy to travel.

One mistake brings panic. The second mistake brings frustration. The third mistake brings my travel partner Louis and I to sit on a bench at a bus station and simply laugh at the fact that we’re the main characters in a series of unfortunate events.

Although this trip brought a “Please don’t be mad” phone call to the parents, I feel as if there is a reason this happened. At the time all I thought was “why me?”. How come everything that could go wrong was going wrong? Yet after a refreshing night of sleep, and a couple jokes poking fun at the trip, I was able to realize my mistakes. I’m even considering a career where I write travel books about what not to do. But one thing I did learn to do is laugh, and continue on.

After booking the hostel for Saturday and Sunday, rather than Friday and Saturday, the only option was to book a hotel, which was not planned in the budget. Feeling panic during this incident lead to being able to sleep in a king size bed, which my body was desperately yearning for.

Then finding my debit card is missing after leaving a hotel room brings frustration and stress. But allowed me to put that frustration and stress onto my parents, which I know my parents were expecting, and at this point they probably find entertaining.

Finally, realizing that the train tickets we bought were for the wrong day gave us a a strong sense of  worry. Especially when in the middle of a tiny Italian town, where speaking english is an uncommon skill. This brought ten minutes of panic to Louis and I, followed by an hour of laughter looking back at how everything unfolded.

If anything, this trip was the biggest learning experience.