Our Lizzie McGuire Moment

After our class trip ended, my friend Brandon and I stayed in Verona instead of taking the bus back to Milan and waited for a train to take us to Rome. We were to spend a night there before flying to Dubvronik, Croatia.

The three hour train ride came to an end in Rome around 11pm, at which point we took a metro to meet our first AirB&B host, an older man who had been messaging me all week with endless questions in broken English. We met him, and he drove us across the street. At the door of the building, in a gentlemanly fashion, he insisted on carrying my suitcase into the elevator and into the apartment where Brandon and I would share a tiny room with bunkbeds and were instructed not to use the shower during the night.

At six am, Brandon and I were back at the front of the building, waiting for our AirB&B host with whom we had arranged a ride to the airport. He met us on time, and began the hour long journey during which he told us, in broken English, the entire history of Rome, only taking breaks to conduct what we can only assume were personal errands during random stops.

Eventually, we made it to the airport, a large and overwhelming one. After security, I quickly made it through passport control in the EU line (thanks to my Spanish passport), but Brandon took a while longer in the other line.

The flight to Croatia was uneventful, and the second we landed, we were in awe with this country's beauty. Even the land by the airport was incredible.

We took a scenic airport shuttle ride into the city, buying a discounted round trip ticket, hoping to use it upon our return the next morning.

Walking around the city, dragging our suitcases on our way to our Air B&B, we were mezmerized by the ocean, the hills, the houses.

Eventually, we made it to our Air B&B, where an older man greeted us, and again, like a gentleman, took my suitcase up the stairs. He then explained to us the basic of the cute apartment and proceeded to share a very thorough explanation of the area with the map. He eventually left us alone, and after lunch, Brandon and I went down to the beach.

The water was absolutely freezing, but we swam anyway. It was the Mediterranean after all, almost dream like. When we were too numb from the cold water, we got out and sat on the beach where Brandon realized his phone was broken.

He was upset but refused to let that put a damper on the rest of the day, so we continued to explore, and were eventually back at our Air B&B. There, we got ready for bed for we had yet another early morning ahead of us.

At three in the morning, we began to head to the bus stop, planning that it would take us to the airport for our flight back to Rome. However, it never showed, and after a while waiting, and a suspicious man offering us a ride, we decided to take a taxi instead.

Once at the airport, we were informed that our flight was not to leave until noon, instead of the scheduled 8:30am. We had no choice but to wait. When we had finally wrapped our minds around our unavoidable wait, the flight changed again and was actually leaving on time. And soon, we were once again on a plane.

Back in Rome, we took the wrong train and ended up forty minutes outside the city on a Sunday with everything closed, and we had to wait for an hour. Meanwhile, our AirB&B host was upset and telling me such through aggressive messages. I almost did not want to meet her.

But there we were, after another train ride and a delicious and much needed seafood lunch, at her apartment, where I apologized for the miscommunication and she seemed rather forgiving. She did not give us a bad review bu did message me privately, passive aggressively telling me that she hopes I learned from this experience.

I took a short nap and then we headed into the City Center, to see the Colosseum among other famous monuments. By the Colosseum, we saw a group of three nuns struggling to take a picture, so we offered and were given a blessing in gratitude.

Then, we headed to the Trevi Fountain for our Lizzie McGuire moment. There, we saw a man get arrested for climbing on the monument, which did not happen in the movie.

Ridiculously early the next morning, we were on an Uber to the airport, giggling the whole way at our dumb jokes. Then, we were on our flight, but it didn't leave. For almost two hours, it sat on the runway. I slept most of that time, but it was still unpleasant.

Exhausted, we were back in Copenhagen, on the metro heading to class to finish our last two weeks of the semester.