Europe update: Week 2

By Vanessa On February 28, 2013 · 13 Comments

Hello friends!

Last week was my second week in Europe and, through poor planning (aka, no planning), I was in 4 different cities: Madrid, Portugal, Venice and Rome. As you might imagine, I was utterly exhausted — which resulted in a weakened immune system and, ultimately, food poisoning! Or the stomach flu! Hooray! Three days in Rome were spent in bed :/

Last week’s expenses look high because I booked a flight for next week and pre-paid this week’s accommodation. Also, Italy has a tourist tax of a million dollars a night and Venice is a tourist trap designed to separate me from my money. Anyways…

Total spent in week 2: $652.98. This is 11.1% less than I spent last time I came to Europe

: Sun sunshining in a park in Lisbon

: View from my balcony in Lisbon

: SO steep! This was about halfway up the (wrong) hill

: My first misspelled Starbucks cup!

: I worked at a patio with this view one day

: A rent-a-cop was *rude* to me. In a Catholic church!

: Because I never seem to remember to visit this bridge in Paris…

: Surprisingly cheap souvenirs on this bridge

: Teeny, tiny “street” in Venice

: Snow! In Venice!

: This curtain was painted on! So detailed

: Fancy ceiling at the Vatican Museum

: I liked this staircase

: St. Peter’s Basilica

: I took this because it’s such an arrogant statue to have made. This Pop must have SERIOUSLY angered some people

: These were all over the floor of St. Peter’s Basilica and people were underneath but I could. not. get. to. it. Maybe if I had paid for a tour…

: The main alter at St. Peter’s Basilica

: Again, so many pictures of floors. And doors. And ceilings.

: My favourite part about Italy? This was a single-person serving of pizza

: So many obelisks in Rome!

: Crumble-y but still there: The Pantheon (125AD)

: I’m sure there’s a way to tell time…

: Seriously was NOT expecting it to be *that* big

Interesting events:

Almost got pick-pocketed in Lisbon. At first, I turned and screamed. Then I saw it was an old lady and apologized and got into an argument with her over whether or not I thought all Portuguese were pick-pockets. Later saw her hanging around other tourists and stopped feeling bad for having accused her of being a pick-pocket
Babysat an abandoned child
Got lost in Lisbon and wandered up the wrong hill for over an hour. Almost cried when I reached the top and wasn’t where I had hoped to be
FOUND A WAY TO CALL MONTREAL FOR FREE!
Got lost in Venice, accused two people of being pick-pockets (erroneously). In my defense, the street that my hostel was on was not on any map
Tried to buy a bus ticket two times and had my credit card rejected. Called Visa in a panic and probably startled the poor CSR at 4am EST. Turns out to have been the bus company’s error
The aforementioned being-sick
I can’t connect my laptop to wifi at my hostel. It’s the strangest thing. I purposely booked 8 nights so that I would have time to catch up on my work and, like life is prone to do, my plans were disrupted
Southern Italian men are much nicer to look at than Northern Italian men
Confirmed that my parents are kinda meh about me. Sucks.
While sick, I decided that I was going home. I called Air Transat and waited on hold so long that I gave up. Sat miserably for two days hating myself for having come to Europe. I realize now that this is silly because what do I have waiting for me at home? A job at Tim Horton’s? Yeah, probably.