I have always been a fan of Queen, but oddly enough it wasn't until coming to France that I started to become pretty hard core about it. My friends and I, for some odd reason, decided we were going to try to learn all the words to as many Queen songs as possible by the end of study abroad. So about two weeks ago when our program took us on a mushroom hunting trip, we searched the forest for mushrooms while simultaneously beginning to learn the lyrics to Killer Queen (we got it down now).
The forest we went to was like no forest I had ever seen. Everything was so...mushy. There was moss everywhere. It was like walking on a million sponges. But there were also tons of mushrooms (the french word for mushrooms is champignons). Most were not edible, but by the end of the voyage we had all collected a decent amount of mushrooms for dinner. That night when I cooked the wild mushrooms and ate them with my host family, it was the perfect way to say goodbye to France before my trip to Italy.
Although I am incredibly fortunate and grateful to be in France at all, I can't help but feel like there is some bad juju in the universe that doesn't want me to be here. First there was the missing luggage. Then my credit card didn't work. I thought that would be the end of my bad luck, but the night before my early flight to Venice, my friends and I received an email saying the flight was canceled. At this point the bad luck combined with me missing good ol' Michigan really got to me. I was more home sick than I had ever been. But my host mom pulled through and we were able to find a series of trains that would take us to Venice. The next day I woke up at 4 AM and didn't arrive in Venice until 10:15. The Hostel where we were staying requires that you check in by 9 and if you will be late you have to let them know and there will be a 20 euro charge. If you are there later than 11, you can't get in. So when we got off the train and realized that Venice, while gorgeous, is also very confusing, I started to think I was going to have to sleep on the street. But that is when our luck started to turn around. I asked a man for directions and he could see I was obviously stressing out. Although the hostel was 30 minutes away, he dropped what he was doing and walked us all the way to the hostel. We arrived just a few minutes before 11 and the owner of the hostel decided not to charge us the extra 20 euros. My stress melted away and I was ready to enjoy my vacation. Maybe the universe didn't want me to be there, but the people did, and I was happy with that.
Due to the airplane incident, we only had one day to see Venice, which meant we had to book it. In one day we were able to see and soak in all of the major attractions of the island, as well as Burano, a tiny island filled with houses of all different bright colors. Venice was a dream. It was like nowhere I have ever been. Although this was my second trip to Italy, it didn't seem like any part of Italy I had already seen. We even got to ride the iconic gondolas, although it was 30 euros for a half hour ride so we just payed 2 euros and took a 2 minute ride. We ate gelato while listening to a man sing opera in the middle of the street, we saw the iconic Murano glass and Burano lace. It was a fairytale.
The next morning we were exhausted but ready for our next adventure. We packed our things and said our last goodbyes to the sinking city. Next stop: Florence.
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