Cichokitty's blog: "Has Anyone Seen My Head?"

The more I think about my adventures the more I'm convinced that I will forever stumble through my travels and I'm quite happy with that.  First I must say that I am absolutely horrible with money, organization, and sticking to plans.  I left home with an itinerary that only went as far as where I was going and when (kinda). 

It went a little something like this:

     ~ spend 3 nights in Lausanne with Christine (a woman I met studying in Puerto Rico)
   

     ~ spend 3 nights in Bologna with a man I contacted on Couchsurfing

     ~ go to Pisa for a few days

     ~ maybe head to Rome for a few days or maybe just hang out in Naples

     ~ catch a flight from Naples to Bucharest

     ~ stay with George and Tatiana, (friends from the cruise line), for a few days

     ~ meet up with the boyfriend in Ruse, Bulgaria or he will meet me in Romania

     ~ fly back to Italy and spend time in Florence

     ~ go to a few other places before heading back to Geneva to board my flight home

What actually happened was:

     ~ I spent 3 nights in Lausanne with Christine and had the most amazing fondue and double cream ever

~ In Bologna I arrived, got lost, and made my host and I late for a meet up with other Couchsurfers 

~ Got lost in Pisa and found out that I'm not a very attractive hooker ... ran out of cash (after less than 2 weeks), missed my train, and found myself being led into a (Cuban?) bar before walking over to the  tower for night-time photos (It's amazing all lit up and there were no other tourists) 

 ~ Had a grand time with my friends and their family in Romania, but Tatiana's mother was sick (in Moldova), and I spent my last night in a hotel drinking wine, dancing in my undies, and watching Scooby-Doo in Romanian 

~ The boyfriend emailed me on the day he was supposed to arrive to inform me that he couldn't make it (btw ... he's Bulgarian and was living less than 2 hours away)

  ~ Received a message saying that I left things in Bologna, went back to retrieve them, and stayed another 3 days 

  ~ Traveled on to Florence, missed my stop and ended up in Chiuso before getting back on the right track, booked 3 nights in a hostel, checked out on the 3rd and stayed with the chef for 8 more days. I wandered Florence, did a bit of an impromtu language exchange with him, and since he wouldn't take money I paid him by cleaning his apartment 

~ Tried to take the bus to Fiesole, but ended up taking a 3 hour, uphill walk into the town (in hindsight I realized I took the long way around), but the views were amazing

~ Hopped on my train back to Milan, to take my bus back to Geneva, arrived late and took the last tram going in the opposite direction of the airport ... Great!

 ~ A 3 hour walk to Geneva airport (started my walk around 1 am), 5 hours waiting for the plane, 8 hours flying time, and another bus (9 hours) from Newark, NJ to Virginia concluded my 5 week trip to Europe 

All in all you might think that this trip was absolutely disastrous.  I was broke, lost, dumped, and just randomly going where the wind blew me.  To me it was one of the most amazing times of my life. I was broke, but some sort of way always presented itself.  I was lost, but I eventually found my way and the things you discover when you're lost are the most beautiful sights. Things you would never have seen when following your map. I was dumped, but I didn't have time for the tears, (well not too many of them), because there was always something else to do, someone else to meet, and somewhere else to go. It was nothing short of Fabulous!