An E-mail to a Friend

Mr. President,
            As I sit here on this train from Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm, Sweden, I can’t help but think about your “Open letter to the Student Body,” and its emphasis on the power and importance of building relationships. When I arrived in Copenhagen at 3am Wednesday morning, I was supposed to stay with Matt Marsh who engaged too much in some extracurriculars that night and had already been out like a light for over an hour.  My stubborn self wasn’t going to go out and spend big bucks on a hotel for a couple hours, so I walked to a park near the address where he told me he was staying. Wasn’t my best idea to set up camp on a picnic table 15 yards from a river, because if I had actually woken up there I might be looking like a present day Ted Williams. I put my head down for not more than a minute until I heard two girls speaking what sounded like perfect English. I got up and walked over trying not to look like a homeless creepo, and asked “Are you American?” One told me she was Swedish and I don’t know if the other one said anything. “Oh never mind, sorry” I responded. They asked what I was doing there and I had to explain the situation about how I was screwed over. They insisted that I stayed with them, and me being me, did. Nothing to lose but my life, right? We stayed up until the early hours of the night, conversing over a glass of white. Emmy, from Sweden was 25 and studying in Stockholm. I slept in her bed. Kate, her friend, was 22, from England doing the same thing. Relationships.

            The next night Marsh and I couldn’t stay at his friend’s apartment, so I texted my new friend again and again, the invite was extended. We both stayed there again. Relationships.

            Yesterday, Marsh left me to go to Rome and I had a decision to make. Either I could take an overnight train and arrive in Stockholm at 6 am or stay another night and get there at two the following day. I chose the latter. She joked that I was going to move in. If there was ever such thing as overstaying your welcome, it wouldn’t apply here- the girl loved me. Last night, we went to a bar to meet up with her friend who she hadn’t seen in over a year. Turns out the girl was born and raised in Boston for ten years before moving to Germany, and now Sweden. We had a long conversation, and she gave me her business card. She also is going to Stockholm today so I’m going to text her when I get there and we’re planning on going out. Amazing. Relationships.

            If I never said anything in that park would I be right here right now? Snowball’s chance in Haiti. It’s unbelievable what you can get out of by starting a simple conversation with someone.

            Tomorrow, I will wake up early and get on an 11 hour train from Stockholm, to Geilo, Norway- a small ski village town, three hours south of the nation’s capital, Oslo. A normal person would never go to Geilo, but that’s where I have a relationship. I’m not sure if you remember Vegard, but he was at Loyola our freshman year for soccer. The Norwegian native decided that his 3 months in the Loyola soccer program was not for him, and transferred back to Oslo. During this short period of time I was able to get to know Vegard very well, and now I’m going to Geilo, Norway to stay with him and his friends in a cabin in the mountains. Relationships, relationships, relationships.

Switzerland

            Before we left Rome, I called Hans on the payphone and told him that we would arrive in Zurich at 7:00. He asked the train number, and we briefly spoke before we had to get on the train. Colin and I were about 40 minutes outside of Zurich, trying to get some final naptime in, when I heard a voice say “Will!” Startled, I look up and it was Hans. Somehow he got on the train somewhere and was walking up and down the train looking for us. Don’t know how he did, don’t know really why he did it, it was absolute bananas. Straight up hoodwink stuff. Part of me wanted to start calling him Hans Houdini. I called my Dad and told him this story and he said, “that’s what Swiss guards do- they’re just amazing”. Here’s some background on Hans:
            My dad met Hans while he was studying in Rome for 4 years. At the time Hans was a Swiss guard working at the Vatican every day. (Not exactly sure how they met though). Hans was... well I don’t know how to say it other than, “big time.” He was Pope John Paul II’s right hand man. Whenever the Pope would travel somewhere, Hans was on the plane (or pope mobile) with him. Right before a Papal speech, Hans was the guy who would hand the Pontfix the sheet of paper. He showed Colin and I many photo albums of him and John Paul II, who by the way, is set to be canonized as a saint next week at the Vatican. The albums included photos of the Pope with his family, his wife Carol, and two little daughters (at the time) Claire and Kathleen. The Pope actually baptized Claire – talk about a conversation starter, “Hey I’m Claire, and I was baptized by a saint- what was your name again?” Hans told us that once or twice a week, he would just walk up to the Pope’s room and they would just have normal, friendly conversations. In May of 1981, the day there was an attempt on the Pope’s life, Hans was there. He heard the gunshots and immediately sprinted, tracked down the assailant, tackled him, and helped detain him in the Vatican prison. You literally cannot make this stuff up. Hans was a Swiss guard for “20 years, 1 month, and 17 days” and loved every minute of it.”
            I have known him practically my entire life, as when he comes to America every 2 years, a stop in Worcester, Massachusetts is high on his to-do list. He and Carol plan to come stay with us for a couple of days in July. He and Carol took Colin and I in with open arms, and every time I would thank them, they would counter with thanks and gratitude for the many times they stayed with us in Worcester. We got there on Thursday and when I told them we were leaving Saturday they were upset because they wanted us to stay longer!

            Thursday night, we had a light dinner and went to bed pretty early after a long day of travel, and Carol offered to do our laundry, which was incredible- and much appreciated. They both had things to do for Good Friday so they were all worried that we would be bored.

            Colin and I woke up around 10 and planned to go to Luzern, a quaint city about 45 minutes away- which my family and I had gone to the last time we visited in 2003. Hans took us 20 minutes of the way because he wanted to make sure we got on the correct connecting train. Great guy. It was kind of overcast in Luzern but we walked all along the river, checking out the boats, and beautiful Swiss Alps off in the distance. We sat down for lunch and then walked to the Jesuit Church for a Good Friday service at 3:00- which was interesting. If I knew a lick of German it probably would have been a little better, but I don’t. It was an experience, but it’s the thought that counts. We got out of church and decided to head back to Wadenswil because it had started to rain. The walk from the train station to their house could definitely have been drier, but we made it.

            We dried off and Carol had made a cheese fondue, which is the national food of Switzerland, accompanied by the national drink, white wine. The white wine was quickly substituted for red because Hans doesn’t like white. Hans gets what Hans wants. It was absolutely incredible. We dipped bread, pears, and potatoes, and I think I had enough to nourish all the Swiss Guards. We shared stories about our visits to one another, and Hans told some stories about him and my dad, which were hilarious. We ended the night watching the Stations of the Cross live on TV at the Coliseum where Pope Francis was.

            We woke up this morning, and had breakfast waiting for us on the table. Carol had packed us lunches to take on the train, and we couldn’t thank her enough. Hans walked us to the train station but it wouldn’t be a trip to Switzerland without chocolate. He bought us about 8 things of Lindt chocolate, which is like the best of all time. He took the train with us all the way to the last stop in Switzerland- just because he wanted to see us off. Hospitality like you read about. It was an awesome visit and I look forward to returning the favor(s) in Worcester this summer. #locals

Florence

            After a loooooong day of traveling (I’m talking 15 hours) we finally made it to Florence. Train delay city. We had planned to arrive around 5:00 but didn’t end up getting there until around nine. So when we got off the train we frantically searched for WiFi so I could get in touch with my friend Paige, who we planned on staying with. I had three messages from her wondering where we were, but she gave me her address and we made the 20-minute walk to her apartment. She was living with four girls, one of which I had met when I went to visit Paige at South Carolina last fall, and the other two go to SC as well.  It was already late but we went out on the town for a while to some different spots.

            On Saturday, we woke up and went to their school brunch which was an interesting experience. The culinary students at their university in Florence who were training to become 5-star chefs prepared it all. I saw a lot of food that I would never imagine seeing for breakfast or lunch. Maybe even ever. I think I had approximately 1 egg. It was pretty much Bizzaro World in a restaurant. Anyways, Paige took us around the Italian leather market, which was pretty cool. We went to a gelato milkshake place that changed my life forever. And I thought McDonalds milkshakes were good. We walked by the famous Duomo where I saw a Loyola girl studying in Belgium for the year, who I also ran into in Dublin while I was with my family. Really small world. We went back to the room to nap for a little, when I was blindsided with a text from Tombari and Rebecca White (who study with us in Newcastle) saying that they were in Florence. Somehow they decoded a picture I posted and found out that I was in Florence. Still don’t really get how they did it, but you gotta keep your head on a swivel I guess.

            We invited them to Paige’s and then we all went out after. There were a lot of locals at the place but we pretty much just kept to ourselves because we didn’t know how to communicate with anyone else. We tried to find the Secret Bakery that Paige had been raving about the entire time, but apparently it was so secret that it didn’t exist- because she couldn’t find it.

            Sunday, we went to Gusto Pizzeria, which they said os the best pizza place in Florence, and it was. The line was out the door, but it was worth the wait, and it was a beautiful day. We walked along the Ponte Vecchio, and I took a Transformation picture standing in the same spot I had 11 years earlier in Florence. My dad loved it, and showed everyone and their mother.

            Florence brought back a lot of memories from when I was there when I was 9- and I remember climbing to the top of the Duomo- although we were unable to do that this time around. I remembered the statue of David at the Academy, but that needed to bee booked weeks in advance. Florence had a lot more tourists than I remember, but I feel like that is an overarching theme throughout Europe, that tourists are growing by the year.

            Colin and I went to Palm Sunday mass at the Duomo, and although it was in Italian, it was still very nice, and the music was beautiful. Tombari and Rebecca were waiting for us after mass and we walked around and hung out.

            We were sitting on a monument around 11 at night and for some reason looked to my right and saw Julia Bemis- who also studies at Newcastle with us from Loyola. We were just looking at each other for a good 3 seconds which felt like 20 minutes, trying to comprehend if it was reality. I asked “is that Julia?” and she came walking over and everyone was pretty much stunned. She was with her family and they came over and chitchatted for a while with them. It was all just unbelievable. Small world city.

            Today we woke up and are currently on the train to Roma! I can’t wait to go back it’s one of my favorite cities.

Barcelona!

            After a day of soaking up the sun on the beach in Nice…Marsh, Colin and myself flew to Barcelona on Sunday night. Our flight was delayed about an hour and a half so we didn’t land until about 1:30 in the morning- which restricted our plans for the night. We ended up just taking a cab to the hostel and crashing with our new 35 year old Australian roommate, Mikey. We woke up and planned to meet Alexa, Nick, Jenna, and LJ at The Segrada Familia cathedral, which was only about a 20 minute walk from where we were staying. The massive structure and crowds of people made it virtually impossible to meet up with them, especially considering none of our phones worked without wifi. We walked around but the line was too long to go in. We ended up just getting lunch and then heading back to the hostel where we did our laundry that desperately needed to be done. We hung out on the roof balcony and listened to music while enjoying the spectacular view. We went out at night and met up with the Loyola people we couldn’t find in the morning. Tuesday, we walked around the city and went to the beach with everyone. It was a beautiful day – and hot enough to actually go in the water. The water was freezing but I had an excuse to go in because I had been wanting to use my GoPro (under water camera) ever since I got it for Christmas. It was cool experimenting with different videos and pictures, and seeing how they came out. At night, the 7 of us went out to a Spanish tapas restaurant, which was absolutely delicious. Colin and I were planning on leaving  Wednesday by taking a boat to Florence, which we thought was included in our eurail pass, but our last minute research indicated otherwise. We ended up booking another room at the same hostel and heading back to the beach for the day. We got back to the hostel around 7:00 and Marsh left us to fly to Madrid. Colin and I watched some of the Masters and called it an early night. After five days in Barcelona and no concrete travel plans, Colin and I embarked this morning for the first time by ourselves. We are headed on some trains to Marsaille, France, which we figured was a good halfway point between Barcelona and Florence. I am looking forward to our Italian adventures!

Ten Days in France

Our 10 day, Loyola sponsored trip to France was awesome. While our days were jam packed with tours, travel, and bus riding, it was very informative and was nice having someone to keep us on a schedule. We spent 4 days in Paris, 1 in Avignon, 3 in Montpellier, and 2 in Nice. We went on a walking tour of Paris the first night we arrived which kicked off at Notre Dame cathedral. Our tour guide was from America originally, but has lived in Paris for the last 20-something years. We went and saw the Eifel tower at night and watched it sparkle magnificently, contrasting the midnight dark sky.

            We drove about three hours south to Avignon, and we were introduced to our French, semi-English speaking tour guide, Xavier. I had been to Avignon in 2009 with my dad. It’s famous for its half-bridge, which was never completed. Also it has a famous Papal Palace, which we took a tour of. I could write a book on the free meal we all got, it was out of this world. They didn’t tell us what we were eating but it’s a good thing they didn’t because I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.

            We traveled to Montpellier, which was where our program coordinator, Liz, studied abroad when she was an undergraduate so she knew the city pretty well. It wasn’t too touristy which was a nice change and we stayed in an actual hotel rather than crappy hostels, which we were unfortunately getting used to.

             The weather in Nice was beautiful! It was what I pictured when thinking of the French Riviera. The beaches were interesting as there was no sand, just fist sized rocks, which made it pretty uncomfortable to sit on, but we did anyways. We took a day trip to Monaco, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We walked along the yachts with our jaws pretty much rubbing along the concrete on which we were walking. When we got back to Nice, we did a 30-minute Segway tour along the Riviera, which was pretty awesome.

            I feel like our study abroad group definitely bonded over these ten days and I’m already looking forward to when we all go to Berlin together in May.