Abroad in Wales

Christmas in Italy - Step One: Get There

All the way back to last year, Melissa and I planned on going to Rome for Christmas.   Somewhere along the way, Melissa's mother, Sharon, decided she would come travel with us as well.  Then our new friend Natalie expressed an interest in tagging along.  So the four of us decided to see Italy together - poor, poor Italy.

 Our journey started on a Saturday night.  See, our bus to London would leave at 0700 Sunday morning and there are no trains that early on a Sunday.  We dropped our luggage off at Natalie's work, a kebab shop, and then Melissa, Vivek, and I spent a few hours taking in the Cardiff nightlife.  Mainly, it consisted of us making fun of what the girls here think is a 'sexy' clubbing outfit and watching fist-fights break out here and there.  All I have to say is A) if I ever start dressing like some of those girls, smack me, and B) never mess with a drunk Welshmen - they fight dirty and they get their mates to help.

Once the pubs started to close, we gathered our luggage and headed to a friend's place to relax.  Then it was off to the bus station, where the boys saw us off, much to the disgust of the bus driver.  A three hour journey later, we were in the heart of London at Victoria Coach Station.  A tube journey later and we were in Heathrow looking for Melissa's mom.  We finally found Sharon and then set off to find the hostel.  Another tube journey later and we realized why the hostel was so cheap.  It was above a pub and a nightclub.  I managed to fall asleep to the beats of Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson, and Fergie, but Sharon had some difficulties.  Opps.  But we had a good night, anyhow, and spent some time on the busy, Christmas time streets of the shopping districts of London.
 

 The next morning we headed to Standsted airport.  We had some serious difficulty getting a bus.  We couldn't figure out how to get tickets online and every bus was booked almost full.  We ended up taking a taxi, which was a little spendy, but we got there.  Two hours later, after flying over the English Channel and the Alps - both are beautiful - we arrived in Venice.

 Sorry, no pictures in this post.  Didn't bring my camera with me during our London excursions.


 

Posted at 08:23AM Jan 12, 2008 by Jill S Brink in General  |  Comments[0]