I’ve never seen so many people crowed around one structure. All we wanted was a picture “holding it up”; no one imagined that it would be so difficult.
When I went to Italy my senior year of high school one of our stops was at the Tower of Pisa, or more commonly known as, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was one of the most looked forward to stops on our two week excursion throughout Italy. We had seen church upon church counting down the days until it was time to stop in Pisa, Italy.
Our bus driver let us off about a mile away from the famous structure. As we pulled into the parking lot we were greeted by about ten other buses as big as ours. Immediately we knew that we were about to encounter a few hundred other tourists.
We had 45 minutes to explore the tower and its surroundings. We thought that this would be more than enough time, we were wrong. It turned out that we actually could have used more time due to how long it took to get to the base of the structure for a picture.
Every tourist wants a picture in the same spot, the spot where you are right underneath the tower with it leaning towards you. If you are in this spot holding your hands out in front of you it will look like you are holding up the tower in your picture.
The closer you get to the tower the denser the crowd gets. We all held hands to form a line. This way we would not get separated in the crowd and would make it to our final destination all together. This method of getting through the crowd was also ideal because the first person was able to create a path for the rest of us. With a little pushing and shoving the crowd parted ways for us like Red Sea parted for Moses.
It took about 40 minutes to push through all of other tourists to get to the best spot to take a picture. Right after everyone got their desired picture we had to all sprint back to the bus. If you were around you would have questioned if we were a herd of 45 students or a herd of 45 wild horses.
For most people the trip from Tampa to Rhode Island would be nothing more than a two stop flight and a few hours. Easy right? You get on one plane in Tampa, get off, get on another, and get off to find yourself in Rhode Island. Easy for everyone expect for me apparently.
It was my freshman year in college and the first time I had ever flown by myself. My best friend was going to the University of Tampa and I went to visit her. Who wouldn’t want to escape the cold winter of Rhode Island to go to Tampa? My mom was a bit worried about me switching planes alone so she told me the only way I could go was if my connecting flight was in Newark. Newark, an airport I have flown in and out of countless amounts of time. I could navigate my way around this airport with my eyes shut. I navigated every student on my Italian exchange trip from the check in counter to the gate my senior year of high school.
I had gotten to the airport in Tampa early on Sunday morning to board the plane that would take me to Newark. If anyone has ever flown in or out of Newark you know that planes are almost always delayed. This time was not any different. It was delayed two hours. During the last 30 minutes of the flight I could not stop looking at my watch. It was creeping closer and closer to the time that my next flight would be taking off. I was sitting on the edge of my seat during landing with a nervous knot in my stomach knowing that I was not going to make my next flight. I needed to leave early in order to be back for a sorority event that was going to be held on Sunday night. If I missed my connecting flight there was no way I was going to make it back to Rhode Island in time. I had never missed my flight, I was all alone, what was I going to do if I did miss my flight?
Once I heard the wheels hit the ground I just could not wait for everyone to get off. Because I was in the back of the plane it was going to take me forever to get off. Once I got off the plane I could not find my gate. I think I was so nervous about missing my flight that I just completely lost my bearings and could not figure out where I was or where I was going. I was on the phone with my mom yelling at her because I had no idea where my next gate was and I only had ten minutes before the flight took off. By the time I got to the gate I had missed the flight by just a couple minutes. I was so stressed out at that point that I just started hysterically crying to the lady at the counter because I didn’t know what to do now and I needed to get back to Rhode Island. She eventually calmed me down and scheduled me for the next flight… and lucky me, I only had to wait five hours by myself in an airport. A four hour trip had just turned into a nine hour trip because I made it to the gate about five minutes too late and I was not making it back for my event.
Not only was this trip exhausting because of how long it took me to get from Tampa to Rhode Island, this trip was exhausting because of how much I was stressing over the fact that I missed the plane and missed my sorority event. I don’t think I have ever slept as good as I did that night when I finally made it back to my dorm room.
For my first travel blog I decided to tell you about a trip that I took this summer to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina with my family. My parents are currently building a house in Hilton Head so we have been making frequent trips to prepare for the building that started two months ago. However, we do not always get there in the same fashion, sometimes we fly, sometimes we fly or sometimes its a combination of both. There is a very small airport in Hilton Head that is not very convenient to fly into so often we fly into Atlanta, Georgia or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. However, for this particular trip we made the decision to make the 13 hour drive from our house in New Jersey all the way down to Hilton Head.
Getting ready to leave the house is always very hectic when we drive down. This time I went down with my mom, my step dad, my boyfriend and the most important member of my family, my dog. The mayhem starts with deciding what time to leave. It is very difficult to get everyone ready to go at the same time when they know you wont leave without them. My mom is a morning person and for her the earlier the better. My step dad is the same way, he just wants to get out of the house because the sooner we leave the sooner we get there. However, my mom could not be on time for anything if her life depended on it. If she says we are leaving at 7 a.m. there is a very good chance that we will not get out of the house until 9 a.m. I like to sleep in so for me the later we leave the better. There is nothing I hate more than my mom telling me we are leaving at 7 a.m. and I am sitting around waiting to leave for two hours (this means I could have slept two hours later). On this particular day my boyfriend was working the night shift (6 p.m to 6 a.m.) so he wanted to leave later so that he could sleep a little after work. Deciding what time we leave happens only after we get into a few screaming matches at the dinner table the night before. We decided on 8 a.m. for this particular trip.
Then comes packing the car in the morning. A few more screaming matches happen during this process. Who wants to argue at 8 a.m. about whether the cooler of food goes in the back seat or the trunk? or over whether the biggest suitcase goes on the left or right side of the truck? or over whether the dog sits in the front seat or the back seat? or whether we do or do not need this much stuff for 6 days? Not me! 8 a.m is way to early to fight over anything... especially the stupid things my family decided to fight about on this morning.
So finally at 10 a.m.(two hours after our planned departure time) all 8 suitcases, 2 coolers, 4 beach chairs, 8 beach towels, 6 bags of groceries, 4 people and 1 dog are in the car and we are on our way!!! That is until 5 miles down the road my mom yells "stop! I think I left the stove on" and we have to turn around. It then took us another 15 minutes to leave a second time because the dog has to pee, my mom turns off the stove and I realized I forgot my make-up bag so everyone of course needs to get out of the car and getting everyone back in is a chore.
So again, we are on the road! Now we only have to stop for gas and at the bank. Now 20 minutes later we finally get on the highway and on our way. Keep in mind, this whole time I just want to get on the highway so I can go back to sleep.
Once we FINALLY got in the car and on the highway it was smooth sailing the whole 809 miles to Hilton Head. Now that the stress of packing the car and getting out of the house is behind us we are officially on vacation!
Once we were finally off 95 it was only a matter of time before we reached our final destination. The best part about the whole drive seeing the bridge that brings you on the island in the distance. Once we are finally over the bridge, we are officially in Hilton Head and we all could not be happier. Spirits were at the highest point this moment out of the entire day. We all completely forgot about all the fights and the amount of stress we went through earlier that day and the night before to get to this point.
The week could not have been more perfect. Everyday was sunny and around 80 degrees, in my opinion, perfect beach weather! We spent every day at the beach. Put me on a beach with sun and a beach chair and I'll be the happiest girl around. Then around 4:00 everyday it was time to get off the beach and get ready to go to dinner. Hilton Head may be a small island but there are plenty of amazing restaurants to keep you trying new ones everyday for an entire year.O.k. that may be an exaggeration but you get the idea. One day it was cloudy in the morning so we spent the morning shopping at the outlet mall that is a few miles off the island. Wait let me correct the previous statement, my mom and I shopped while my step dad and boyfriend trailed behind us asking when it was time to leave... every five minutes.
Six days go by and it is that time again... time to pack up the car and drive 809 miles home. One would think that it would be simple this time around. Everything fit on the way down there, everything should fit on the way home, right?? Wrong. The result of putting me and my mom in a outlet mall, showing my mom a grocery store and the boys a golf store will result with much more stuff to go home with then we came with and a few more fights. So when the car is packed to capacity and there is still a pile of things next to it my step dad starts yelling out of frustration at everyone who crosses his path. But eventually, everything gets in the car and we are on our way home.
Finally, after a great week in Hilton Head, after the 809 mile drive home and a few arguments getting the car packed we are home and I cannot wait to sleep in my own bed again!
