Tonya's Travels Today! : We made it to Italia!

Well im barely chatching up, because we havent had internet!

So, after a long train ride we sadly left Switzerland and headed to Verona, Italy. Talk about a culture shock! In Germany and Switzerland, the people were quiet and uh... classy. When we got off the train we were greeted with big girls in see through jeggings, loud conversations, and weird guys looking at us up and down with no tact whatsoever. It was weird!! The brother that Rachel got into contact with offered to pick us up from the station, well he was very late but once he finally got there we loaded up the car and just when we thought we were finally on our way... we got pulled over. So there we sat while the officer yelled at him forever, and yet somehow the brother weaseled himself out of it. We got to his apartment and he had really gone out of his way to make sure we were comfortable. He even built an extra bed so that we could each have our own place to sleep. We ended up all sleeping together cuz we were scared though haha. So our first night in Verona we went to the English meeting. If you want to call it that. Almost the entire hall is made up of friends from Nigeria and their accents were a little hard to understand. There were SOO MANY KIDS in this congregation! It was insane! They were so friendly and loving we were practically attacked with hugs and greetings by the friends.

Thursday we took a day trip to Venice. It was so fun. It was also incredibly hot!! We were practically melting but gelato sure did help. We walked around the beautiful city all day and we were so exhausted and about to head home early when... we saw a glorious sign in a window that said " FREE WIFI & AIR CONDITIONED". SOLD!!!! We ran to look at the menu and make sure it wasnt too expensive. Well... the daily special was dinner & a drink for less that €10! The food was delicious and the air felt even better. We felt so American it wasn't even funny. But, what can I say... I'm just a pampered California girl! After we spent all our money it was time to head home. We took the free train which took longer but.. uh hello its free! By the time we got back we ran to our bus stop only to wait about an hour, only to find out we were waiting for the wrong bus! Then the sky lit up with continuous lightening! Thunder started crashing but thankfully no rain... yet. As we waited and waited the weather got worse. More lightening and thunder but just a light rain. When we finally got back out our apartment the second we closed the door behind us we could hear the down pour of rain crashing down. We ran all over to close up the windows as water started pouring in! Then... the worst thing happened. I heard a thud in the extra bedroom we were too afraid to sleep in. Worse yet, the door was closed yet none of us remembered closing it! Brittany and I tried to be brave and see what the sound was. As our hearts were pounding in our chests, she touched the knob as I stood behind her and BANG! An even louder thud and I was GONE! We screamed and ran into our room and baracated the door with our luggage! When we realized there was nothing we could do about the situation (after all it was after midnight, we had just gotten off of the last bus for the night, we were in the middle of a storm, and we couldn't even make a phone call to a taxi or hotel if we wanted to) So, we mustered up the courage to go out and see what it was... Rachel handed me a belt and said to get ready in case I needed to choke someone out haha!! We opened the door to find... The window had been left open so it was just the wind!

Friday, we FINALLY slept in. Lounged around, reorganized our bags and did laundry. It was a glorious thing. We've been gong nonstop for the past week so it was awesome. Once we finally left we hopped on the bus and went to explore Verona. We saw the Romeo and Juliette balcony and "locked our love" on the fence. We wandered around the open air markets, and pizza after more shopping. Then for dinner we met up with some girls from the congregation, for more pizza and then they took us to the cutest gelato place! Those girls were so fun! I really want them to come visit us in California. So it's time for us to hit the road again... Off to Rome!