Hi all,
This is my last update covering the last period of my exchange. It has been
the most amazing experience and I can’t wait for the day I can return to
Europe and the beautiful Italy. Brescia will always be like a second home to
me and I want to thank all my host families and all the people who helped me
before during and after my year abroad.
This last month and a bit has by far been one of the best and busiest. I moved
into my new family who gave me the best final part of my exchange I could
have imagined, they treated me like their own daughter and showed me loads
of their country. In their house I shared a room with another exchange
student, Selena, from Oregon in the United States. She too, was wonderful
and is now like a sister to me. The family had two fraternal twins who were 13
and very sweet and their daughter is currently in my family’s house in New
Zealand.
I had my last rotary event in Cremona a day celebrating nougat called ‘festa
del torrone’ it was really fun and basically a free day for me to see the city
Cremona for the last time and all the other exchange kids in my district for the
last time, I really enjoyed it!
A friend Elena I made at school took me skiing the next weekend in Ponte di
Legno where I lived in the summer
for two weeks. It was a lovely
weekend but due to lack of snow we
never made it skiing instead we had
lunch in the mountains and used the
gondola.
Another weekend, another trip. My
host family took me and Selena to
Rome for four days. We woke up
bright and early on a Friday and
caught the train from Brescia at 7 am
arriving in Rome at midday.
We used the chaotic metro system of Rome to find our hotel where we settled
in then went for lunch and a wander
in Rome. We saw the stunning
Pantheon and visited the iconic
Sant’Eustachio coffee shop and got
gelato before returning to the hotel for
the night.
Another early rise the next day where
thankfully my host family had pre
booked tickets into the Vatican City
so we could skip the queues it was
one of the most amazing museums I
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have ever visited and I got to see paintings I had been studying the week prior
in art history in real life, truly surreal.
After we had lunch my family kindly took us back to the hotel for a wee rest
because the cough I had was debilitating. After a bit we returned to the streets
of Rome for dinner and a stroll.
In my final day in Rome we visited the Colosseum which was marvellous but
really busy, thank god again for my family who had got pre-booked tickets
beforehand. Then we visited the Trevi fountain which at the time was under
repair which was a shame, but none the less I could imagine its beauty
without the scaffolding. After dinner in a pastry shop we visited San Pietro
square, which was great and really huge! The next day was consumed with
the huge train trip back to Brescia where I immediately packed for my next big
adventure the following morning!
Switzerland! My train left in the afternoon, enough time to sort out all that
needed too be done. My host mum dropped me off and waited with me till my
train to Milan came, we said our goodbyes then I was off! The short trip too
Milan was nothing compared to the long trip from Milan to Luzern. I went to
meet fellow New Zealand exchange student Patsy who comes from Tauranga
and who I met in LA in the few days journey we had in January. I made it safe
and fine and went to her house in a city near by to discuss our plan for the
next week.
The jam packed first day we conquered most of the main city’s in French
Switzerland starting in Freiburg where we stumbled
across this weird fantasy arena thing and continued
our walk to a small township with only bridge entry
nearby. Next city was Lausanne where we took
Switzerland’s only metro system down to the lake for a
walk along the lakeside to the Olympic museum and
all its sculptures. Last city of the day was Monteux,
which we hit just as the sunset, perfect for exploring
the beautiful Christmas markets, we walked long and
came to find a statue of non other than Freddie
Mercury for seemingly no reason, perhaps there was
but I couldn’t read the French written plaque.
My second also full on day in
Switzerland we went to Zurich in
the morning with two Australian
exchange students we saw the
sights and took a quick walk up
to a look out point where most of
the city could be seen. We all
then took a train up to Konstanz
right on the border between
Germany and Switzerland and I
could finally use my euros again.
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And last stop that day we made it to St. Gallen a cute wee town with a
beautiful church and lovely Swiss architecture.
The next day we headed to Zermatt maybe better known as the Matterhorn or
even better know as the mountain whose shape inspired the Toblerone
chocolate bar. It was the longest set of train rides thus far but utterly worth it
the township was beautiful and the mountain panoramas even more stunning.
In the afternoon we went to Sion a small French Swiss town near by, it was
odd and had the highest count of public nativity scenes I have ever seen!
The next day we stuck with only two cities again going to Luzern in the
morning to do a bit of Christ mas shopping and too the see the attractions. In
the evening we went to Basel to see another incredibly busy Christmas
market.
Our arguably best or stupidest idea for the next day was to try to cycle to
Austria from the Swiss border passing
through the country of Lichtenstein.
We began by using the trains to
Zurich where we picked up our bikes
from a friend of Patsy’s, then we
caught another Train to Buchs the
town where our journey began It
ended up taking us 6 hours with many
stops but we finally made it to our
destination Feldkirch a small Austrian
town which also happened to have a
lovely Christmas market running, due
to exhaustion we took the train back to Switzerland, returned the bikes and
returned home.
On my last day in Switzerland we tidied up the few cities I hadn’t visited yet
and saw Geneva, which was very French. We visited the UN building and saw
the old town then headed by train to the capital Bern. My train was at 10am
the next day so I made my way to Luzern and due to train delays ‘ran with two
minutes to spare onto my train to Milan, it was such an incredible week.
The following weekend me and Selena did a day trip to the City of Bergamo
near by, it was a quaint city spit into tow parts, that on the ground and that on
the mountain, most of our day we spent in Bergamo alta (on the mountain)
which we accessed by cable car reminding me a bit of Wellington.
Three days later it was Christmas, in Italy it’s a grand affair. On Christmas eve
my family hosted their extended family for dinner where we all ate till we
couldn’t then near midnight all opened our gifts, they then went to church but
me and Selena opted out of that due to our overstuffed belly’s. On Christmas
day we went to my host grandmas house where my host mum cooked
another grand feast and we ate for 4 hours before returning home even more
full than the night before!
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On the 27th of December it
snowed! About the closest I have
ever gotten to a white Christmas!
We stayed inside and played
monopoly then in the afternoon
had a snowball fight through the
neighbourhood.
Later that week my host family
took me on my first visit to Verona
the setting of Romeo and Juliet.
We saw the famous balcony from Romeo and Juliet and the arena of Verona.
It was so lovely of them to take us and I had a great day.
On New Year’s eve I made my first and
heavily overdue trip to the castle of
Brescia, aside from its gory history the
castle was beautiful and gave panoramic
views over the snowy roofs of Brescia.
That afternoon we began our long car ride
to Madonna di Campiglio, a beautiful ski
field in the dolomites with 62 lifts! It was
an intimate New Year’s eve with just my host family and a few of their friends
and we welcomed the New Year with fireworks and eating 12 grapes for good
luck.
On the first of January (my birthday) we went snowboarding. It was the most
amazing field. We rode up in gondolas and on
one humongous run you encountered 3 different
cafés! In the evening my family brought out a
beautiful cake spelling ‘Auguri Natalina’ which
translates to ‘best wishes little Natalie’ it was
really lovely not to mention delicious! After two
more days of amazing skiing we returned to
Brescia.
A day later was my last night in Italy. My family took me out to say goodbye to
a few of my friends, we then had coffee and they took me on my last walk
through the beautiful city of Brescia. We returned home where I ate my last
Italian pizza and my lovely host brother decided to learn and play me the New
Zealand national anthem on his clarinet!
The next day I took a small plane over to London where I was to stay for two
nights. The only problems I had were due to my two huge bags that had me
waddling around and putting them down every two seconds!
On my only day in London city I woke up bright and early, took the bus to the
airport and then a metro to Piccadilly Circus where I quickly bought a ticket to
a hop on hop off bus that did tours of the city, the first stop was the National
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gallery where they had an amazing exhibition of Rembrandts late works, then
to Buckingham palace where I arrived in time for the changing of the guards
then I wandered a little and
found myself staring at Big Ben
and Westminster abbey. I got
back on my bus, which took me
to the Tate modern Gallery
then on again back to the start
and the National Portrait
Gallery, my favourite of them
all.
My double backed flights were
the next day and I thankfully
had a late checkout so I waited
in the hotel until the time came that I needed to make my way to Heathrow
and meet up with all the other Kiwi students from around Europe. The flights
were fine. I love flying. I got hardly any sleep and watched far too much TV
but three flights later I arrived energised from all the adrenalin in Wellington.
A big thank you goes out to everyone who has taken their time this year to
read my letters; I know they are way too long. Not to mention all the people
who made this year possible, you all know who you are.
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