(long post!)

Arlanda Stockholm, Sweden 🛫 Marco Polo, Italy 🛬

July 18th 8pm I took the train down from where I live to the airport Arlanda Stockholm, Sweden. 06am the flight left for Italy and I was at the hotel around 9am. It was my first time traveling solo to a country I have never been to. I was scared, nervous and excited on the same time. After my flight to Norway (2024, first time on plane..) I have been terrified of going on planes. This time, down it was alright but way home, ohmygod.

Here is some memories, ups and downs, plus and minus, and the whole shebang about my personal opinions and experience .

NOTE; these are my opinions and experience. Venice is different for everyone but here in this post I write my experience.

Most memorable things/moments

I actually have a few memorable moments of this trip.

1. The tourist of myself on the first day. I was so impressed of the buildings but when i saw my first palm tree ever. Ohmygod, the smile on my face was huge (I love palm trees). My inner little child cried a bit. It has always been a dream of mine to see real palm trees. We dont have those in Sweden.

2. The fight between people who were drinking and their fights for a pack of smokes in a vending machine. (Not a fun situation but its interesting to see how angry people can become when it comes to nicotine).

3. I met a photographer I taught how to take macro, landscape etc type of pictures (he was a professional portrait photographer).

4. Burano! The colors! Ohmy. (pictures will come)

5. The sunsets and lightning show

Most disappointment of my trip?

• The most disappointment for me on the trip was actually the expectations people had given me for this trip. Because it was not as everyone has told me, what i have seen online or in movies, which made me really really upset. Everyone talks about the romance, the lights, the buildings etc.

• NO turtles! I went to a park where they have said and shown pictures to me about wild turtles. I went there but no turtles 😭

• I went to a steak restaurant.  I notified the staff where I was gonna sit (due to I didnt know where to sit). I took a both and I waited 30 minutes to get service but none came even though the staff saw me sitting there and I made hand gestures that I wanted to order. I left the restaurant and told them how bad they treated me.

What didn’t I like with the trip?

• The food! Ohmygod people has told me “you must eat a real Italian pizza!” “you MUST eat pasta with pesto” etc. I tried the pizza (not pasta. couldn’t find any). I tried 3 different (on picture, only two of them) kinds of pizza and I was so disappointed.  Just mashed tomatoes as sauce, no spices or what so ever. I tried with black pepper and salt to make it atleast eatable but no. Luckily the pizzas were “cheap”.

• The shower in my hotelroom. Oh lord it was tiny. But it worked atleast.

• How insanely crowded the transportations were. You could barely sit and when I managed to get a spot to sit, I always gave it away to either an older person or a child.

What did I not do in Italy?

• Went on gondolas. They were ridiculously expensive and honestly, not worth it.

• Didn’t have a full day at the area with churches etc (San Marco I think the area is called). I just walked through it very fast to get on the other side of Venice before the bus left.

• I did not buy typical Italian stuff.

• Used a bathroom outside my hotelroom. I was scared ok! 😭 some were horrible! Some were literally straight out of a horror movie.

• Went on a tramp/those trains in cities

• try the bidé or what it calls, in the hotelroom. Looks scary and honestly, i dont know what to use it for

What do I regret?

• Eating the cheese and bacon chicken burger at BurgerKing. I have never thrown away food as fast as I did when I tried the first bite. Luckily I had ordered chili cheese balls as well so I had something in my stomach.

I tried to eat the lid with only bacon and cheese but no.

Pictures from BurgerKing.

• I regret not buying those decoration masks. We had those when I was younger but I think my brother threw them away. I wanted to start collect those again. It’s a childhood memory.

• I regret not using my cameras but couldn’t due to the heat. All my pictures in the blog from Italy is taken with my phone and WordPress doesn’t make it fun to upload due to the very bad quality of them here even though they are sharp and great on other social medias.

• Buying a powerbank from flying tiger but I was desperate.  My phone died and I was supposed to meet up a friend I met there so I bought a cheap one. But hey, it worked.

Shopping?

• I went to Primark. I was surprised that they had that store. I bought almost all my stuff i brought back home from there.

sports bra, water bottle/mugs for myself and my son, sandals, waterborne with stitch for my best friend, hats and sunglasses for my son. Sunglasses for myself. Bathroom/toiletries bags that I will actually use to my camera gears. Face wipes (7 packs), wallet.

(I bought more but can’t remember right now)

• I bought a l o t of fruits and water. I pretty much lived on fruits. I tried many times to eat warm/hot food in the heat but I really couldn’t. (including the pizzas, I threw them away). I also bought Ice Teas, Sprite Zero and Pepsi max.

• Flying tiger; the powerbank (worthless) and a mug which unfortunately is broken.

• After sun .. I got so burned 1h in the Venezia I had to buy after sun.

Fun stuff I did/hear/see

• I tried those electric scooter/kick bike for the first time and I loved it! I used them a lot! Too bad they were absolutely ridiculously expensive.

• I tried one sip of that Jack Daniel’s and Coke. I had seen it alot and remembered how people had praised it. Mind you, that I absolutely dislike alcohol but wanted to try this one anyway.

One sip and I threw it away. Luckily it was cheap.

• Getting compliments. I got a lot of compliments because of my size, my look etc. I even got called Queen Viking from one when I answered his question where I was from. He thought I was from Scotland but I told him I was from Sweden. “AH! QUEEN VIKING! beautiful Queen viking!”. That was funny.

• Hummingbird! I saw my very first Hummingbird with my own eyes! It was exciting but on same time it was a sad moment. Why sad? because in every movie / series I have seen where they show Hummingbird, all the pictures and clips I have seen, the Hummingbird is a tiny tiny small bird but the one I saw was a moth kinda looking one.

Plus and Minus & the Explanations about Venice

Plus & the explanations

● Transportation (bus and trains)

My hotel is just a few minutes away from the city so that is a plus. My hotel is also close to the bus stop so I can go pretty much where I want.

The number 7E went to the city pretty much every 20 minutes, which was really good. It also went back to Metre where I stayed at ever 20minutes.

The number 13 didn’t go so often as 7E but it went pretty good though so I could go to the shopping mall

● Electric kickbikes

First time I ever tried one and I can honestly say.. I was terrified. After the first time, I used them often and honestly,  I wanted to go on them all the time to explore. So easy to use and you go far one few minutes

● Foodstores pretty much everywhere

When the hotel is closed after breakfast, I can always count on foodstores. There is a foodstore around the corner of my hotel which is ok. But the other day I found other foodstores that I went to

● Breakfast at the hotel

Only plus was that Breakfast was included in the package deal I had at the hotel.

● The architecture/  buildings / houses

Venice is full of old buildings, interesting architecture.  Which is what I love to see when im not at home. Venezia is full of houses that looks like Spanish/  Mexican houses and I LOVE those

● Fruits, ice tea and water

Thank god for fruits, water and ice tea. I barely eat anything during the days during this massive heat but I force myself to eat something.  Diabetic you know. Ice tea to keep my sugarlevel stable. I drank mostly water.

● Shopping

going to an other city to go shopping is something special. Sure there is a shopping center near the hotel i stay at but it was nothing for me. But going to an other city i found Primark, which is the only 2nd time I have been at.

Minus & the explanations

● Language crash

Unfortunately I didn’t speak Italian other than “Thank You” “Thank you so much” “hello” “goodmorning”. I spoke English though but what made the language crash was that not many speaks English there. Not even young people. So it was hard to communicate with people luckily I remembered and used Google translator, voice translation.

● Breakfast at the hotel

Sadly, the breakfast was a disappointment.  The Italians love cakes and sugar as breakfast and me having diabetes and caramelized apples.. isn’t good. So I pretty much just had a Lil piece of bread  I found but it made me feel so so bad afterwards so I went to the store and bought fruits instead

● the shower

well, let me tell you like this.. I’m fat (yes I know, bad word but its the truth) and having a small small shower in a corner wasn’t a good choice however I did take showers daily. 🙌🏻

● Euro (the currency) 

This currency was so confusing. I’m just used to swedish crowns and I tried to calculate each time I bought stuff to swedish currency but yeah. didnt work. I even tried using the calculator to summon up the total and later go on Google to “exchange” and see how much it would be in swedish money.. It always came out wrong. Even though I wrote the exact numbers they showed on pricing.

● Stone roads

oh my god! Stone roads everywhere. you know those roads made of pieces of stones/bricks? They are everywhere . They are pretty to see but awful to walk on entire days

● The heat

I’m used to heat but Sweden and Italy is waaaay different! In Sweden its kinda hot and dry but the fact that Italy has the sea around it (we have woods etc) it made the air.. moist.

● Shopping mall near the hotel

Near my hotel, there were a shopping center/mall with 6 floors. For me personally it was a bad mall. Only store I bought from was the foodstore at tge bottom floor

● The food

no explanation needed. I have written about it earlier

● Got clothes stolen

I came back to my hotelroom one day after have been into the town taking photos, where I noticed my one bag of clothes were gone. Note this bag was on top of my suitcase and open so it showed it was clothes/ used. I spoke with the people in the reception and they didnt take any responsibility for it so.. yeah..  fun.. not.

● Same bedsheets

Even though I had cleaning etc daily and me talking via Google translator about changing bedsheets etc (mind you that the heat was up to +45°C and as a heavy girl, that is hot!) which they understood what it said cuz they showed me in their communication,  I asked daily for new sheets. Unfortunately they “changed” it by just flipping the sheets over or turned it. Emma, how do you know they did that? Well, on my first day I accidentally dropped a piece of chocolate so it melted and I saw that stain every damn day.

● No working Air Conditioning (AC)

I had to ask the front desk if I could borrow a fan, or else I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.

● Television / the tv

While I was charging my phone i tried to watch some tv. Luckily they had Crime channel and was showing Law & Order,  Special Victims Unit which I love. So I thought I was gonna be able to have a date with Detective Tutola (Ice T) but sadly, the connection in tv was horrible and they had removed english subtitles. Even though I understand English, I can’t understand everything.

Last words for this blogpost

I really liked being in Italy but unfortunately I was so bored and so upset on how it was. Personally one week in same place is to long. I wanted to leave the day after I arrived. I was not impressed.

Remember that this post is my words, my opinions and my experiences.  What I experienced in Italy might not be the same for you. Keep that in mind!

 due to my bad memory and memory loss I have due to the mental health (bad) I can’t remember everything so bare with me. I will make posts when ever I remember something else than this. Iam truly truly sorry for this.

Personal recommendations

Would i recommend to go to Venice? Yes. It’s a good place for a first time solo traveler.

Is it safe? Yes it is safe. At least I had no problems being there (other than my camera bag strap)  but make sure to do your research.

Something to remember? IMPORTANT! four things!

• Pickpockets ! Use mini locks if you can when you are out. I did that and no one could take stuff. They tried once to cut my camera bag strap though when I had my cameras with me to the city (first or second day I was there) so I had to throw the strap away. So be aware!!!

• Souvenirs shops. They will try rip you off! so be aware of that! Try barging as much as you can! (I’m horrible at that honestly)

• Use card as payments! Every store / sellers I met and saw took card! Minimize having cash on you! You will be a bigger target if you have cash on you!

• Hidden sellers! There are hidden sellers who will try lure you in to places to buy stuff. Black market I think it called. Do not go with them!

More recommendations

• SHOES! make sure you have comfortable shoes! You will walk alot.

• Drink a lot of water! With strong rays from the sun and the heat, you must drink a lot of water so avoid getting dehydrated.  Trust me  it ain’t fun!

• Hat / cover your head! Trust me!

• Salted potato chips, sugar and water! Look for foodstores when you are out. Due to the heat you will need to buy alot of extra water but also salted potato chips/ crisps. They do not have   fluid replacements . I asked for it literally in every store I went in and drugstores. salt, sweet and water is what you need for replacement of that.

I will repeat drink water alot but you really need to!

if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.  I will gladly answer them 🥰

Thank you for reading this long blogpost and if you ever go to Venice, tell me. Have you been there? hat was your plus and Minus? I would love to know.

Pictures from Venezia / Venice,  Italy will come up in the blog. I will show you all the photos i have taken there so 🥰 dont worry. they are coming!