Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore...

Buongiorno!

After a morning of packing, repacking, weighing, repacking, ditching items, reweighing, and double checking size and weight limits I was ready to go.  You would think having an extra 16 pounds to play with by not flying out of Metro would be a blessing, but that is not necessarily the case.  You still have to fit every thing INTO the size limit and remember that you are going to a city where you do not have taxis or cars to transport your luggage.  I still channeled my inner Tim Gunn and Made It Work with enough room to fit my new Red Wings gnome (look forward to that series of pictures!).

Now let me start my records of my Italian adventure by just saying: the Toronto airport is harder to navigate than the staircase in Harry Potter.  Well, not the airport itself.  Once you are inside, it is easy breezy beautiful, CoverGirl.  But the drive to the terminal might as well have David Bowie as a guide.  It took several turns, asking a man who did not speak English, and a waitress to get us where we needed to go.

Our flight had some more turbulence than I would have liked, but nothing too terrible.  I originally had my row all to myself, but they moved a lady into the other aisle seat.  Not that I am complaining because I was still able to lay down in the fetal position and catch some zzz’s.  Though, did you know that babies can cry for almost 8 hours straight.  I do now. 

From the airport, Laura and I had almost 4 hours to get to the hotel, check in, and then get to the island to meet my hostess so that I could get my keys.  Yeaaa…that apparently was not enough time.  First off, the first bus we were supposed to take barely stopped at the airport. As in, they pulled up, stopped, we stood up, and it drove away.  So we had to wait for another hour to catch it on the next loop around.  Then we got to the second bus stop and I mistakenly put us on the right bus number, but going the opposite direction.  I was just in a panic because I didn’t want to waste another hour waiting for it to come back again.  However, since we were only a handful of stops away from where we needed to be, we had to now ride the bus alllllll the way to the end and back again. Oh, and of course sitting in front of me for a while was a kid wearing a Blackhawks hat. Whatever, GO WINGS!! Beat them tonight!

Now, almost 24 hours from when this adventure started in my driveway, we are in the hotel, I’ve made contact with my hostess (oh yea, I had been trying to call her but stupidly added numbers to their already 20 digit phone number so I felt bad about that), and we are going to grab some food and rest.  Tomorrow we head to the island.  I can’t wait to get this suitcase into the apartment and not have to worry about it for 24 days.

I may also start searching for some flat rate postage boxes to get some of this home.  I do not want to deal with this much stuff again.

Ciao!