Break time is over I’m afraid, and for me that means my life becomes even more impossible.

As I’ve mentioned, the third semester of my masters degree is going to take place in Europe. There I’ll be doing a project headed by the European Space Agency alongside some students from both Turin and Toulouse.

I say there, I mean here. I write to you now from my new accomodation in the city centre of Turin. I’ve spent all day travelling here in preperation for next week so I thought I’d share the tale of my travels.

It started, at 4am. Somehow I woke up perfectly with only one alarm, was it excitement, or fear? Whatever the cause, I was up and ready to go and was dropped of at the airport by half past the hour. I dropped by suitcase off, passed through security, and waited by the gate for my plane to be called.

The time seemed to pass like nothing as I watched the plane on the runway slowly be bussed in close to me. Before I knew it, I was seated on the plane. The engines roared to life, and I felt my body lift off of the Earth.

I looked out the window to my left, and saw the town I grew up in slowly getting further away. I’m not usually one for on-the-nose metaphors but there was something quite symoblic about seeing it there. All the spots I frequent, the cafes, the parks, the cats, it was all now fading beneath the clouds.

The first flight wasn’t long, only a quick hop over the north sea to Amsterdam. I sat listening to my music, a collection of songs which I thought would relax me and so downloaded to my phone beforehand. They seemed to do the trick, before I knew it the seatbelt sign was back on and the plane began to descend.

After a quick shuttle to the terminal, and a somehow even quicker pass through security. It was a race against time for me to get across the airport to my gate for my connection flight. As I power walked I had a moment of surreality…

A year ago today, I was a lab technician at a college in Leeds. I loved that job, and I think I still would, but now here I was, powerwalking across an airport in Amsterdam like some sort of seasoned traveller, so that I can get a flight to Turin where I will be living for seven weeks so that I can work on a project with the best space agency in the world. Truly an impossible life.

Through the twisting corridors, up and down the endless stairways, and stopping quickly at a crepe stand, I made it to my gate just as the call for my seat was being made. The timing couldn’t have been more impeccable if I do say so myself. I once again got myself seated and ready for the flight, everyone around me was speaking in Italian so I was only able to make out about half of it. This life in Italy will certainly be testing.

Once again I took off into the air. The pilot announced we would be flying through German, French and Swiss airspace before landing in Italy which brought my grand total of countries I went to today up to six! We climbed up to our cruising altitude, and I took up a conversation with my seat buddy. He pointed out of the window after about 20 minutes at a river surrounded by skyscrapers, “Düsseldorf” he said with a smile and I felt my mouth fall open slightly.

Not too long after, I looked out of the window to see a large lake below us. I must admit I know very little about European geography, but with the benefit of being able to see my flight path after the fact I now know what lake that was…

Lake Constance from 37,000 ft

This lake sits on the German-Swiss-Austrian border just north of the Alps. In the picture above, you can see three different countries! The lake was well known even back in Roman times with the first known mentions of the lake in the first century. Despite it’s singular name however, it is actually made up of three seperate bodies of water: the Obersee, Untersee, and Seerhein.

My flight continued further south, and the terrain below us became white. Clouds I assumed initially, until I took a second to look properly. That isn’t vapour, it’s snow. Those are mountains. I was over the Alps.

I regret to tell you though that I have no pictures of this. I was in such a disbelief as to what I was actually seeing I spent twenty minutes just staring dumbfounded out of the plane window. It wasn’t until I began to see green and more flat terrain that I realised I had missed my shot, but this sight meant only one thing, I was in Italy.

Minutes later we touched down at Torino airport. After a breif escapade where I discovered they might have left my suitcase in Amsterdam, I was on the shuttle bus heading towards the city centre. I looked out of the window the whole time taking in the Italian life. The road signs, the driving on the other side of the road, the terrible driving, it all truly was amazing to me.

I got off the bus in the city centre, on a road lined with trees, a helpful shade from the Italian heat. My next job was to find my accomodation, I had the address saved I just needed to find it. Would it be across town? Would I need to get the tram? or the Metro? or was it … two streets away? Well how’s that for good parking I’m a short stroll away!

I got to the reception within five minutes and had my key within ten. The accomodation is very quaint, with plenty of space for people to sit out and some lovely green areas. I got shown to my room on the top floor of one of the buildings, and for what must have been the twelth time that day felt my jaw drop slightly. The room is incredible, with tonnes of storage, an on suite, a massive window with a great view of a proper Italian looking street. I don’t know if I’m making a big deal out of the ordinary or if this kind of thing really is as amazing as I think it is.

I took another moment here to just take in what was happening to me. I sat on the edge of my bed and looked out of my window at Italy. I was really here, all of this is really happening, and this is just day one!

There is so much more of this city for me to explore, so many more adventures to be had in a whole new country. Today I just wanted to share the tale of my travels here, but I’ll definitely have some new posts out soon.

Whilst we’re here though, I figured I’d teach you some Italian words and phrases that I’ve really had to use today:

• Come stai? – How are you?
• Buongiorno – Good morning/day
• Per favore – Please
• Grazie – Thank you
• Un biglietto per il centro – A ticket to the centre

And of course:

• Caldo, mucho caldo – Hot, very hot

Ciao ciao,

Cassie