A day of rest

Everyone in our group except for Allyson, Ania, Ashley, and me went to Venice today. They are staying there all weekend, so it is just us four here at the hotel. We didn't want to go to Venice because it is Carnivale weekend and Valentine's Day, so it will probably be super crowded. Plus it is still really cold there, and we'd rather go when it gets warmer. Next weekend I hope to go to a Carnival celebration (similar to Mardi Gras) at a small town called Viareggio. Today we were thinking about going to Pisa as a day trip, as it is only about an hour away by train, but none of us were quite feeling up to it today. Allyson and I are both recovering from our colds, and Ania just caught one. So instead of going to Pisa, I stayed in my pajamas until 2:00 p.m. and looked up information on Cinque Terre online. Cinque Terre are five little towns on the coast of Italy connected by a hiking trail. Everyone I've talked to who has travelled in Italy has said that it is a must see. So I decided that is what I'd like to do for my birthday weekend (March 14). All 14 people in our group want to go as well, so I'm in the process of figuring out how to get a hotel or hostel for all of us. I've contacted a few places via email, but I haven't got any responses yet. There is this really cute place called Manuel's Guesthouse that the group last year stayed at. My friend Ryan recommended it to me, and I would really like to stay there if the rest of the group is up for it. It's a bit more expensive than a hostel, but at least we would know what to expect. Other than looking into that, I went for a long run/walk, and I found a new public hiking trail that snakes through part of an olive orchard. It was really pretty, and it was a fairly nice day today: sunny and 46 degrees. It had been a while since I went running with midterms and all, so it felt really good to get back into it. Tonight it will just be us four girls and Bob for dinner, but the rest of the group has already paid for meals because of their meal plan. So Bob said that we would get a really fancy meal tonight. He is talking about ordering prosecco, wine, and steak along with other more high-class item menus. I've been trying not to eat a lot all day so that I can enjoy this dinner to the fullest. Tomorrow we are going to Bologna, but I don't know if it will just be a day trip or an overnight thing. Bologna is only about an hour away by train, so I'm kind of hoping for it to be a day trip, but it depends on what everyone else wants to do too. So all in all it has just been a nice day of relaxation to recuperate from midterms and my cold. I think it is a good thing that I did not go to Venice, because I would probably still be tired and sick if I did. Even when you're travelling sometimes you just need to take time to relax and realize that you will never have time to see everything. This is something that I learned when I was in Colorado for a summer working as a camp counselor. While I was there I tried to pack as much into every weekend as I could, and by the end of the summer I was just so tired that I had very little energy to do my job. So the moral of the story is, you have to find a happy medium of experiencing new things and taking time to relax and take it all in. The end.