Hej Då, Sverige; Benvenuto, Italia!

Jo, Joel, and I left Ljungby around 8:30am to begin our drive to the Copenhagen Airport. The car was ready and waiting for us at Holmgrens, so we had no problems getting on the road. After the almost 2-hour drive to Malmö, we hopped on the train to take us to the airport (it's about 200 kr cheaper than driving across the bridge or taking the ferry). My flight was leaving at 12:25, so I was able to check in, but Jo wouldn't be leaving until around 3, so she wasn't able to. We had a few minutes to spare before I needed to head through security, so we took our first Starbucks fika; thank God for the holiday blends! We bid each other farewell, and I went to security. My first flight was to Amsterdam, and only took about an hour and a half. I had an hour layover, but thankfully the airport had free wifi so I was able to talk to my parents and boyfriend a little bit to help pass the time. Before I knew it, I was finally boarding my next plane and on my way to Venice!

Piper and family (her husband Rob, their son Felix, and mother in law Ana) were sightseeing around Venice for the day, and wound up being a bit behind schedule in picking me up. An hour after I landed, Rob came into the airport, grabbed my stuff and we drove back to their home in Torri Di Quartesolo. Back at her apartment, I was able to relax and unpack before enjoying my first (!) margarita :) The salt here had "margherita" on the label, which naturally meant that tequila is the only thing that this particular salt should be used for. I had been in Italy for less than 2.5 hours and already amazed! Felix (my cousin's son) informed me to not be too excited, because this amazement would last much longer than two hours.

Yummy Margarita!!

Later, I had an interesting conversation with Felix about his current love triangle. You see, he loves Bridget, but unfortunately Bridget is "dating" (whatever that can possibly mean for a 4th grader) Felix's best friend Alex. Felix told me he had protected Alex from bullies a few times, and thus he "had his back". I made a comment about him following guy-code of bros before hoes, but Felix preferred it to be called bros before does, as in female deer. Throughout the conversation, I noticed his eyes wandering which naturally distracted me, as I was wondering what he was looking at. Had I spilled something? Was I sweating? No no, my friends. My ten year old cousin was staring at my boobs. This has NEVER happened to me before and thus, because this is how all things in my life happen, my second cousin was the first to notice. I'm not sure that he truly realized what was happening, or that he was doing it, but either way, I was shocked.

The next morning we headed back into Venice to pick up my mom and my sister. We were running a little behind schedule, again, but this time it was due to a car accident on the autostrada. The Garmin was a bit confused about our arrival time.

Arrival time: 10:33, Actual time on the clock: 10:34

I was sooo excited to see them, even as my mom walked out of the terminal like a diva-complete with brand new shades and oversized purse. I jumped into my sister's arms and latched on like a leech. She loved it. We drove out to Piper's and spent the afternoon around her town, going on walks and relaxing. Our first day together was relatively low key and didn't have us doing too many crazy activities. We walked around the town and enjoyed our first evening together. It was a great start to our family holiday in Italy!

Kam, Piper, mom, and me