I love Florence. It is my favorite place I have visited (behind Ireland, of course) so far. It was so much cleaner than Rome and very picturesque. The population of creepy guys is much lower than Rome which I appreciated.
Tuesday, March 16th :: Travel to Florence
Kelly and I bought train tickets to Florence the day before and so we got up fairly early, took advantage of our last free breakfast from the hostel, and walked over to Termini station. Our train was supposed to leave at 8:15am but we did not see any trains leaving for Firenze S.M.N. It wasn't until about 8:15:30 am when we realized the train we were supposed to be on was going to Milan but stopped at Firenze S.M.N. When we realized this, we ran to get our ticket validated just in time to watch our train pull out of the station. I can't think of a better use of 44 euro...so we had to buy another train ticket which was leaving at 8:43am. We waited around and once again couldn't tell which platform our train was at. Around 8:40 we realized platform 1 also has platforms a-e so when the board said 1E, we had to run for it. Thankfully, we weren't the only ones running (and I mean RUNNING) late and the train was held up. I've never been more grateful for a 3 hour ride. We both got some much needed rest. Our next adventure in public transportation was trying to figure out the bus and find our hostel. The directions said to take bus 22. The problem with those directions? They didn't say what stop to get off at...after a struggle to figure out our location via map and google, we ended up getting off at the correct stop and then walking in the complete wrong direction. The bus stop was directly across from our hostel but instead of looking across the street, we walked away from it. Around 2pm we were finally settled in the hostel which was more like a little apartment. It was really very nice (and we had two balconies!) but the internet left something to be desired...I felt like I was using dial-up again. Around 5 we both decided we were starving. We took bus 22 to the city center and stumbled upon the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella. This soon became my favorite Piazza. At this Piazza I was able to have Penne Alfredo (the menu actually said "Alfredo"! I almost jumped for joy! It's so difficult to find cream (alfredo) sauce in Europe.), peanut butter gelato (I definitely DID jump/scream for joy), and see an Irish pub which made me feel better about my Saint Paddy's plans.
Sadly, I do not remember specifics about what happened the rest of the trip, as it was a long time ago. I CAN tell you that I saw the David while in Florence (he is gigantic! His calf muscles are ridiculous! The overall detail in the statue is astounding; and all carved out of marble!), ate far too much food, and enjoyed Florence a lot. I do not have any pictures from this trip since my computer's final resting place was Brugges, Belgium (more on that later)
Thursday, March 18th :: Travel to Rome
Kelly and I went back to Rome so the next day Natalie and Laura could leave with us for Brugges. While in Rome, Natalie and I met up with a friend from elementary school who is also studying in Rome and we made a pilgrimage to the Saxophone Pub. It was well worth it. I just wish they sold t-shirts.
Friday-Sunday, March 19-21st :: Belgium
I really liked Belgium. The people were a lot nicer and Brugges was the cutest little town. Our trusty tour guide, Rick Steves (his book, obviously), told us the best places to see and visit in Brugges. We went to a candy shop called Dumon. The little old woman was one of the nicest ladies I've ever met and reminded me of my Mammom (My grandmom, for those of you who don't know that I call her that) if she was Belgian. She asked, since we are American, if we knew Rick Steves. We said yes of course and told her his son went to our school (more or less true) and that we are in the band with him (Irish Guard). In short, we told this woman we're friends with Rick Steves' son which is, in fact, not true but it was a little white lie and it made her very happy. I did feel slightly bad when she gave us free chocolate (only a piece each, otherwise I would feel horrible!) but I quickly drowned my bad feelings in the aforementioned chocolate and felt better. Overall, I really liked Brugges which is a good thing because there were a lot of things going against it:
1) Our hostel left something to be desired, namely, everything. The front office gives you the appeal of it being really clean and hip and cool but then you get to your room and use the sink and mystery sludge comes bubbling out...yeah, gross. Apparently it was rated "Best Hostel" three years in a row but I'm now thinking the hostel gave themselves that award...St. Christopher's Bauhaus Budget Hostel. DO NOT GO THERE.
2) St. Christopher's also happened to be the final resting place for Capitán, my computer. My computer just kept shutting down on its own but it would restart after a while. Well, one time it didn't restart and it has yet to come back to life. When I arrived back in Ireland I took it to the doctor and was told that the ac adapter plug lies right next to the motherboard in Dells and so if it surges, the motherboard could be damaged. Well guess what surged and guess what fried? Exactly. If it sounds expensive, that's because it is.
Next week I will try to get caught up on my blogs but I make no promises. Assignments and school work are piling up. It's that time of year I suppose!
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