Lucca/Pisa Weekend

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So...it all began...
I set my alarm for 5am on Friday to get up in time to make my 6:50am train. I was jolted awake at 5 'till 6 by my roomate going with me, announcing that my alarm haden't gone off. Lukily we made it with plenty of time to our train, I was in quite a daze, though.
We arrived in Lucca at 10:30 then found our hostel, a cute place a short walk outside the city's center. Our room was really neat, it was long with a low brick arch ceiling and warm down comforters. Gina and I spent the rest of the day wandering the "Walled City," going trough shops and finding some really beautiful churches, towers, and many other sights throughout. It was really refreshing to stay in a place with a small-town feel much more like what I get at home. All of the store owners are really friendly and love to visit for quite a while when you come in. One shop that we stopped in, we found the owner was an American, from California, and looks like amazing like a 50's-ish Clint Eastwood, seriously. I really wish I had taken the guy's picture--you would totally agree, all of you! He told us some neat places to go and we spent the rest of the day wandering around seeing the sights and finding some really good gifts.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to see Pisa. The leaning tower, cathedral, and dome are really impressive. Very picturesque with the green lawns, but a ton of tourists. We ate lunch at a really neat resturant and wandered around for awhile before heading back into Lucca. The rest of the afternoon we wandered around more, but decided around 6:30 that we had seen all there was to be seen. Since we were staying in a room with one other random man who we didnt talk to it was really kind of ackward in our hostel, so we decided to go ahead and catch an evening train back to Rome.
We left Lucca at 7:30 and made good time back to Florence. On the way from Florence to Rome; however, was another story. It was all fine and dandy going along, about to be back at our scheduled time of 11:30pm, when, at about 11:10, our train just stops. No explanation, no announcement...it just stops. For just under 4 hours. We found out about half an hour after we stopped that someone had died on the tracks just ahead of us so we were in for a wait because no trains were coming or going in our direction. So we waited...and waited...and waited...and it was ridiculous. They finally started passing out free food to keep people quiet...it didnt work. Everyone was pacing and grumbling (rightfully since we were only 15 mins from the station) and by the time we got to the station we were all just mad and tired and ready to be in bed. I didnt get to bed till almost 4 then got up at 9 to go to church so I'm COMPLETELY exhausted...and I dont feel good...and I dont want to be getting sick...and, yes, I'm going to whine about it...

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Comments

[Queso]

Cheese
Do you want some cheese with that wine? :D four hours though... at least it wasn't an american airlines flight... i hear theyre starting a protest union rallying for the right's of passengers to leave planes when they want to. just bring a parachute! maybe theyre talking about when on the ground, but i think all or nothing is the way to be. i mean, why only insist on the right to get off when on the ground when you could cover all your bases and demand immediate in-flight removal as well?

[Tamazing]

Though you should know.
In an effort to keep the people down here connected with you, I added a feature to my myspace page. Lets see if you can find what I'm talking about.