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Published: October 5th 2007
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florence
This a big tourist bridge. The only bridge in the town the germans didnt blow up. noW filled with pricey gold/jewelry shops So the last three days have been in florence, and although it didn't have a.beach or crazy nighttime adventures i have had a very nice time meandering around such a historical city. First i want to share this story: on the train from nice to milan i was seated in one of those 6 seat rooms with another woman. She was old, spoke italian and french but no english, and was i guess you could call friendly. Despite the language barrier she was determined to talk my ear off. Personaly i thought she was annoying and crazy, but it was a packed train so i doubted the availability of another seat. Eventually i used my iPod and book to block any of her attempts to ramble on about herself or this cookbook she had bought (i know that sounds strange coming from me, but it was the ONLY time i felt comfortable dispite the language barrier and there were only so many recipes) but after a while she wanted to know what i was listening too. I gave her the ear pieces and put on the beatles. Immediately her eyes lit up and she started to sing loudly. Especially for michelle
since its in french. I really felt like i gave the gift of music and she was so happy for the rest of the trip. A young italian couple joined us in the coach and she proceeded to talk their ears of for the rest of the trip but every once in a while she would turn to me and smile saying "THE BEATLES."
on to florence...
So arriving in Florence late at night was a bit scary, though I dont actually think it is an unsafe city. Still traveling at night with all your belongings and a giant sign on your forehead saying TOURIST in neon letters as well as the stress of being lost and not sure where youre hostel is.... and you have no way to get ahold of them without finding some sort of internet. ... so basically i was being a huge wussy wandering around the train station looking stupid. Well once i did find my hostel (very nice interior but honestly they need a sign on the outside) I was really happy with it as well as the lack of added costs (3 euro showers, 2 euro time slot on the laptop, and
An olive tree!!
The sad news is they taste horrible when eaten fresh off the tree whatnot) in fact this place even had a kitchen and 2 bathrooms on each floor and I had a whole room to myself with a TV (not that I could figure out how it worked) as well as plenty of adapters (haha not that i had the italian adapter yet either). So basically if I had been prepared that night everything would have been as perfect as the following two nights. ANYWAY, the next day I got on a tour bus (I hate looking like a tourist but it was so worth it) to the Chianti region of Tuscany and saw some sights followed by a wine tasting with salami and regional cheese. I also saw a lot of famous trees like fig, olive, and cypress that i had never seen in person before. its really too bad im not going to be here in december when all the fresh olive oil comes out..... it only keeps its spectacular flavor for one year after being picked so buying it in October would have been pointless. So basically I had a beautiful relaxing day and came back into town to stoll around and buy booze for the night in my hostel.
The guy running it all three nights had a monster crush on me so he snuck out to buy whiskey and coke and I taught him how to play Kings (hahaha he was so bad at nine nine bust a rhyme we couldnt even do it) I gave him my texas hat that i brought that read"you may all go to hell, but i will go to texas" from davie crockett. I think he really appreciated it, the next day he brought me two gifts: a cute candle and some angel thing a ma bobber.
The next day I decided I would actually explore florence, although i didnt go inside any of the main attractions. the lines are too long and they look nice on the outside anyway. I did go shopping though. I went to the leather district with no intentions of buying--- unless i found sexy leather boots, but instead walked away with a ridiculous amount of stuff. I havent used a purse in months and suddenly ive ended my purse strike for this amazingpurple and beige bag. oh i love it so much. I also went to watch this street performer my friend Katie for Nice
hostel dude man
I think the hat was fucking awesome had told me about. She actually was wooed by him and he took her out around Tuscany tasting wine and olive oil and it was something out of the movies--he even forced his apartment keys into her bag which i was supposed to return to him but forgot to get from her. After hearing all about him I had to go see him in person and he was hilarious. He would follow tourists around to suprise them, find a couple walking and hold their hands until they noticed it was actually a painted clown---this produced a lot of good screams, and sometimes when a bike would roll by he would push down on the back so it would stop and the rider couldnt figure out what was wrong and would eventually get discouraged and get off the bike pushing it as they walked.
Another night in the hostel and I met a man working in the florence area(he preferred to stay in hostels instead of hotels since he would be living in cities longterm and hotels are all the same) but he usually lived in germany so I had lots of good conversation with him about a lot of topics.... most interestingly was that kiwis (people from new zealand) occasionally fuck sheep and you can buy inflatable sheep as gag gifts and the realization that although the US is talking so much shit about mexican immigrants, they are so hardworking that neither myself or him could think of a time where we ever saw one begging on the street. Compared to what Ive been seeing in europe the US should be thankful our streets arent plagued with a generation of lazy immigrants who would rather beg than get a real job (let alone 2 or 3)
So when I awoke the next day I headed to Perugia, but Ill put that in a seperate entry!
caio!
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