Blog Days 8, 9, and 10

This is going to be one LONGGG blog post...

So Friday... we went to school and had a quiz. It wasn't too bad so I hope I did well because I would love to get an A in this class. Plus, I studied really hard! There were a few extra credit questions too that I know I got right so that should also help. They ended class a few minutes early because we all had to go get ready for FLORENCE!!!!! :-D

We went back to the hotel and grabbed our bags and did a bit of last minute packing, met the group, and headed off to Florence (or Firenze as it is called here)! 14 of us caught the train and we were off! :-D Behard, our one and only male on the trip, was deemed our German Shepard, tour guide, knight, and translator. He really took care of us this weekend and I really appreciated it! He organized who was going, got all the train tickets for us, researched and reserved a hotel for everyone, and planned what to do and where. It was an amazing weekend and we really have him to thank for it! We are going to celebrate his birthday in Milan and make sure he has a blast!

So anyway... 4 hour train ride to Florence. The view was amazing and it never got old! Look out one side and you see gorgeous views of the Mediterranean Sea with cliffs and beaches and rocky shore lines and boats and fishing towns and gorgeous villas right on the water. Look out the other side of the train and the skyline is broken up by the mountains that were tree covered and snow-peaked. The sky is bright blue with small, bright white clouds. The sunset is breath-taking and indescribable. We passed town after town of brightly colored houses, orange trees lining the streets, and mopeds and mini cars zooming all around. I couldn't peel my eyes away from the view.. it was spectacular.

we got to Florence around 7pm. We asked for directions to our hotel and set off along cobblestone streets, where the bright yellow and cool tan buildings were so close together, the only visible sliver of sky was taken up by the full moon and the huge Duomo that Florence is famous for. As we walked towards the Hotel Ginori, we passed intricately detailed churches, piazzas with fountains and statues of Italy's greatest and bravest, and windows that gave glimpses of painted ceilings and beautiful artwork. We passed bars, cafes and restaurants with beautiful bottles of wine in the windows and delicious scents of pasta and pizza wafting out.

We got to our hotel and checked in. Krissie and Emoni had decided to come last minute and only for one night so they had to get their own room but everyone else was in groups of four. Ash, Kel, and I stayed in a room with another girl, Karen. The rooms were nice and we each had our own bed and closet. The bathroom was weird though... as all bathrooms in Italy seem to be. The toilet was INSIDE the shower and the shower only had a detachable head that refused to work like a normal shower. It was a funny experience and we all got a laugh out of it. (The bathroom in Genoa is even worse... the windows aren't airtight so the bathroom is always freezing and the curtains even move when the window is closed from the wind blowing in! And the water can never stay at one temperature. And the toilet is funky lol) So in comparison, the Florentine bathroom was amazing! Plus, the towels were actually SOFT!!! They don't have clothes dryers in Italy so the towels are all scratchy but the ones at our Florence hotel were niceee!

We all got ready and left to find some dinner. We randomly went into a place where you ordered at the counter and they brought it to your table. The food wasn't very good. A lot of us got a pasta sampler and no one really liked it. But they let us drink the wine we had bought earlier there so that made up for it. I also split a cannolli with Kel which was pretty good. I figured I had been in Italy for a week... I needed to try an authentic cannolli here! we went back to the hotel and pre-gamed with wine and had some bonding time. It was a lot of fun and I really like most of the people here! I was excited because Krissie decided to drink and go out with us even though her and Emoni were waking up early to do an art tour in Florence. I hadn't had much hang out time with her outside of homework time (She speaks Italian really well because she is a French and Spanish major and has been to Italy a bunch of times so she helps us with homework). We all got nicely tipsy before we left and Florence was just as pretty with a wine buzz! :-P We were walking to one club that was in my book but then there was a guy handing out fliers for another club so we decided to go there. It was called Astor and upstairs had a huge bar, projector TVs, white curtains and black lights, and lots of interesting people. Downstairs felt kind of like Thirsty Turtle, with loud dance music, flashing lights, everyone dancing, and the drinks flowing. It was really fun though! We all went and got drinks and they gave us all free shots. Some of the Italian boys there were really nice but others were total creepers. Ashley (not Ash my roommate) was being CHASED by one guy even though she repeatedly told him no. Pretty funny. I think they have a thing for red heads here since there are none. I was chatting with a guy named Lidi who was nice and chill. He even backed off when I told him I wanted to dance with my friends. He is a really good dancer (I think all European men are!) and it was so fun! He even dipped me! Rofl.

After awhile of dancing and drinking, we decided that the Italians can out-party us Americans and it was time for us to end the night. (I think they party from like 1 am until 6 am... and then get up and walk all over town during the day!) Behard was our German shepard; he counted us as we left the bar to make sure we had everyone and he made sure none of us smashed our faces on the cobblestones. We all made it safely back to the hotel and crashed in bed... well kind of.

The hotel was pretty nice but had some quirky, amusing qualities that were especially funny late at night when we were drunk. For example, the beds were REALLY bouncing. They felt like trampolines!!! I was bouncing all over the place and laughing my butt off. Ash took some hilarious videos that night! (they will be on facebook eventually). All in all, it was a great night.

The next morning, we clutched our heads and dragged ourselves out of bed, ate a quick breakfast of bread (because that is all they serve in the morning), and started our sight-seeing. We started out with the Duomo, the huge dome on top of a church that Florence is famous for. We went inside that church and looked at the artwork there (everywhere, and especially every church, has a TON of artwork! Intricate, detailed, extravagant, antique art pieces adorn every inch of space on every single building, even if it is a building with an every day use, like a grocery store). We wandered the streets and went to the university and L'Academia where the statue of David is. Florence is a really small town and it only takes about 30 minutes to walk end-to-end of the historic areas. We saw David and all of the other artwork in that museum. It was pretty impressive. Maybe I am stupid, but I never realized that the statue of David is depicting David from the Bible story of David and Goliath! That was interesting. As I was looking at David, some old guy was behind me and goes "Whoa.. those are some buns of steel!... Or maybe buns of.. rock? Hmmm" And seemed to seriously contemplate it :-P We went to Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) where we took a million pictures. There is a gorgeous view of the Arno river with bridges crossing it and reflections of the buildings on the water's surface. After that, we walked around some more, ate some gelati (I tried fig gelato! YUM!), and walked through the gold and jewelry district. Every store practically GLOWED because of the gold. It was beautiful. The gelati in Florence was really cool because every store had huge displays with designs molded into the gelati and pieces of fruit or candy in it. They really do everything to the extreme here in Italy! And while wandering around the streets of Florence, guess who we see?! My dancing buddy, Lidi! Haha really funny. We climbed to the Pizzale Michelangelo, a high point that gives a view of the entire city. It was amazing and beautiful and again, words can't describe it.

On our walk back to the hotel, we saw an anti-Israeli protest. It was kind of scary so we just stood and watched. We went back to the hotel and got ready. We decided to go out to Cibreo Trattoria, a restaurant that my travel book suggested. It shares a menu and kitchen with the Florentine Culinary Institute! I got a bread soup and chicken meatballs and it was all REALLY good and unique and interesting. Allison ordered stuffed chicken neck and it came with a CHICKEN HEAD sitting on the plate! ROFL it was hysterical and so weird!

After dinner, a lot of people wanted to see the Ravens game so we went back to the Astor bar because they were playing it on their big screen. Except they didn't play the sound! So there was old American club music playing while everyone watched the game. I was more interested in my Chianti wine and the music than the game. And guess who we saw AGAIN! Yupp.. Lidi was there.. Apparently all his friends work there. We chatted and it was cool to talk to someone from a different culture (He isn't actually Italian. He is Albania and living and studying in Italy. Kinda lame to not be talking to an Italian but it was still interesting).

We couldn't stay out too late because we had to catch a 9:30 am train to Pisa! We woke up, ate some more bread (I love my carbs but this is getting a bit outrageous! lol), and ran to the train station.

It was a quick ride to Pisa but then a 30 minute walk (with our huge bags and ALL our Florentine souvenirs) to the Leaning Tower. We took A LOT of corny pictures, joked around, hung out, did some more shopping, and just relaxed for a few hours. Not really much to do or see other than the Leaning Tower of Pisa and its church that goes with it. We caught another train and headed back to Genoa. I was SO sad to see the weekend end. I was really tempted to hop on another train and go back to Florence and stay there forever :-P (don't worry Mom and Dad.. I would have written once in awhile! :-P) But alas, all good things must come to an end.

It was a really good bonding weekend. Kel Ash and I bonded really well with Ashley, Allison, Tasha, Krissie and Behard and we all had a lot of fun. We are going to host an Italian party this semester and invite everyone over for some Italian wine, food, and partying :-P

Saluti dalle Genoa (Greetings from Genoa)