Before I talk too much about my thoughts I am going to tell you a little bit about the last few weeks. Starting with a lengthy telling of my time in Italy {i will save Greece and Switzerland for my next post...and now i am in Spain so i have lots to tell}.
The Italia part of the trip started off terribly but quickly turned around ... i am looking back and laughing now at all the experiences - but at the time i was beginning to think that nothing could go right {don't laugh at how dumb we sound}
{PART FOUR - ITALY - FIRENZE, PISA, ROME, ANCONA}
On June 21st we left Salzburg Austria to go to Firenze {florence} Italy. The train ride was gorgeous and I again kept my gaze out the window the entire time. Upon our arrival in Florence we were aimlessly wandering around the city waiting to hear back from a couchsurfing host with our 25 lb packs on in 90 F weather. After an entire afternoon with no word from couchsurfer persons we were tired and didn't want to move any more so we caved and booked the cheapest hostel we could find for the night. Sadly, we were too uncomfortable to realize the beautiful city surrounding us at the time - all we could think about was a shower and sitting down. Upon arrival to our hostel we quickly realized why it was so cheap... {about 12 Euro a night} the guys that ran the hostel were very disorganized and annoying {one of them has the nickname - nasty weird dread guy} We had to wait for him to set up a bed in the room to make room for both of us - which was stupid ... but the location was perfect and he was quick to leave us to ourselves. He even made sure to let the female guests deal with the baby bird that had flown into our room - nast weird dread guy was definitely a lazy guy.
After getting settled in and cleaned up we went out to grab our first full meal of the day {it was after 10 pm} and went to a small bar where one dollar was equal to one euro! We didn't stay at the bar long, because it quickly filled up with young teenagers and we were too tired for that kind of atmosphere. I am not used to being out with 16 year olds quite yet.
On the following day we talked over breakfast with a few people who were staying at the same hostel and made plans to explore te city with Matt {from Toronto, Canada} who was traveling by himself. {we also decided to couchsurf that night because we finally had an offer from someone just outside Florence}. With Matt we hiked up a hill just on the edge of the city to the piazza di michaelangelo. The hot climb was well worth the view - we could see everything in the city. The red clay roofs looked beautiful from our perspective and i got a little emotional realizing the centuries of history behind the city and the fact that i was looking over a place i had always dreamed of visiting. We wandered around the city and went into a small sculpture gallery and visited inside the duomo. The church was so much more beautiful in person than in photographs, all of the details were much more colorful than i ever imagined. Inside the church was lovely, the decoration more simple than the exterior decor but it was beautiful nonetheless.
{our first night being homeless}
After a wonderful day exploring, we returned to the hostel to grab our things and make our way to the train station so we could meet our couchsurfing host for the evening and then get back to the city for dinner with a friend from KSU. We ran into some complications on our way to meet up with our host, first our train was an hour late, then we missed our stop because the sign for the stop was covered in graffiti... we hopped off as soon as possible and weighed our options because we had no way to let our host know we would be 2 hrs later than expected and we doubted that they would wait that long for us. At 9 pm we made a decison to return to the city and email our {almost} host about the situation {which is going down in history as the train fiasco}. We wanted to go to dinner with Jillian as planned, and so we just made up our minds to book a hostel for the night. We went to dinner at a pizzaria - had great food and enjoyed visiting with Jillian before we would walk to our hostel.
Around midnight we left Jillian's apartment and began following the walking directions to our hostel {approx. travel time: 45 min} the walk was miserable, painful, and scary since we had no clue where we were. We made it to our destination tired & cold... there we found a dark small building with a gate and a sign saying "camping and hostel". We thought that we might have accidently booked a campsite - and it appeared there was no one around to ask. We tried to ring the bell {for probably 20 mins} the small building did not look like a hostel at all, but we had hope. We looked past the sign and saw a long winding road through the dark forest. We agreed not to venture into the woods because it seemed like the perfect horror film set up and we were too tired to go off the path. With that, we had little option other than to return to the city and hope to find a place to sleep. {p.s. Somewhere in this journey i also discovered that one of my running shoes had fallen off my backpack so i was sad about that too}
We arrived at our final stop for the night around 3:30 am - which ended up being the lawn of the train station. At this point Jen couldn't stay awake any longer and so we sat outside on the lawn {where other backpackers were already sleeping} - I kept watch until sunrise while jen napped for a few hours. I watched the shifting light across a small church across the road until there was {normal} activity on the streets. In the early early morning we returned to the street where we stayed two nights before and stood outside to use the internet... we really wanted to find somewhere to sleep, and wanted to know what in the world we had booked the night before. As soon as we reviewed our booking for the hostel we noticed a small {yet very important} piece of information - "the hostel is located in the middle of a park, just a short walk from the main street" - looks like we should have dared to go into the dark woods the night before!
We took the next bus back to the location we had stood the night before and immediately began laughing about the situation from our last visit. The walk to the hostel was beautiful in the morning sun, and no longer a scary road. At the end of the road stood the hostel, an awesome old italian building with wonderful views of the surrounding landscape. Although unable to check in at such an early hour, we were offered breakfast and a shower - while we waited we laid our blankets in the shade outside and slept for 6 hours!
Because of our exhausting adventure the night before, we chilled out at the hostel for the afternoon and planned our trip to greece the following week and walked to the grocery store.for dinner and wine {1€}. Later that evening we headed back to the city center to have a night out. On our way to the bus stop i realized that my water bottle had leaked in my bag and had gotten my eurailpass wet {a piece of paper worth $1200} i began waving the pass trying to dry it while we waited for the bus to arrive. As soon as we boarded the bus and began to drive off i noticed that i had left my railpass sitting at the bus stop! I was so worried i thought i might be sick. . .We had to stay on the bus until it looped back to the stop which took 10 minutes or so - but it seemed like a year. I jumped off the bus and sprinted to the spot where i had left it and luckily i found it sitting there waiting for me! I am so thankful i found it because i would have had to go home early otherwise... {i now keep my pass in a plastic bag in a pouch tied around my waist … so hopefully no more incidents like that occur}
Needless to say, i was too stressed to continue on with our plans to stay out late, so we returned to our hostel and drank wine and ate pizza on the large wrap around porch. We mingled with other people who were also staying at the hostel and had a good time exchanging travel stories. We laughed alot that night and made some new FFFs {in case you don't know, that stands for Facebook Friends Forever}
On June 24 we took a day trip to Pisa where we took lots of silly picture with the leaning tower and enjoyed the beautiful sights of the city. We did a little bit of window shopping and sat down for a nice meal at an italian restaurant before going back to Florence. It was a holiday in Florence and that night we went with our new friend Matt to the riverside with a blanket, three glasses, and a bottle of wine to watch a fireworks show. This show was amazing - lasting an entire hour! The three of us smiled and laughed like little kids the entire time. I have never seen a fireworks show like this one... it was crazy good! After the fireworks ended we were told to turn our gaze towards the water, where hundreds of paper lanterns were being released into the night air over the river. It was beautiful to watch as the lantern flames reflected a warm light across the city skyline. I got a tad emotional because that day seemed perfect compared to the ones before - everything worked out and we were happy. In my notes that day i wrote "best day ever"! What a great end to our time in Florence.
After Florence we traveled to Rome where we would stay for two nights. We booked a hostel a little ways outside of the city but it was adorable. We had our own tiny two bed wood cabin with nothing more than beds and a small cabinet in it. The resort/campsite reminded us of summer camp with a walk to the showers, a small store, restaurant, and pool all in one place. We spent the first evening relaxing by the pool enjoying the scenery. We ate dinner at the resorts restaurant and then sat outside with a bottle of wine for dessert. We ended up having a dance party all by ourselves on the balcony just above other guests. We aren't sure if anyone noticed our extensive knowledge of dance moves and amazing taste in music, but we were definitely enjoying our dance night! Although we were dancing maniacs, we managed to take a few breaks to call our friends back home and also have intense conversations about life - there were tears and laughter. We retired {at an unknown time} to our cabin to rest for our day in the city being tourists.
On July 26 we started our sightseeing at the Colliseum and the ruins of the Roman Forum. I enjoyed being there more than i thought i would. I was moved by the grandeur of the colliseum and couldn't help imagining gladiators fighting and a time when only men were allowed inside. I was glad we decided to pay to see this piece of history {we are very picky about what we pay to see}! … after our time at the colliseum we wandered to the Trevi Fountain, where i wanted nothing more than to jump in the water.. it was lovely but it was a hot hot day in Rome. To escape from the heat we went into the Pantheon and adored the gorgeous marbel and the architectural beauty. Apparently you cannot sit down inside, because we tried and were told to stand... so no sketching happened there.
In the evening we returned to our small cabin and relaxed - watching Dexter, giving ourselves pedicures, and doing intense core workouts {which we are trying to do often because of all the delicious food we are eating}
Our last day in Rome we planned to go to the Vatican City and visit St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, but we clearly were not prepared because we wore shorts {not short shorts} and were denied entrance ... bummer. We almost bought wraps to cover up and go inside, but we couldn't afford to. We were both dissapointed that we didn't think ahead when we dressed for the day but we had no choice but to move on and catch our train to the port city of Ancona.
Ancona was our last stop in Italy and was probably the sketchiest of all the cities we have visited. We arrived with nowhere to stay for the night and quickly decided to go into the first hostel/ hotel we could find because we didn't feel good about wandering around at night. Luckily, we found a really cheap hotel and were able to rest and shower. The next morning we made our way to the port to book our ferry to Greece! We were both crazy excited to get to the beaches .... unfortunately getting there would take 21+ hours! On June 28th we were on our way across the big water to the Island of Corfu to begin our "vacation from our vacation".
{to be continued}
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