Day 23: Florence, Italy

Finally, time to breathe and relax. I've been train traveling pretty exclusively for 3 days now and will spending the next four days in Florence, checking out the sites, waiting in line, and eating gelato! (though I haven't eaten much of anything else... don't yell at me!)

So technically it's Day 24 but let's review.

I forgot to tell you guys about the crazy Frenchman in Montpellier. I had to stop there and change trains to Nice on Wednesday. I was standing there holding my water bottle when this guy.. maybe early 40s comes up to me and starts gesturing. I'm like... whaaat? And he keeps pointing at my water bottle, I thought maybe he wanted to know where I got it. All of a sudden, he just grabs it out of my hand and starts drinking out of it! Who does that?? So there went half a liter of water down the drain.... it was amusing though.

You know what is hazardous and a potentially horrid situation? Peeing on the train. It's worse than peeing on the airplane because there's much more bumps and possibly losing your balance. NOT a pretty sight, good thing I don't yet have any horror stories but man, the potential is there!

The ride from France to Italy was beautiful though, right along the coast with people just laying out on the rocks. The water is so clear and blue, I never would've expected it. Very touristy though, reminded me of Cabo (a lot of places do that I've noticed).

On the train, I met a girl from Seattle who is just kind of traveling around without plans. Admirable, but not for me. She was going to Cinque Terra which is a couple small fishing villages in Italy. I hope to hit it up on my next tour of Europe which will hopefully be a small villages tour with Julie!

On the way to Florence, I met a really nice Italian lady. She helped me with my gigantic backpack, then saw that I was reading the Florence travel book and started a conversation with me (in English). She spoke really well and I like talking to people.

The hostel I am staying at is kinda whack. I might stay here tomorrow night and possibly look for another place for Monday & Tuesday night. But maybe they're all like this. The positive thing is that I met some people. One was a girl (Kelly) from UCSD and she knows Meg O'Neill, what the fuck!!! We had the same opinion of her which was funny. Then two dudes, one from France and an older guy from Japan (so funny). Lastly, we met a Scottish boy (Ross) from outside Glasgow which I was stoked about since I LOVE Scotland. We sat on the balcony talking for a long time and drinking box wine (€0.89 you know!) after our other two friends disappered, then the three of us went for a walk when the balcony closed at midnight. We wandered the streets of Florence, completely unaware of where we were which was quite an adventure. You know you've gone pretty far out when the touristy parts disappear and there's silence. Luckily there were three of us or I would've freaked out probably. The night is awesome in Florence though, there's nothing like walking around in tank, skirt and flip flops in an Italian city.

We passed by the Duomo on our way back (after finally finding the river and orienting ourselves) the pure beauty of it struck me. I realized, I'm in Italy! There's such a vast history here and a lot to see.

So, I better go see it! Tons of tourists here right now so I might just wander around the city today and orient myself before making reservations to see the important stuffs tomorrow. Like David!

Ciao!

P.S. I just found out that I will be leaving September 18 for Shanghai/Hong Kong and will be returning October 2. Which means I'll be back in time for the opening day of HOCKEY!!! I have to get four shots! I've never had to get shots for a trip before, I feel exotic.