Getting There: Spring Break Part 2

So there we were, stuck in a country whose language we did not speak at all, with airport workers who were not very keen on helping us at all.  We finally found a woman at one of the information desks who helped us find a hotel near the airport for the night.  It was more expensive than what we would have liked to spend, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  We were able to take a free shuttle to the hotel from the airport and, thanks to free WiFi and our blackberries, were able to find an overnight train for the following night that would get us to Florence on Wednesday morning.  We would still be missing out on an entire day in Florence, but at least we could get there!

We got to the Paris train station early the next morning (thanks to the shuttle driver at the hotel who took us there in his car...) and bought our train tickets.  Then we spent eight hours waiting in the train station.  We did get a lot of good people-watching in, but it was mostly boring.  We did venture outside the train station for a while and got to see a new part of Paris, but unfortunately it was mostly a day of waiting.  In the evening, we were able to board the train!  I had been on an overnight train once before when my family took one from Barcelona to Sevilla in 2002, but this was quite a different experience.  There for 6 of us in our cabin--the four of us, an older Italian woman, and a Pakistani man about our age.  The woman was super friendly and helpful, but the man spent the first three hours talking loudly on his cellphone.  Quite annoying.  The cabin had six seats that could be folded down and make beds, so once it got late we all had a bed to sleep in!  I am not the best at sleeping in vehicles, so I was glad to have a bed to lie in.  I probably got about 4 hours of sleep that night!

We got off in Milan at 5:45 and caught another train to Florence, so we finally got to Florence a little after 8am.  We went to a cafe to regroup and figure out how to get to our hostel, then headed there.  I loved walking through the streets of Florence.  Everything was so beautiful and Italian-looking!!  Our hostel was on the second floor of a cute building, but we had to wait almost 30 minutes for the owner to show up to check us in!  That was pretty annoying and sketchy.  But alas, we checked in and were able to leave our stuff and explore the city!  Our first stop was lunch.  I had my first Italian pasta and my friends got pizza.  YUM!  Then we wandered all around the streets and shops and bridges along the river.  Everything was really awesome.  We bought matching beaded bracelets to commemorate the day we had lost in Florence and our journey getting there and then got some gelato!  When I thought of Italy before the trip, I liked to picture eating gelato along a river, listeing to a street performer play the accordian.  Well, I am super happy to say that that is exactly what I got!

Later in the day we went to the Accademia museum, where the David is!  Very exciting to see such a famous piece of art up-close and personal.  He was way bigger than I had expected!

We spent the rest of the day wandering through the streets of Florence, checking out churches and other buildings.  We ended up eating dinner at a restaurant near the Duomo and I had super excellent pasta and wine.  LOVE Florence!!

I was lucky enough in Florence to get to meet up with an old friend from high school who is studying in Florence for the semester, Casie.  We had a great time catching up, and I loved that she could show me a bit of her Italian life!

Thursday morning we climbed up to Piazzale Michelangelo and got a breathtaking view of the city.  There were several street performers up there, so we spent a long time just taking in the atmosphere and staring at Florence.  Then we went and visited the Duomo.  Sadly, our train was at 2:45pm, so we had to go back to the hostel afterwards, grab our stuff, grab a quick lunch, and catch our train to Rome.