Friday, October 11 & Saturday, October 12
Thankfully, our bus wasn't leaving until 1145am, which meant we could get up at a reasonable hour. I woke up at 7am only to look in the mirror and realize that my problems I had had with my eye several months ago had returned!! *cue the horror movie music*.
Stupidly, I had not brought my extra contacts, nor my glasses, thinking that since I had not had any problems in several months, I would be okay. I didn't even have my contacts case/solution because it was too big to get past security at the airport on the way to Pisa. So, I hurried to get ready so I could pop by the Farmacia before catching the bus into town.
We went at 845, so that we would have time before catching the 9am bus. However, it was futile because even the stupid bus never came. We had to wait until 930am, which was cutting our travel time allowance down a lot. I wanted to go by a store to get a travel pillow (another luxury that I had wanted to take to Pisa but wouldn't fit in my backpack thanks to RyanAir's ridiculous carry-on policy.) I bought some disinfecting solution, a single case, and some false tears. I took out the single contact to store.
We caught the bus, then the metro. At the Termini station, I left Romeo to watch our bags as I ran through the station to the shops at the exit in order to look for the pillow as well as use the toilets. I finally found a pillow, but refused to pay 1Euro to use the toilet, on principal. We then took the metro to the bus terminal and arrived about 20 minutes after we were supposed to, 11am.
Another gripe about Eurolines: there is no information about check-in procedure, locations, etc. We stood around looking for about 10 minutes before I realized that, even though we had reservations, we had to go to the office and get a boarding card. We hadn't had to do that any other place, so it was quite confusing. I was anxiously standing in line with many hostile people trying to buy tickets on the bus, and at 1143, the woman behind the counter finally asked, before selling another ticket, was anyone in line to check-in for the 1145am bus? I pushed my way to the front, sticking my tongue out (in my mind) at the woman who pointedly reminded me several times that she was before me in line (the office was so small it couldn't accommodate a proper line, and we had to just stand around.)
Finally checked in, we loaded our bags under the coach and picked our seats. We got the good ones in the middle of the bus right after a break in the seating, so essentially no one was in front of us who could lean his seat back in my face. And, we were off!
The ride wasn't terribly eventful. In total, it was about 17.5 hours. Yes, abhorrent. But, we survived. At first, I conserved my iPad battery, but then I realized there was an outlet we could use, so at a break I got my charger out of my bag and Romeo and I played several rounds of Plants vs. Zombies. I also wrote blogs, read and finished my book (The Light Between Oceans - wasn't too into it until the very end which made me cry, stupid thing). My eye was feeling okay, but not too great. Romeo made a point of telling me how bad it looked. :P
After several stops, we crossed the French border at 2am. We were asleep but woke up as officials boarded the bus and checked our passports. Three different people checked our passports, 1 border control, 2 police. They didn't do it because we were suspicious, they were just thorough. However, at the end, they lead 3 guys from the back of the bus off. We saw out the window that they were put in a police van. It was horrible, but they had been causing a ruckus in the back the entire trip, and I was glad they had been taken off. I guess they had been taken into custody, because we left without them a minute later.
After that, I finally got some sleep. Romeo shook me awake at 530am when we arrived in Lyon. Sleepily, we collected our baggage and stumbled our way to the metro station not too far away. When we got to the ticket machine, we realized it only accepts coins and credit cards. Of course, we had about 50cents in coins; we needed almost 4 Euro. We at first searched for a machine that would change our bills into coins, but after we couldn't find one, and seeing all the shops still closed, we asked a cop. He suggested the train station nearby, so we walked over there. Finally, we found a shop open. When I asked the girl to change my 5Euro bill into coins, she said she couldn't. I was so shocked, I thought that she must not have understood the request. When I repeated, she again said no. I stood without moving, jaw slightly dropped in frustrated disbelief. I was actually attempting to collect myself before saying anything.
Just then, the manager walked over and changed the coins for us. I thanked in her French, and we left. I was still fuming about the situation, but at least we were now on our way (about 45 minutes after we had initially arrived). We saw so many drunk French people on the subway, and I was still a little sour when we arrived at the correct stop in order to head to our Couchsurfing host, and made our way to catch a bus. It was very cold outside, 5 degrees Celsius. We shivered at the bus stop for about 10 minutes before it arrived.
I suggested to Romeo that maybe the subway ticket we had purchased might work for the bus as well, but he scoffed and responded, "this isn't Korea!" (where we could use the same paid-for trip on buses and subways alike). When the bus did come, I asked the driver if I could use the subway ticket, and he nodded, "sure." I literally punched the air and let out a "Ya-hoo!" like an idiot.
We finally arrived at the correct stop from the bus, but then I realized that I didn't have any more information about where to go from there, only an address. We walked up and down the street, looking for a road sign that would point us in the right direction. After maybe 15 minutes of searching, I finally spotted a sign that indicated the road we were on had changed names and was now the street we needed. It was one of those Homer Simpson "Doh!" moments!!
We found the right house number, but we couldn't figure out which buzzer, so ended up pushing all of them. We stood outside the house attempting to get in by some means: knocking, buzzing, pushing the door, even yelling our host's name. We walked to another house nearby to see if they could help us, when I turned and saw someone standing outside the door we had just been attempting to knock down. I sighed with relief and called out his name. Sure enough, it was our host, Matthieu. He led us through the gate, down a path, and to a house set back several meters from the road. We literally fell onto the couch and passed out.
Finally we woke up around noon and I warmed my frozen toes on the furnace. We met our host's housemates, Nicolai and Gertrude ("Gigi"). Both were very kind and welcoming. We took much-needed showers and settled in a bit. We ate some pasta made by Gigi and met the other couchsurfers who would be leaving that day.
After lunch, we headed back to the coach station in order to book our ticket out of Lyon. However, we were informed that the information on the website about the timetables from Lyon to Zurich were incorrect. We finally picked another destination, but realized they could not make the reservation without Romeo's passport. Of course, guess who forgot his passport (for the first time of the entire trip, he did not have it in his pocket). Luckily, Nicholai had given us a phone to borrow, so I called Gigi and she grabbed the passport and came to meet us (she was already planning to meet us).
We waited quite a while, over an hour, before she came. We weighed our options of destinations, and settled on one finally. Gigi arrived, and we walked to the woman's desk who had been helping us figure out times of buses. I had barely gotten the words "Okay, we'd like to book a seat to..." out of my mouth when she cut me off, telling me that the printer was broken and she could not book any more seats.
I was once again shocked into silence with the absurdity of the situation. She said that there was nothing she could do. She didn't even seem to care that it was extremely inconvenient and rude to simply leave customers hanging. I had to turn around and compose myself, counting to 10 to keep from ripping this woman's head off her shoulders. We had waited so long!!! Now, we could do nothing. The woman told us to return tomorrow at noon when they opened. But, it did nothing to help our current situation.
Romeo calmed me down with promises of wine, and we left the station. We walked to the metro and went to an old part of Lyon with Gigi. We had hot chocolate, which was much needed in the freezing, rainy weather. We also shared a salted caramel crepe. It was very good!
We then headed back to the house with Gigi. Matthieu and his roommate, Nicholai, were both exhausted from back-to-back parties with their previous couchsurfers. We promised we only wanted a mellow, chill evening. We ordered in pizza and drank white wine. Aka: we had the perfect night!!
We finally went to bed exhausted and still unsure where we would be spending the next night, or even what country we would be in. It was stressful, but I've gotten pretty good at dealing with stress the past year. :) Thankfully!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Chelsea in Rome Part II
Thursday, October 10
After a yet again freezing night, we woke up a bit late and ended up not getting into the city until noon. It was nice to sleep in, but we did limit ourselves a bit. However, we had been told that the lines for the Vatican in the afternoon were much shorter than in the morning. I guess most people think that going early will get them nearer to the front of the line, but then it just ends up that everyone is there at the same time.
We got to the metro stop for the Vatican and had a bite of lunch, since we knew we would be in there a long time. Then we walked about a mile to the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica and waited in a line for about 15-20 minutes. Unfortunately we were right in front of a group of school kids from France who were very pushy and rude. I was getting very frustrated and impatient with their line cutting (which the teachers participated in freely... even more infuriating!), but Romeo was calm and that helped me chill out a bit.
We got through the metal detector check and went inside. We didn't have a map of the area, or Rome in general, so I was a bit frustrated. We should have done our homework a bit better. We got inside the basilica, and it really was incredible. Romeo was smart and put in his headphones and listened to a podcast I had told him to download but I forgot. When we asked where the museum was, and were told it was about a kilometer away and had its own separate line, I think my patience broke.
Between the crowds (which I hate), annoying kids, not knowing exactly where I was, not having a map, having to pee, feeling like I had dropped the ball by not knowing we couldn't get into the museum in the same line, it being nearly 3pm and the last entrance to the museum only an hour away, I was thiiiiiis close to losing it.
Romeo kept calm and power-walked to the museum entrance. Amazingly, there was NO LINE. I literally have no idea how we lucked out that much. I began to feel better, knowing that we would be able to get inside. Rome was one of Romeo's must-see cities, so I felt like if we had missed this, it would have ruined Rome. However, we did get in. And even better, I was able to use my student ID card from UH (thank you, UH, for not putting dates or years on your ID cards!!!), so I entered for half price. Woo-hoo! Nothing cheers me up like saving money, so I felt much better.
I knew that last entrance was at 4pm, but I wasn't sure when they were going to herd us out of the museum, and the Sistine Chapel was my #1 must-see site, so I kind of rushed through some of the rooms. There were interesting things, but again, I hate crowds so if something had a crowd around it, I avoided it. One area that I liked a lot was the tapestry room. Some of those bad boys were absolutely massive, all of them were incredibly intricate, and I overheard a private tour guide say that the tapestries in the hall were worth 3 times more than the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Wow!
Finally, I saw a sign for the chapel pointing right, and another sign for more rooms pointing left. I headed right to the chapel, and Romeo called out he wanted to see the other rooms. I just thought, "Okay, he knows I'll be in the chapel. I'll just hang out until he comes in." Well, I had not taken into account how flipping crowded that place was! I walked in and immediately regretted leaving Romeo. I didn't know how I was going to find him again. I lucked out and got a seat on one of the benches that lined the sides of the room.
I cued up the Rick Steve's walking tour of the Sistine Chapel and listened to some descriptions and history of the ceiling. Man, Rick Steves is punny! It was interesting, though. I really liked it. My favorite was the Last Judgement. It really is incredible that Michelangelo painted all that. I sat for around 45 minutes, spending at least 20 of that monitoring the flood of people walking through the door. I was entertained by watching the photo-police confront people who thought they were sneaky at taking pictures of the ceiling. Finally, I saw someone waving across the room, and there he was. I was so relieved to see Romeo I let out a sigh of relief. Another 20 minutes to allow Romeo to listen to the Rick Steves info, and we snuck in with a tour group that was allowed through a special exit that led right to St. Peter's.
Since I was now feeling better, we spent some time outside of the Basilica taking photos that I hadn't been in the mood for earlier. After, we decided to get a snack and head toward the Pantheon before the sun completely set for the day. We finally found a map and realized that the Pantheon was a little further than we thought. But, it was our last day in Rome, so it was now or never. By the time we crossed the Tiber river, my feet were aching and we hadn't found a snack, so I was ready for a full-fledged dinner.
We found a place with decently priced wine (the only part of the meal I even looked at the price), and I ordered some pasta (fresh, home-made of course). We shared some wine and enjoyed the evening. A group of 6 Americans sat next to us and chatted with us a little. They were 3 older retired couples from the east coast somewhere. They remarked that we didn't have Texas accents, and we told them we'd been in Korea for a while. They were very kind.
Finally, full and just a little tipsy, we walked the last bit to the Pantheon. It was absolutely surreal to turn a corner and BOOM! There it was! This ancient structure. It looked almost like a movie set, how it was just sitting in a piazza with modern buildings all around and tons of people just chillin' in front. We took some silly pictures and played with the continuous shooting feature of my camera.
When we looked at our watches, we realized that we needed to get a subway quickly in order to catch the last bus back to Miguel's place. I got nervous and decided we should take a taxi to the closest metro station (we didn't exactly know where we were). It was about 4.50 Euro for less than 5 minutes. We definitely weren't in Korea anymore! The same ride probably wouldn't have even moved the meter over the initial charge had we been in Seoul. Oh well.
We caught the subway and bus without problems, but by the time we got to the bus stop, I had to pee VERY badly. For some idiotic reason, the toilets were closed at the station, so with the 20 minutes we had before the bus was due to arrive, we walked to a deserted area of the parking lot, and I climbed behind a low railing, and, well, I left my mark in Rome. o.O haha! Sorry for TMI.
I fell asleep on the bus ride, and we walked shivering to Miguel's from the stop. He had heard the bus roll by, and knew we were coming. He had the gate open and was waiting for us. He is so nice!! We fell into bed and set alarms for the morning, as we were heading to catch our longest bus ride of the scheduled trip in the morning: 18 hours from Rome to Lyon, France. A good night's sleep was definitely needed before conquering that!
After a yet again freezing night, we woke up a bit late and ended up not getting into the city until noon. It was nice to sleep in, but we did limit ourselves a bit. However, we had been told that the lines for the Vatican in the afternoon were much shorter than in the morning. I guess most people think that going early will get them nearer to the front of the line, but then it just ends up that everyone is there at the same time.
We got to the metro stop for the Vatican and had a bite of lunch, since we knew we would be in there a long time. Then we walked about a mile to the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica and waited in a line for about 15-20 minutes. Unfortunately we were right in front of a group of school kids from France who were very pushy and rude. I was getting very frustrated and impatient with their line cutting (which the teachers participated in freely... even more infuriating!), but Romeo was calm and that helped me chill out a bit.We got through the metal detector check and went inside. We didn't have a map of the area, or Rome in general, so I was a bit frustrated. We should have done our homework a bit better. We got inside the basilica, and it really was incredible. Romeo was smart and put in his headphones and listened to a podcast I had told him to download but I forgot. When we asked where the museum was, and were told it was about a kilometer away and had its own separate line, I think my patience broke.
Between the crowds (which I hate), annoying kids, not knowing exactly where I was, not having a map, having to pee, feeling like I had dropped the ball by not knowing we couldn't get into the museum in the same line, it being nearly 3pm and the last entrance to the museum only an hour away, I was thiiiiiis close to losing it.
Romeo kept calm and power-walked to the museum entrance. Amazingly, there was NO LINE. I literally have no idea how we lucked out that much. I began to feel better, knowing that we would be able to get inside. Rome was one of Romeo's must-see cities, so I felt like if we had missed this, it would have ruined Rome. However, we did get in. And even better, I was able to use my student ID card from UH (thank you, UH, for not putting dates or years on your ID cards!!!), so I entered for half price. Woo-hoo! Nothing cheers me up like saving money, so I felt much better.
I knew that last entrance was at 4pm, but I wasn't sure when they were going to herd us out of the museum, and the Sistine Chapel was my #1 must-see site, so I kind of rushed through some of the rooms. There were interesting things, but again, I hate crowds so if something had a crowd around it, I avoided it. One area that I liked a lot was the tapestry room. Some of those bad boys were absolutely massive, all of them were incredibly intricate, and I overheard a private tour guide say that the tapestries in the hall were worth 3 times more than the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Wow!Finally, I saw a sign for the chapel pointing right, and another sign for more rooms pointing left. I headed right to the chapel, and Romeo called out he wanted to see the other rooms. I just thought, "Okay, he knows I'll be in the chapel. I'll just hang out until he comes in." Well, I had not taken into account how flipping crowded that place was! I walked in and immediately regretted leaving Romeo. I didn't know how I was going to find him again. I lucked out and got a seat on one of the benches that lined the sides of the room.
I cued up the Rick Steve's walking tour of the Sistine Chapel and listened to some descriptions and history of the ceiling. Man, Rick Steves is punny! It was interesting, though. I really liked it. My favorite was the Last Judgement. It really is incredible that Michelangelo painted all that. I sat for around 45 minutes, spending at least 20 of that monitoring the flood of people walking through the door. I was entertained by watching the photo-police confront people who thought they were sneaky at taking pictures of the ceiling. Finally, I saw someone waving across the room, and there he was. I was so relieved to see Romeo I let out a sigh of relief. Another 20 minutes to allow Romeo to listen to the Rick Steves info, and we snuck in with a tour group that was allowed through a special exit that led right to St. Peter's.Since I was now feeling better, we spent some time outside of the Basilica taking photos that I hadn't been in the mood for earlier. After, we decided to get a snack and head toward the Pantheon before the sun completely set for the day. We finally found a map and realized that the Pantheon was a little further than we thought. But, it was our last day in Rome, so it was now or never. By the time we crossed the Tiber river, my feet were aching and we hadn't found a snack, so I was ready for a full-fledged dinner.
We found a place with decently priced wine (the only part of the meal I even looked at the price), and I ordered some pasta (fresh, home-made of course). We shared some wine and enjoyed the evening. A group of 6 Americans sat next to us and chatted with us a little. They were 3 older retired couples from the east coast somewhere. They remarked that we didn't have Texas accents, and we told them we'd been in Korea for a while. They were very kind.
We caught the subway and bus without problems, but by the time we got to the bus stop, I had to pee VERY badly. For some idiotic reason, the toilets were closed at the station, so with the 20 minutes we had before the bus was due to arrive, we walked to a deserted area of the parking lot, and I climbed behind a low railing, and, well, I left my mark in Rome. o.O haha! Sorry for TMI.
I fell asleep on the bus ride, and we walked shivering to Miguel's from the stop. He had heard the bus roll by, and knew we were coming. He had the gate open and was waiting for us. He is so nice!! We fell into bed and set alarms for the morning, as we were heading to catch our longest bus ride of the scheduled trip in the morning: 18 hours from Rome to Lyon, France. A good night's sleep was definitely needed before conquering that!
Chelsea in Rome Part I
Wednesday, October 9
After a cold but restful night's sleep, I woke up at 7am to get ready for the day. I was freezing and so thankful that, while Miguel appeared not to have a heater, he at least had hot water for a shower. While I got ready, Romeo and Miguel chatted over coffee and I joined for a bite of what Miguel called "bisquits" (awww, Italian accented English words).
He taught us the bus schedules and how to get to the metro and different places from the bus. We took an 8:30am bus into the city to the metro stop Anglania, then grabbed the metro to the Colosseum. It was again rainy and overcast, which put me in a not-so-great mood. We walked around the entire thing, both mentioning how it is actually a little smaller than we imagined. We took many photos, with Romeo being picky about the ones he was in, and me having to redo several shots (begrudgingly). Finally, we decided to go inside, and got in line.
We had seen dozens of tour companies trying to coax people out of line and into their tour group. When a man approached the couple in front of us, we listened in and decided to bite the bullet and do the tour. We could skip the line, and have someone actually give us information as we went along. It also included a tour of the Roman Forum afterwards. It was 25Euro, (including the 12Euro entrance fee). We ended up waiting longer than promised, but the tour guide was interesting. Not sure if it was worth the money, but since it was already paid, I decided to not worry about that.
We took the iconic photos, and enjoyed learning a bit about the history and architecture. Did you know Colosseum is not the real name? The real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. (Well, I think it was!) It was pretty amazing, actually, the structure itself and how ingenious they were back in the day. It's still standing thousands of years later, through earthquakes, wars, etc. Incredible.
After that, we toured the Roman Forum a bit, which I wasn't too thrilled with, but, when in Rome, right?
By the time we finished with that it was almost 3pm, and we were starving. Thankfully we spied a little cafe type place, and we got sandwiches (mine sucked but Romeo's was delicious) and some wine. We enjoyed some WiFi (yay! Miguel didn't have any at his house), and just relaxed.
Around sunset, we walked over to the Trevi fountain and tossed some coins in. It was really beautiful with the sun setting and throwing some beautiful colors around. Actually, Romeo and I both had remarked that the sky and sunsets both nights we had been in the area were particularly beautiful and almost metallic. The fountain was packed, but we found a nice woman to take our photo, and we goofed around a little.
When we finished there, we walked to a hotel that we had read online had really good happy hour deals. When we got there, though, not a single soul was in the bar. Fail! We walked instead to a nearby piazza (which also had our metro stop) and got appetivo (buy a drink and get finger foods free). It was alright, but not too impressive. I sent back my bellini (which was mostly just peach puree) and got a margarita instead. I think the bartender didn't want me to send that one back because it was mostly tequila. Oh well!
A little while later we headed to the metro (and ran into our waiter from the bar, weirdly enough), caught that back to where we were to get the bus. The bus took 30 minutes and we were exhausted by the time we got back to Miguel's.
The next day we had decided to do the Vatican, so we went straight to bed so we would have enough energy the next morning.
After a cold but restful night's sleep, I woke up at 7am to get ready for the day. I was freezing and so thankful that, while Miguel appeared not to have a heater, he at least had hot water for a shower. While I got ready, Romeo and Miguel chatted over coffee and I joined for a bite of what Miguel called "bisquits" (awww, Italian accented English words).
He taught us the bus schedules and how to get to the metro and different places from the bus. We took an 8:30am bus into the city to the metro stop Anglania, then grabbed the metro to the Colosseum. It was again rainy and overcast, which put me in a not-so-great mood. We walked around the entire thing, both mentioning how it is actually a little smaller than we imagined. We took many photos, with Romeo being picky about the ones he was in, and me having to redo several shots (begrudgingly). Finally, we decided to go inside, and got in line.
We had seen dozens of tour companies trying to coax people out of line and into their tour group. When a man approached the couple in front of us, we listened in and decided to bite the bullet and do the tour. We could skip the line, and have someone actually give us information as we went along. It also included a tour of the Roman Forum afterwards. It was 25Euro, (including the 12Euro entrance fee). We ended up waiting longer than promised, but the tour guide was interesting. Not sure if it was worth the money, but since it was already paid, I decided to not worry about that.
We took the iconic photos, and enjoyed learning a bit about the history and architecture. Did you know Colosseum is not the real name? The real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. (Well, I think it was!) It was pretty amazing, actually, the structure itself and how ingenious they were back in the day. It's still standing thousands of years later, through earthquakes, wars, etc. Incredible.
After that, we toured the Roman Forum a bit, which I wasn't too thrilled with, but, when in Rome, right?
By the time we finished with that it was almost 3pm, and we were starving. Thankfully we spied a little cafe type place, and we got sandwiches (mine sucked but Romeo's was delicious) and some wine. We enjoyed some WiFi (yay! Miguel didn't have any at his house), and just relaxed.
Around sunset, we walked over to the Trevi fountain and tossed some coins in. It was really beautiful with the sun setting and throwing some beautiful colors around. Actually, Romeo and I both had remarked that the sky and sunsets both nights we had been in the area were particularly beautiful and almost metallic. The fountain was packed, but we found a nice woman to take our photo, and we goofed around a little.
When we finished there, we walked to a hotel that we had read online had really good happy hour deals. When we got there, though, not a single soul was in the bar. Fail! We walked instead to a nearby piazza (which also had our metro stop) and got appetivo (buy a drink and get finger foods free). It was alright, but not too impressive. I sent back my bellini (which was mostly just peach puree) and got a margarita instead. I think the bartender didn't want me to send that one back because it was mostly tequila. Oh well!
A little while later we headed to the metro (and ran into our waiter from the bar, weirdly enough), caught that back to where we were to get the bus. The bus took 30 minutes and we were exhausted by the time we got back to Miguel's.
The next day we had decided to do the Vatican, so we went straight to bed so we would have enough energy the next morning.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Chelsea in Rocca Priori
Tuesday, October 8
I've finally got some time to write some blogs, so I'm going to try to catch up on the last few days! So, from where I left off, we were crossing our fingers for a 4am bus to Rome.
We got up before 3am to get ready and make sure we had everything together. We walked over to the bus stop a little early, and met a few others who were waiting for the bus as well. In particular, we met 2 Mexican guys, Pedro and his cousin. They were very friendly and chatty, although only Pedro spoke English. He had lived in Houston for a little while, so we got along well. They were traveling to Rome as well, and they had 2 massive suitcases. Just looking at those things and imagining lugging them all over creation made me thankful for the back pain induced by a heavy backpack.
The bus ended up being really late, coming at 5:30 instead of 4. It was very cold and the rain was drizzly. When the bus did finally roll up, we told the driver that we were trying to ride standby, and asked if they had any room. He didn't speak much English, so he called the reservations hotline and we spoke to a woman. She gave us a little lecture about making reservations, and I assured her that we did try to do that, but that it hadn't processed. She ended up letting us have a place on the bus, but I could tell she didn't really want to.
Which leads me to a little review of the Eurolines pass and company in general, in case one of you readers is thinking about using them. First, the initial buying of the pass and first journey reservation was seamless. However, you have to have a printer. You have to print out your passes and each reservation ticket. Many of the bus stops do not have offices, and some of them are not even at terminals at all, so online reservations are necessary. Then, making second and successive reservations on the pass has actually proven impossible. We have requested rides twice now without hearing back from them. Apparently you can call a number to reserve, but without a phone in Europe, it's not really possible. Then, when we did finally get a reservation made for our trip Rome --> Lyon, we had to pay an additional fee for our seat. Basically, I'm not impressed. The unlimited pass is cheap enough, but its a pain in the you-know-what so far...
Anyway, back to the story. We were allowed on the bus, and I could tell it was just barely, as the bus was packed. We couldn't get seats next to each other and had to sit pretty far away actually. Thankfully it was still dark and we both managed to sleep a few more hours. When the bus stopped in Genoa, a ton of people got off and we managed to get seats together near the front of the bus.
Before then, however, I had to sit almost at the back of the bus. There was a couple with a baby and another girl sitting with them that wouldn't shut up. I was just thinking, it's 4am people! You could tell by their attitudes and lack of respect for other people they were the Italian version of trailer-trash. The man took up the entire back row (3 seats) laying down, then the mom was asleep on the floor in front of the bathroom door. Not only gross, but rude. The rest of the bus was squished together and they're sprawled out "luxuriously."
Anyway, once we had seats together, it was better. We drove along the coastline and saw some amazing views of the Mediterranean. Even though we didn't make it to Cinque Terre like we had planned, the view of the coast and the quaint towns that lined it was pretty amazing.
A pit stop and a few hour nap later, we rolled into Rome around 3:30pm. We had no idea where the bus stop we were at was in relation to the city, and all I had to go on as far as where we were staying was a phone number. I managed to find a nice looking girl to ask to borrow her phone, and I called our couchsurfing host.
Thankfully, he answered! He gave directions to the girl whose phone we were using, and she relayed to us how to get to his house. We had to take the metro to the main train station, then take a train to a village right outside the city.
We trekked through the rain (which was intermittently pouring), into the metro station and managed to get to the train station without incident. Once there, we used the automated machines to get tickets to the town we were heading to, and as we finished up some skeezy looking chick asked if she could help us. Immediately I smelled something fishy, and gave her a don't-mess-with-me look and a curt "No." Romeo, sweet thing, kindly replied "No thanks, I think we've got it!" As we walked off, I turned and saw her swipe her paw into the change slot where I had just taken my coins. Sneaky woman trying to nab my money!
We saw that there was a train leaving in about 30 minutes, but also one that was scheduled to depart 10 minutes ago, but had a 15 minute delay. We decided to book it to the platform, which was of course the furthest one away. Let me assure you that running through a crowded train station with a heavy backpack, heavy purse, and winter jacket in your arms (and Romeo having two heavy backpacks and his winter jacket), is neither quick nor easy. Huffing and puffing, we arrived at the platform, only to walk on the train and immediately note that there was no one else on the train. Like, at all. I stepped off and looked at the board and apparently the correct train had already left because this had no information on the board. Double GRRRR!
We took our time trudging back to the main area with the platform information, and found the platform for the next train. We headed there and got a seat. We sat for around 10 minutes when I start to notice people trickling out of the train. Strange...Since it wasn't everyone, just some people, I ignored it. Then it turned into more and more people... finally I decided something was up. We looked over and asked the people next to us, who were beginning to gather their things. They told us that the train was broken, so we were changing trains. And which platform was that one leaving from? You guessed it... the one we had just been at. Exhausted, we begrudgingly made our way back. Romeo had tracked our walking, and including all the back and forth, it was a total of 2km walking just in the train station alone.
Finally seated there, we left the station more than an hour after we had arrived. The trip out to Frascati was quick at around 25 minutes. I asked a man near us on the train to borrow his phone, and he dialed the number of our couchsurfer when I showed him. He handed the phone to me, and when I put it to my ear, I heard something in French, then in English, "This call will be charged to your personal account." Uh-oh... The call had already gone through, so I decided to just make it quick and hope it wouldn't cost the poor fellow too much. He had, after all, seen the Italian number as he entered it... Surely he knows his own phone and plan well enough to know if that was going to charge him... oops!
Anyway, we let Miguel (our host) know when we would be at the station and he met us there. We got off the train and started up the stairs to the front of the station and I heard someone call my name. There he was! I was so happy to see him, and know that not every host is shady or rude. (Our last real host, Dario, was nice too, but didn't go out of his way to meet us at the station). Miguel led us to his car and drove us the last of the way to his house, about 15 minutes further away in the village of Rocca Priori.
I could immediately tell that I was going to feel more comfortable with him than our previous host. He was relaxed, friendly, talkative, and just overall nice. He told us about his pets, how cold the house can get in the nighttime, and his plans for that night (a party to which we were invited). Having been traveling since 4am, and awake longer, we opted to relax at the house. When we arrived at the house, Miguel's mother, who lived in the top portion of the house, and his dogs met us at the gate with a smile (and tail wagging). His mom told us to call her "Mami" so I knew we were welcomed. His dogs were so sweet and friendly (although a little stinky!).
We settled in a little, then his mom sent down (we were staying with Miguel in the lower half of the house) some pasta with a light tomato sauce and fresh grated parmesan. It was light, fresh, and delicious. When Miguel headed out for the evening, we decided to watch a few episodes of the Simpsons and headed to bed early around 10:30.
The night was frigid and I piled 5 blankets on the bed. But, it was comfortable enough. I needed to rest up for our first day in Rome tomorrow! We had a lot to cover in two days...
I've finally got some time to write some blogs, so I'm going to try to catch up on the last few days! So, from where I left off, we were crossing our fingers for a 4am bus to Rome.
We got up before 3am to get ready and make sure we had everything together. We walked over to the bus stop a little early, and met a few others who were waiting for the bus as well. In particular, we met 2 Mexican guys, Pedro and his cousin. They were very friendly and chatty, although only Pedro spoke English. He had lived in Houston for a little while, so we got along well. They were traveling to Rome as well, and they had 2 massive suitcases. Just looking at those things and imagining lugging them all over creation made me thankful for the back pain induced by a heavy backpack.
The bus ended up being really late, coming at 5:30 instead of 4. It was very cold and the rain was drizzly. When the bus did finally roll up, we told the driver that we were trying to ride standby, and asked if they had any room. He didn't speak much English, so he called the reservations hotline and we spoke to a woman. She gave us a little lecture about making reservations, and I assured her that we did try to do that, but that it hadn't processed. She ended up letting us have a place on the bus, but I could tell she didn't really want to.
Which leads me to a little review of the Eurolines pass and company in general, in case one of you readers is thinking about using them. First, the initial buying of the pass and first journey reservation was seamless. However, you have to have a printer. You have to print out your passes and each reservation ticket. Many of the bus stops do not have offices, and some of them are not even at terminals at all, so online reservations are necessary. Then, making second and successive reservations on the pass has actually proven impossible. We have requested rides twice now without hearing back from them. Apparently you can call a number to reserve, but without a phone in Europe, it's not really possible. Then, when we did finally get a reservation made for our trip Rome --> Lyon, we had to pay an additional fee for our seat. Basically, I'm not impressed. The unlimited pass is cheap enough, but its a pain in the you-know-what so far...
Anyway, back to the story. We were allowed on the bus, and I could tell it was just barely, as the bus was packed. We couldn't get seats next to each other and had to sit pretty far away actually. Thankfully it was still dark and we both managed to sleep a few more hours. When the bus stopped in Genoa, a ton of people got off and we managed to get seats together near the front of the bus.
Before then, however, I had to sit almost at the back of the bus. There was a couple with a baby and another girl sitting with them that wouldn't shut up. I was just thinking, it's 4am people! You could tell by their attitudes and lack of respect for other people they were the Italian version of trailer-trash. The man took up the entire back row (3 seats) laying down, then the mom was asleep on the floor in front of the bathroom door. Not only gross, but rude. The rest of the bus was squished together and they're sprawled out "luxuriously."
Anyway, once we had seats together, it was better. We drove along the coastline and saw some amazing views of the Mediterranean. Even though we didn't make it to Cinque Terre like we had planned, the view of the coast and the quaint towns that lined it was pretty amazing.
A pit stop and a few hour nap later, we rolled into Rome around 3:30pm. We had no idea where the bus stop we were at was in relation to the city, and all I had to go on as far as where we were staying was a phone number. I managed to find a nice looking girl to ask to borrow her phone, and I called our couchsurfing host.
Thankfully, he answered! He gave directions to the girl whose phone we were using, and she relayed to us how to get to his house. We had to take the metro to the main train station, then take a train to a village right outside the city.
We trekked through the rain (which was intermittently pouring), into the metro station and managed to get to the train station without incident. Once there, we used the automated machines to get tickets to the town we were heading to, and as we finished up some skeezy looking chick asked if she could help us. Immediately I smelled something fishy, and gave her a don't-mess-with-me look and a curt "No." Romeo, sweet thing, kindly replied "No thanks, I think we've got it!" As we walked off, I turned and saw her swipe her paw into the change slot where I had just taken my coins. Sneaky woman trying to nab my money!
We saw that there was a train leaving in about 30 minutes, but also one that was scheduled to depart 10 minutes ago, but had a 15 minute delay. We decided to book it to the platform, which was of course the furthest one away. Let me assure you that running through a crowded train station with a heavy backpack, heavy purse, and winter jacket in your arms (and Romeo having two heavy backpacks and his winter jacket), is neither quick nor easy. Huffing and puffing, we arrived at the platform, only to walk on the train and immediately note that there was no one else on the train. Like, at all. I stepped off and looked at the board and apparently the correct train had already left because this had no information on the board. Double GRRRR!
We took our time trudging back to the main area with the platform information, and found the platform for the next train. We headed there and got a seat. We sat for around 10 minutes when I start to notice people trickling out of the train. Strange...Since it wasn't everyone, just some people, I ignored it. Then it turned into more and more people... finally I decided something was up. We looked over and asked the people next to us, who were beginning to gather their things. They told us that the train was broken, so we were changing trains. And which platform was that one leaving from? You guessed it... the one we had just been at. Exhausted, we begrudgingly made our way back. Romeo had tracked our walking, and including all the back and forth, it was a total of 2km walking just in the train station alone.
Finally seated there, we left the station more than an hour after we had arrived. The trip out to Frascati was quick at around 25 minutes. I asked a man near us on the train to borrow his phone, and he dialed the number of our couchsurfer when I showed him. He handed the phone to me, and when I put it to my ear, I heard something in French, then in English, "This call will be charged to your personal account." Uh-oh... The call had already gone through, so I decided to just make it quick and hope it wouldn't cost the poor fellow too much. He had, after all, seen the Italian number as he entered it... Surely he knows his own phone and plan well enough to know if that was going to charge him... oops!
Anyway, we let Miguel (our host) know when we would be at the station and he met us there. We got off the train and started up the stairs to the front of the station and I heard someone call my name. There he was! I was so happy to see him, and know that not every host is shady or rude. (Our last real host, Dario, was nice too, but didn't go out of his way to meet us at the station). Miguel led us to his car and drove us the last of the way to his house, about 15 minutes further away in the village of Rocca Priori.
I could immediately tell that I was going to feel more comfortable with him than our previous host. He was relaxed, friendly, talkative, and just overall nice. He told us about his pets, how cold the house can get in the nighttime, and his plans for that night (a party to which we were invited). Having been traveling since 4am, and awake longer, we opted to relax at the house. When we arrived at the house, Miguel's mother, who lived in the top portion of the house, and his dogs met us at the gate with a smile (and tail wagging). His mom told us to call her "Mami" so I knew we were welcomed. His dogs were so sweet and friendly (although a little stinky!).
We settled in a little, then his mom sent down (we were staying with Miguel in the lower half of the house) some pasta with a light tomato sauce and fresh grated parmesan. It was light, fresh, and delicious. When Miguel headed out for the evening, we decided to watch a few episodes of the Simpsons and headed to bed early around 10:30.
The night was frigid and I piled 5 blankets on the bed. But, it was comfortable enough. I needed to rest up for our first day in Rome tomorrow! We had a lot to cover in two days...
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Chelsea in Nice
Sunday, October 6 & Monday, October 7
After a breakfast of leftover pizza at Dario and Martina's, we got a ride to the train station from our hosts and said our goodbyes. I was so thankful for the ride since it was at least a 30 minute walk, and we had our heavy packs with us.
We bought tickets from an automated machine and barely made the train about 4 minutes after arriving. Thankfully we did make it though, since the next train wasn't going to be there for an hour. We got into Florence around 12:45pm.
I needed to exchange some sneakers I bought from HnM, since they were a little too small. I went in and they did not have my size in the right style and color, so I got a cheaper pair and took them to the register. But, they wouldn't let me exchange them unless the price was the same or higher. So I went and grabbed a belt, which I needed, and happened to be around the right price. However, when I got back to the register, the difference was .05 cents, and they made me buy a .95cent lipgloss. How ridiculous, that I couldn't lose the .05cents... it's not even their loss!
Anyway, after that we went to a restaurant and Romeo had a traditional meal that was recommended to us by Dario. It's called chingale (sorry for butchering the spelling). It is a wild boar stew in a marinara type sauce. It was pretty good, but I wasn't hungry so I stuck with wine. :)
After lunch, we went to an American-style cafe that had wi-fi. I blogged and checked Couchsurfing, etc. We caught the bus from Florence to Nice at 6pm.
The bus ride was long and boring. I watched Pitch Perfect (for the 56th time), then tried to sleep. It was very uncomfortable, as expected, and I was grateful for the break to stretch. We rolled into Nice around 12:30am.
A couchsurfing host had offered to pick us up from the bus stop, but when I borrowed a phone to use from a sweet French woman on the bus, he did not answer. Bad omen. When we got off the bus, sure enough, he wasn't there.
We walked around and checked some hotels; the decent priced ones were full, and the others were pretty pricey. After an hour of trying, we didn't have much choice. We got a room at the Ibis Styles for 100 Euros. It was the best deal we could find. I went to bed pretty depressed and pessimistic about the rest of our trip, between buses and irresponsible Couchsurfing hosts...
However, in the morning, things looked brighter. We had breakfast (thankfully included in the price), then made our way into the city of Nice. The bus had dropped us near the airport which is a little far from the city. It was annoying with our big packs, but we got off near the beach and decided to just relax at the ocean.
The view of the Mediterranean was just breathtaking. It was a blue that I've never seen in a body of water. Not turquoise, or deep blue. Romeo and I decided it was kind of a Popsicle blue, really light and clear. The beach had pebbles, which was actually nice: we could sit our packs right next to us without getting sticky sand all over and inside everything.
We hung out there for a few hours. We even sneakily changed into water-ready clothing, then got our feet wet. Romeo ventured a little further into the cold water, but I was satisfied with calf-deep waves. We sun-dried on the beach and continued to relax. It was a really nice day to soak up the sun, relax, and just enjoy each other's company.
We grabbed a burger and fries from a shop nearby, and took it back to the beach and ate while watching the waves and the interesting people walking by. Afterwards, we decided to get a hotel rather than worry about finding a host for the night. We are catching a bus at 4am, so a hotel near the stop is more practical than a couch far away.
We were lucky and were able to book a hotel early enough to get a room at the cheap place. When we arrived, it really was half as nice as the one the night before, as well as half the price. After a trip to the store to get sustenance for the bus trip (sandwich making stuff as well as snacks) it began raining on our walk back. Thankfully the rain wasn't too heavy.
Now, it's time for bed. We don't actually have a confirmed place on the bus tomorrow, since we booked it so late, but we are hoping to find a spot anyway.
After a breakfast of leftover pizza at Dario and Martina's, we got a ride to the train station from our hosts and said our goodbyes. I was so thankful for the ride since it was at least a 30 minute walk, and we had our heavy packs with us.
I needed to exchange some sneakers I bought from HnM, since they were a little too small. I went in and they did not have my size in the right style and color, so I got a cheaper pair and took them to the register. But, they wouldn't let me exchange them unless the price was the same or higher. So I went and grabbed a belt, which I needed, and happened to be around the right price. However, when I got back to the register, the difference was .05 cents, and they made me buy a .95cent lipgloss. How ridiculous, that I couldn't lose the .05cents... it's not even their loss!
Anyway, after that we went to a restaurant and Romeo had a traditional meal that was recommended to us by Dario. It's called chingale (sorry for butchering the spelling). It is a wild boar stew in a marinara type sauce. It was pretty good, but I wasn't hungry so I stuck with wine. :)
After lunch, we went to an American-style cafe that had wi-fi. I blogged and checked Couchsurfing, etc. We caught the bus from Florence to Nice at 6pm.
The bus ride was long and boring. I watched Pitch Perfect (for the 56th time), then tried to sleep. It was very uncomfortable, as expected, and I was grateful for the break to stretch. We rolled into Nice around 12:30am.
A couchsurfing host had offered to pick us up from the bus stop, but when I borrowed a phone to use from a sweet French woman on the bus, he did not answer. Bad omen. When we got off the bus, sure enough, he wasn't there.
We walked around and checked some hotels; the decent priced ones were full, and the others were pretty pricey. After an hour of trying, we didn't have much choice. We got a room at the Ibis Styles for 100 Euros. It was the best deal we could find. I went to bed pretty depressed and pessimistic about the rest of our trip, between buses and irresponsible Couchsurfing hosts...
However, in the morning, things looked brighter. We had breakfast (thankfully included in the price), then made our way into the city of Nice. The bus had dropped us near the airport which is a little far from the city. It was annoying with our big packs, but we got off near the beach and decided to just relax at the ocean.
The view of the Mediterranean was just breathtaking. It was a blue that I've never seen in a body of water. Not turquoise, or deep blue. Romeo and I decided it was kind of a Popsicle blue, really light and clear. The beach had pebbles, which was actually nice: we could sit our packs right next to us without getting sticky sand all over and inside everything.
We hung out there for a few hours. We even sneakily changed into water-ready clothing, then got our feet wet. Romeo ventured a little further into the cold water, but I was satisfied with calf-deep waves. We sun-dried on the beach and continued to relax. It was a really nice day to soak up the sun, relax, and just enjoy each other's company.
We grabbed a burger and fries from a shop nearby, and took it back to the beach and ate while watching the waves and the interesting people walking by. Afterwards, we decided to get a hotel rather than worry about finding a host for the night. We are catching a bus at 4am, so a hotel near the stop is more practical than a couch far away.We were lucky and were able to book a hotel early enough to get a room at the cheap place. When we arrived, it really was half as nice as the one the night before, as well as half the price. After a trip to the store to get sustenance for the bus trip (sandwich making stuff as well as snacks) it began raining on our walk back. Thankfully the rain wasn't too heavy.
Now, it's time for bed. We don't actually have a confirmed place on the bus tomorrow, since we booked it so late, but we are hoping to find a spot anyway.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Chelsea in Pisa and Pontedera
Saturday, October 5
During the night, there was a huge thunderstorm. More like a lightning storm with huge amounts of rain. I woke up in the middle of the night and Martina was in the room shutting the blinds. She commented that it looked like the End of the World, and I must say, I agreed! I managed to fall back asleep after the room darkened again. However, the next morning I accidentally slept until 9:30am because of the dark room. Oops!
Dario had already left for work, so Martina, Romeo and I made a breakfast together of crusty bread, butter, and jam. Martina made me some warm milk with honey to help with my coughing fits that had begun (starting with allergies in my throat, then a stuffy nose, and now coughing...). It was delicious and really helped!
Martina offered to give us a ride into Pisa (where we were planning to go for the day), since she needed to go as well, so I hurried to get ready. We got into Pisa around 12pm, and Martina met her friend at the local market, and after browsing there for a bit, Romeo and I took off on our own. We headed towards the tower, and made a pit stop along the way for some cough syrup for my throat. When we asked for directions in Italian, I was very happy to realize that I understood a lot of what we were told (also in Italian). I guess Spanish classes really did help because Italian is quite similar!!
After getting some meds, we continued in the direction of the leaning tower. When it came into view, it was surreal. You've seen the photos, and sure enough, that's what it really looks like! But to see it, mostly just the top, as you're walking down an unassuming street in Italy, is strange.
A light rain was beginning to pick up (the day was very overcast), so we ducked into a restaurant for some lunch. We again had pizza, but this time I had 4 Formaggio (4 Cheeses). Romeo ordered something similar to what we had the other day.
When the pizzas came, I must say the four cheeses REALLY were four! Sounds strange, but I feel like every time I have something of the same name in America, it's just like extra cheese. It was very good, had some tang with a blu cheese in the mix, and I really enjoyed it.
After lunch, the rain let up and we headed to the tower. Of course we had to take the token perspective photos of pushing the tower over, or holding it up from falling, etc. We tried to get one with Romeo kicking it over, but the perspective was very difficult and I got frustrated. We decided to walk around, then I agreed to try again with some photos. Romeo was picky about his photos, so I eventually gave up.
Then we walked back to catch a bus to the train station. Amazingly, we figured out the bus line at the stop, but as the bus rolled up, we realized we should hhave gotten a ticket at a kiosk approximately half a mile away! We decided to just try to ask the driver if we could pay on the bus. When Romeo tried to ask in Italian, the driver looked annoyed but waved us on. We looked around for where we could pay but eventually found nothing, so we just sat down.
We got to the train station and bought tickets back to Pontedera so we could be back around 5pm. We found the correct platform and sat down to wait. The sign showed a 5 minute delay. Then it changed to 10 minutes... then 15. By the time it got to a 30 minute delay, I was annoyed and we had given up on being on-time. We finally got to Pontedera around 5:30. Then we had to walk to their house. We hadn't done it so far, so it was a test of Romeo's map reading abilities and internal compass. We made it back to their place fairly easily after about 30 minutes. By that time, though, I was exhausted!
We had a delicious dinner of boiled chickpeas with rosemary, baked potatoes and carrots with some spice that I couldn't figure out in English, and a tomato/mozzarella/tuna casserole bake. Martina is quite the chef! During dinner, Dario told us about a bar outside of town that has been around since WWII with the same owner. He hasn't even changed the tables or chairs; they are the same ones that German soldiers used when they visited the bar back in the day. When he asked if we wanted to check it out, the obvious answer was YES!
We piled in the car and headed there. Dario took a "long-cut" which he assured us was very scenic and beautiful...however, it was nighttime and raining, so it felt more dangerous than anything! However, we finally made it. It was nothing like an American bar. It was fully-lit, for one. It had about 5 tables, most of which we occupied by older Italians playing card games. Dario recommended a drink that had a bit of lemon rind, rum, and espresso. We can't positively remember the name of the drink, but we think it was Caffe di Livorno.
Romeo tried the drink, but I stuck with water (still fighting a cold), and we played some card games until midnight. I tried to get a photo of the 92 year old proprietor, but he wasn't too interested in chatting with us, even though he knew Dario well. Maybe he is skeptical of Americans; I have no idea. We headed back around 11:45pm.
Back at the apartment, we watched stupid YouTube videos for a while, and Dario taught us about some Italian singer back in the day that convinced Italy that he sang in English, but his lyrics were actually some made-up language, not English at all! The music video was hilarious.
We crashed around 1am with plans to get up and head back to Florence in order to catch a bus to our next destination: Nice, France.
During the night, there was a huge thunderstorm. More like a lightning storm with huge amounts of rain. I woke up in the middle of the night and Martina was in the room shutting the blinds. She commented that it looked like the End of the World, and I must say, I agreed! I managed to fall back asleep after the room darkened again. However, the next morning I accidentally slept until 9:30am because of the dark room. Oops!
Dario had already left for work, so Martina, Romeo and I made a breakfast together of crusty bread, butter, and jam. Martina made me some warm milk with honey to help with my coughing fits that had begun (starting with allergies in my throat, then a stuffy nose, and now coughing...). It was delicious and really helped!
Martina offered to give us a ride into Pisa (where we were planning to go for the day), since she needed to go as well, so I hurried to get ready. We got into Pisa around 12pm, and Martina met her friend at the local market, and after browsing there for a bit, Romeo and I took off on our own. We headed towards the tower, and made a pit stop along the way for some cough syrup for my throat. When we asked for directions in Italian, I was very happy to realize that I understood a lot of what we were told (also in Italian). I guess Spanish classes really did help because Italian is quite similar!!
After getting some meds, we continued in the direction of the leaning tower. When it came into view, it was surreal. You've seen the photos, and sure enough, that's what it really looks like! But to see it, mostly just the top, as you're walking down an unassuming street in Italy, is strange.A light rain was beginning to pick up (the day was very overcast), so we ducked into a restaurant for some lunch. We again had pizza, but this time I had 4 Formaggio (4 Cheeses). Romeo ordered something similar to what we had the other day.
When the pizzas came, I must say the four cheeses REALLY were four! Sounds strange, but I feel like every time I have something of the same name in America, it's just like extra cheese. It was very good, had some tang with a blu cheese in the mix, and I really enjoyed it.
After lunch, the rain let up and we headed to the tower. Of course we had to take the token perspective photos of pushing the tower over, or holding it up from falling, etc. We tried to get one with Romeo kicking it over, but the perspective was very difficult and I got frustrated. We decided to walk around, then I agreed to try again with some photos. Romeo was picky about his photos, so I eventually gave up.
Then we walked back to catch a bus to the train station. Amazingly, we figured out the bus line at the stop, but as the bus rolled up, we realized we should hhave gotten a ticket at a kiosk approximately half a mile away! We decided to just try to ask the driver if we could pay on the bus. When Romeo tried to ask in Italian, the driver looked annoyed but waved us on. We looked around for where we could pay but eventually found nothing, so we just sat down.
We got to the train station and bought tickets back to Pontedera so we could be back around 5pm. We found the correct platform and sat down to wait. The sign showed a 5 minute delay. Then it changed to 10 minutes... then 15. By the time it got to a 30 minute delay, I was annoyed and we had given up on being on-time. We finally got to Pontedera around 5:30. Then we had to walk to their house. We hadn't done it so far, so it was a test of Romeo's map reading abilities and internal compass. We made it back to their place fairly easily after about 30 minutes. By that time, though, I was exhausted!
We had a delicious dinner of boiled chickpeas with rosemary, baked potatoes and carrots with some spice that I couldn't figure out in English, and a tomato/mozzarella/tuna casserole bake. Martina is quite the chef! During dinner, Dario told us about a bar outside of town that has been around since WWII with the same owner. He hasn't even changed the tables or chairs; they are the same ones that German soldiers used when they visited the bar back in the day. When he asked if we wanted to check it out, the obvious answer was YES!We piled in the car and headed there. Dario took a "long-cut" which he assured us was very scenic and beautiful...however, it was nighttime and raining, so it felt more dangerous than anything! However, we finally made it. It was nothing like an American bar. It was fully-lit, for one. It had about 5 tables, most of which we occupied by older Italians playing card games. Dario recommended a drink that had a bit of lemon rind, rum, and espresso. We can't positively remember the name of the drink, but we think it was Caffe di Livorno.
Romeo tried the drink, but I stuck with water (still fighting a cold), and we played some card games until midnight. I tried to get a photo of the 92 year old proprietor, but he wasn't too interested in chatting with us, even though he knew Dario well. Maybe he is skeptical of Americans; I have no idea. We headed back around 11:45pm.
Back at the apartment, we watched stupid YouTube videos for a while, and Dario taught us about some Italian singer back in the day that convinced Italy that he sang in English, but his lyrics were actually some made-up language, not English at all! The music video was hilarious.
We crashed around 1am with plans to get up and head back to Florence in order to catch a bus to our next destination: Nice, France.
Chelsea in Florence and Pontedera
Friday, October 4
After such a great, albeit late, night, we lolled in the luxury of sleeping in a little bit. Javi and Shannon had to leave early to catch a flight, so we were able to eat breakfast at the hotel in their place, as well as check out later. It was so nice to sleep in, eat the most amazing breakfast spread (and probably the nicest one we will have on this trip), and take our time to get ready.
The breakfast was incredible. There was literally everything you could imagine for breakfast, including a bottle of champagne with an array of juices to make your own mimosas. It was so fancy, I had to try a little of just about everything. We agreed to stuff ourselves because we probably wouldn't get another feast like this one in the coming month and a half.
We checked out around noon, and met up with our friend who had hosted us the night before (where I had left my "cocoon" travel sheet). Then he led us around the town a little bit, showing us some places we would have probably missed otherwise. We offered to take him for a coffee, so he showed us a pretty cool roof-top cafe. We decided not to stay because the prices were so high, and none of us really felt like a coffee!
Instead, we walked towards the Piazza de Michelangelo, which leads to amazing views of Florence. Our friend Ken left us at that point, so we ventured on alone. We made our way across the river and up to the steps that lead to the piazza. It was a fun and leisurely walk. We goofed around and took some silly photos and had a good time.
When we got to the top, the view was astounding. Really breathtaking. We tried about a hundred photos to get the perfect ones of each of us, as well as some together. I sneakily offered to take a woman's photo for her (seeing her struggle to do the selfie on the iPhone), and she kindly returned the favor for us. She had a wire-hair terrier with her whom she introduced as Frazier. They were from San Francisco, and would be here for 2 months. Frazier was so sweet but very shy; for some reason, he was more interested in Romeo than in me.
After spending time taking photos, we made our way down, continuing to take some photos and acting silly. We finally made it to a pizzeria that our friend recommended, only to find we were 30 minutes late; they close after lunch and before dinner. We ended up having a pizza at the same restaurant where we had eaten with Javi and Shannon the night before. We got it with mozzarella, spicy salami, and shredded zucchini. It was very tasty!
After that, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags. I made a pitstop at HnM for some cheap sneakers (my boots that I ordered for the trip aren't cutting it!) We picked up our bags from the hotel and made our way to the train station. We bought tickets at a kiosk and had to run to make our train headed for the town of Pontedera, about 40 miles from Florence.
On the train, we sat next to an Italian woman. I asked her about the validation of the tickets, which I had read that you have to do. Since we had just bought the tickets, and had to run for the train, we hadn't validated. She said yes, we should have, but most of the time the ticket checkers are nice, so it shouldn't be a problem.
We ended up chatting a bit with her and it turned out that she was going to Pontedera too. When she found out that we would be walking to our Couchsurfing host's home, and we weren't exactly sure of the way, she offered to have her husband (who was picking her up at the station) drive us there. He was from the area, so she said he should be able to find the way. We thanked her profusely, breathed a sigh of relief, and began to relax.
A couple seated across the aisle from us began to chat with us. It turned out they were from Dallas. Yet again, I'm amazed at how small the world is! They were on a cruise around the Mediterranean, and had spent the day in Florence. We chatted about how amazing Italy is, some of the interesting things in Florence, and I shared with them about our plans for the coming trip. They were so nice and had that Southern hospitality and friendliness. If you're reading this, guys, it was great to meet y'all! Always a pleasure meeting a friendly face on the other side of the world!
When the train began slowing down to roll into Pontedera, we went to stand by the door. I noticed a woman who had been seated across from the couple we chatted with, whom I had noticed was listening to our conversation, and I apologized to her if we had disturbed her. She quickly said, "Not at all! It was very interesting. It's great to hear people who appreciate Italy!" For some reason, her kindness and friendliness really lifted my mood (which wasn't low to begin with, but was even higher after that brief conversation).
We got off the train and followed our new Italian friend from the train to her husband's car. He greeted us warmly, despite obviously not knowing he was going to play cheuffeur to some American tourists! We showed him the map of where we were going, and he managed to find the area. We had to call our host, Dario, and find our exactly where, but it all worked out.
So, we finally arrived at our first (official) Couchsurfer's place: Dario and Martina's. It was pretty awkward initially, not knowing exactly what to say. Dario was interesting and a little quiet, and we were also pretty exhausted from a long day. Martina got home a little later, and we all had dinner together. We had some delicious sausage, fresh cut prosciutto, mozzarella, crusty bread, and delicious wine. When we found out they were big Simpson's (the TV show) fans, we began to bond and find some topics of mutual interest to talk about. It eventually smoothed out into a natural flow of conversation, and I have to say it was quite an education. Romeo had more in common, but I learned about cosplay and the didgeridoo (which Dario plays), and even some philosophy/music theory.
We decided to watch a movie: I voted for the Simpson's movie, but Romeo chose The Jacket, so we watched that. Well, they watched; I fell asleep. I have been getting sick and I was feeling pretty exhausted, so sleep took over. We eventually called it a night around midnight.
After such a great, albeit late, night, we lolled in the luxury of sleeping in a little bit. Javi and Shannon had to leave early to catch a flight, so we were able to eat breakfast at the hotel in their place, as well as check out later. It was so nice to sleep in, eat the most amazing breakfast spread (and probably the nicest one we will have on this trip), and take our time to get ready.
The breakfast was incredible. There was literally everything you could imagine for breakfast, including a bottle of champagne with an array of juices to make your own mimosas. It was so fancy, I had to try a little of just about everything. We agreed to stuff ourselves because we probably wouldn't get another feast like this one in the coming month and a half.
We checked out around noon, and met up with our friend who had hosted us the night before (where I had left my "cocoon" travel sheet). Then he led us around the town a little bit, showing us some places we would have probably missed otherwise. We offered to take him for a coffee, so he showed us a pretty cool roof-top cafe. We decided not to stay because the prices were so high, and none of us really felt like a coffee!
Instead, we walked towards the Piazza de Michelangelo, which leads to amazing views of Florence. Our friend Ken left us at that point, so we ventured on alone. We made our way across the river and up to the steps that lead to the piazza. It was a fun and leisurely walk. We goofed around and took some silly photos and had a good time.
When we got to the top, the view was astounding. Really breathtaking. We tried about a hundred photos to get the perfect ones of each of us, as well as some together. I sneakily offered to take a woman's photo for her (seeing her struggle to do the selfie on the iPhone), and she kindly returned the favor for us. She had a wire-hair terrier with her whom she introduced as Frazier. They were from San Francisco, and would be here for 2 months. Frazier was so sweet but very shy; for some reason, he was more interested in Romeo than in me.
After spending time taking photos, we made our way down, continuing to take some photos and acting silly. We finally made it to a pizzeria that our friend recommended, only to find we were 30 minutes late; they close after lunch and before dinner. We ended up having a pizza at the same restaurant where we had eaten with Javi and Shannon the night before. We got it with mozzarella, spicy salami, and shredded zucchini. It was very tasty!
After that, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags. I made a pitstop at HnM for some cheap sneakers (my boots that I ordered for the trip aren't cutting it!) We picked up our bags from the hotel and made our way to the train station. We bought tickets at a kiosk and had to run to make our train headed for the town of Pontedera, about 40 miles from Florence.
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| Left: in the morning. Right: in the late afternoon. Incredible street artists. |
We ended up chatting a bit with her and it turned out that she was going to Pontedera too. When she found out that we would be walking to our Couchsurfing host's home, and we weren't exactly sure of the way, she offered to have her husband (who was picking her up at the station) drive us there. He was from the area, so she said he should be able to find the way. We thanked her profusely, breathed a sigh of relief, and began to relax.
A couple seated across the aisle from us began to chat with us. It turned out they were from Dallas. Yet again, I'm amazed at how small the world is! They were on a cruise around the Mediterranean, and had spent the day in Florence. We chatted about how amazing Italy is, some of the interesting things in Florence, and I shared with them about our plans for the coming trip. They were so nice and had that Southern hospitality and friendliness. If you're reading this, guys, it was great to meet y'all! Always a pleasure meeting a friendly face on the other side of the world!
When the train began slowing down to roll into Pontedera, we went to stand by the door. I noticed a woman who had been seated across from the couple we chatted with, whom I had noticed was listening to our conversation, and I apologized to her if we had disturbed her. She quickly said, "Not at all! It was very interesting. It's great to hear people who appreciate Italy!" For some reason, her kindness and friendliness really lifted my mood (which wasn't low to begin with, but was even higher after that brief conversation).
We got off the train and followed our new Italian friend from the train to her husband's car. He greeted us warmly, despite obviously not knowing he was going to play cheuffeur to some American tourists! We showed him the map of where we were going, and he managed to find the area. We had to call our host, Dario, and find our exactly where, but it all worked out.
So, we finally arrived at our first (official) Couchsurfer's place: Dario and Martina's. It was pretty awkward initially, not knowing exactly what to say. Dario was interesting and a little quiet, and we were also pretty exhausted from a long day. Martina got home a little later, and we all had dinner together. We had some delicious sausage, fresh cut prosciutto, mozzarella, crusty bread, and delicious wine. When we found out they were big Simpson's (the TV show) fans, we began to bond and find some topics of mutual interest to talk about. It eventually smoothed out into a natural flow of conversation, and I have to say it was quite an education. Romeo had more in common, but I learned about cosplay and the didgeridoo (which Dario plays), and even some philosophy/music theory.
We decided to watch a movie: I voted for the Simpson's movie, but Romeo chose The Jacket, so we watched that. Well, they watched; I fell asleep. I have been getting sick and I was feeling pretty exhausted, so sleep took over. We eventually called it a night around midnight.
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| Only Romeo will understand the hilariousness of this series of photos.... |
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