Part III

Okay, since Emily's been in Hyderabad for like a week and is already about to surpass me in posts, and since I've been back on American soil for almost 3 weeks I should finish the recap even though I'm like 2 months behind...


So Stephen and I got to Florence. We went and found my hostel and then went to find Stephens restaurant. We had the address but it took us awhile to find it, we had to stop and ask a few times before we found someone who knew it. Eventually we find it right in the square with the Duomo (the giant cathedral in the middle of Florence) but it's not open for like another hour or something so we decided to wander around a bit. While we were looking around we came across a group of high school aged kids parading around with pots and pans and stuff. Bari had mentioned something about the Italian government upping the cost of university or actually making them pay for university (imagine?) and that the Italian students were upset and protesting which is what we came across. We eventually were able to ask one of them what they were doing and they explained what Bari had told us and they were upset because they had to pay 5000 euro or something like that which converted is like 10000 dollars or less...we had no sympathy for them but we wished them luck.


We went back to the restaurant and sat down. There was one waiter and he was also the owner and was also kind of pushy. He had a recommendation for everything and he expected you to take it. The food was good we got a tortelloni and a risotto as a starter and the tortelloni was really really good and the meal was also really good. Afterwards I headed back to the hostel and he went back to the train station to get back to Rome to fly home in the morning.


When I got back to the hostel the other girls in the room were awake and we started talking. One of the girls was American and the other two I think were Malaysian and one of them spoke really good English. This was also election night so we were talking about all sorts of election stuff and me and the other American girl decided to go find a bar with election results. We found one that had CNN on so we hung out for a bit watching it until they started playing guitar hero. They still had a couple of TVs with it on but it wasn't until about like 11 or so that results started coming in at which point it was just Indiana and Kentucky or something like that. We decided to head back because I was tired and she was hungry. She also had a blackberry with full internet so she could keep up with the results.


The next morning after waking up and hearing that Obama won, I went to find breakfast before Bari got in and then wandered around and found a big market that had all sorts of cool stuff and leather bags and jackets etc.. Met up with Bari outside the Duomo and then we went through the market and bought things. I got a bag a Tshirt and a pashmina and Bari got a bunch of scarves and a pashmina and some other stuff.


We grabbed lunch and then went over to the Duomo to take some pictures. I was looking at the Baptistry door when I head "Julie! Bari!" I turn around and see Alex, Brittany, and Jack! It was so exciting, we knew we would be in Florence at about the same time but we had no real precise plans to meet up, except with Jack because we were all flying home together. So we took pictures and then split up again, they were all going inside the Duomo and I was heading towards the Uffizzi.


The Uffizzi had like 1/2 of my Art History class in it including Cimabue, Jesus Slips, Botticelli and so much other stuff I'd learned about. It was also cool because there was an Art History class going around and having class in front of the actual paintings, I was kind of jealous.



I met up again with Bari and Jack, and after wandering around for a bit more headed off to Venice.


Turns out our hostel was farther away than we thought. We got there easily enough and once we got to our cabin it started pouring and thundering. The next morning though it was beautiful and we headed out to explore Venice. We did a lot of walking around and shopping. Bari had made a rule that we couldn't buy anything till about 1 so that we weren't buying everything we saw. Jack was on a mission to find a decanter for Ariel, she ended up finding two that she liked but decided on a clear one with pink and green flowers on it.

We headed back to the main train station where we picked up a taxi that went around Venice *it was a lot cheaper than a gondolla* we ended up getting on right as the sun was starting to set so we got a great view of the canals and everything as it was getting dark.

When we got back we got a last meal in Italy before heading out the the airport.


Everyone we asked and everything we looked at said "the airport" which made us think that there was just one. So we took the bus to the airport and when we got there didn't see anything that said Easy Jet. Anywhere. At this point we got suspicious that we had messed up and went to ask at information. You guessed it, we were at the wrong airport. So we asked how to get to the other one and they said we had to take a cab. Jack was afraid she didn't have enough money but we covered it because we didn't have a choice. So we get down to Ground Transportation and theres one cab. So we take it and rush to the airport and get through but the flight takes awhile for whatever reason. But we get home safe and sound and that was reading week!