Anyway, back to things that are somewhat interesting. I embarked on my journey to Florence around 10 pm Wednedsday and made it to Brig at 12 am where I was supposed to make a quick transfer to go to Domodossola for a 1am-5am layover in a train station that for all I know doesn't have an indoor part. In preparation I brought my swiss army knife and a hat. It's cold in Brig at midnight so I walked into this door and hid behind a corner until eventually a Swiss German man in uniform told me that this is not a waiting area and fearing german-speaking, uniformed men (instinctually), I got out asap and looked at the departure board.
There was my 00:16 train to Domodossola but below that, and the last train out of the station for the night was a 1:00 am train to Bologna and then Firenze (pronounced Fear-en-zay, ok? stop saying it wrong). I read and reread the definitions for the symbols and the big R with the circle around it--ie reservations required--was not next to this "EuroNight" train. Unfortunately it being so late there was NO ONE there to ask, so I decided to let the other train leave and test my luck. Eventually I found the conductor who was a skinny little Italian woman who would talk to me in broken english but only while walking away from me, and she said I had to pay for a couchette car, but I figured in the end it was the best bet cuz then i could avoid being raped/mugged/killed in Domodossola (maybe) and get some sleep so I'd be able to enjoy the weekend.
The train was pretty empty so I got a 4-person room to myself, which was sweet. You get a clean sheet and pillow and a dirty blanket.
Sleeping was interesting, I kinda woke up every 3 or 4 minutes either because the train was coming to a stop or because it was making noises or because people were talking or whatever other reason. Around 6 am there was a knock on my door and the conductor was there with an Italian muffin with raisins (really just fatty bread with raisins, not much flavor) and said my stop was next.
Woo! I was in Italy. After navigating the Italian public transportation system, I arrived at Santa Maria Novella and waited from a reply text from Becky Abrahams. (I was supposed to meet a high school friend, Kelyn Petrie, at 1 pm when my train was originally supposed to arrive but she decided not to give me her number so I texted Becky who is an old camp friend I hadn't seen in more than 5 years and who's cell phone's screen was broken so she really couldn't see my texts.)
Anyway, I decided to explore Florence at sunrise while I waited. I took some pictures--subtly of course so no one would know I was a tourist--and walked around. As I was walking, I was thinking to myself how many pigeons there were, until one decided to shit on my head. I was like that better have been rain, but turns out it wasn't. I had had such a long streak without animal problems! Mmph, all good things must end.
After an hour of wandering I got Becky's text which gave me directions from the SMN so I had to find that first and then eventually--using a combination of English, French, and German--"wo ist der strasse via de servi?" that bus guy laughed at me, but anyway it was near the duomo and a piazza neither of which meant anything to me, but I made it to her apartment. She lives with 13 girls in one apartment, but it is a nice place and she let me leave my stuff and take a shower (needed one after the bird poo) and gave me a map.
That map turned into the guide book for the next 4 hours of walking. I made sure to hit every site on the map, and along the way saw a park with a fountain that looked like it was made out of shit.
I took pictures of basically everything and everyone and every church/museum/statue whatever.
There is a lot of art in Florence, everywhere there are old Renaissance things which is cool. More than art, there are a lot of tourists, there were so many tourists i even took pictures of them taking pictures of the art.
At 1 I went back to the SMN station to surprise Kelyn who was like whoa, you're early! and I was like yeah 6 hours early and we went right back near the Ponte Vecchio from which I had just walked. We got the mandatory Italian gelato, which by the way was amazingly delicious and perfect for the upper 60s and sunny weather. We ate it on the balcony of her 8 person apartment and life was good.
Then we walked up to the top of a mountain to the Piazza Michaelangelo for nice beautiful view of Florence. She thought it was a mountain, but compared to Fribourg... piece of cake! We took the necessary photographs and then caught up on life for awhile while dangling our legs over a fancy cemetery. Then we explored on the way back and Kelyn got a cappuccino at her favorite place and the server put a heart design in chocolate on top, so I think he's in love with her.
After 7 hours straight of walking and not getting any sleep the night before I was starting to crash, but eventually Becky called to meet up and I met her and her college roommate (who was also visiting) at the San Lorenzo market. This place is filled with good leather products, souvenirs, knock off purses and sunglasses, scarves, clothes, Rastafarian apparel, and jewelry. Becky's friend got some belts, Becky a jacket, and me the mandatory terrorist scarf in white and purple (I bargained and got off 0.50 euro! Go Jen!!)
We then decided to go to Becky's favorite pizza place and the waiters loved us/made her speak Italian and we ordered two big pizzas and some wine. One of the pizzas turned out to be missing half of the ingredients but the complementary extra wine made us not realize this till hours later. Of course the pizza and wine were delicious, I was in Italy.
We headed back to Becky's apartment where we hung out and they got ready to go out as I waited for a call from Annie Wermiel/Alex Leonard that they were back from Copenhagen and I could come over. That call never came (turns out our phones don't connect in either direction, and I was out of credit anyway) so I skyped them and turns out Alex lived right by Becky.
I went over and talked with Alex for a little, but we were both exhausted and went to bed in like 15 minutes. The two of them woke up early to pick up Nicole LeBlanc from the airport while I slept, and apparently we never told her or Dave Bader (who was coming later) that I was coming in to see them, so I was the surprise and it was all very exciting.
While Nicole slept, Annie and I walked to her homestay in the suburbs, but sadly none of her family was there. It was cute though and I got to watch Annie pack for the weekend in Siena which was exciting too.
Then all four of us went to this nice sandwich place near the duomo and took our eats to sit on the piazza in front of the duomo. It was really nice to catch up and eat and such.
Alex wanted some gelato so we went but she couldn't pay because she had lost her wallet complete with credit cards and passport. We then had the most silent/nervous walk ever as we retraced our footsteps from the morning. Luckily someone at the sandwich place had brought it to the front. Phew.
Alex left to pick Dave up from the airport so me, Annie, and Nicole walked around, saw the one church I hadn't seen yet, and then went looking for a bathroom for me. Annie had to buy a cappuccino so I could use their toilet, and I struggled with the key opening the door as well as figuring out that I needed to use the petals with my feet to wash my hands--the waiter thought I was retarded.
While we were talking, I brought up how I got a swiss army knife and brought it for safety. They wanted to know what was in it, so I was like "I'll show you!!" I opened up the whole knife, and then OBviously sliced my finger open. I was bleeding everywhere, and the waiter definitely now thought I was an idiot. We had to find a pharmacy since I wouldn't stop bleeding and got these weird gauzy bandaids. I spent the rest of the afternoon touring Florence with my hand raised above my heart and applying pressure. It didn't stop bleeding for like a day and a half.
Later we all headed to the train station, I walked and they took the bus, so that we could take a train to Siena. Somehow I was running late and we had to literally run to catch our train (Annie had some difficulty running in heals on cobblestone) and apparently we were fun to watch.
By the time we got to Siena, which is a cute medieval-esque town a lot like Fribourg, and got to our cute hostel/bead and breakfast, it was like 10 pm and time to find dinner. We went to a restaurant with blue lights outside because apparently we are attracted by blue lights. We got some wine and some food and all was good.
Then we explored the city a bit and went to bed. The next morning we got up for our included breakfast and went to pick up the bikes I had reserved for us. The bike route I had found started back near Florence so we eventually decided to take a map and just explore. None of the bikes worked right and when we kept exchanging them, they started blaming us for breaking them even though we hadn't gone anywhere. They wouldn't let us change anymore so Annie got shafted with a bike which wouldn't go higher than first gear.
We biked to Castellini in Chianti and the ride was GORGEOUS. The weather was perfect and the vineyards went on forever with the occasional villa on the hillside. Naturally, many photo-ops were had.
It was a long trek to Castellini and after a huge downhill that made my eyes water, it was a huge uphill the rest of the way. There was some struggle, but at the top we went to this cute restaurant snuggled into the hill and overlooking the chianti countryside. The bread and pasta were homemade and the olive oil was rich, and I tried some boar ragu (a chianti speciality).
We then realized that we still weren't in the city center of Castellini nor were we at the top of the hill. Eventually we made it and it was a really cute town, except we made it during their siesta so there was no one around and nothing to do but walk around. The girls took the bus back, but Dave and I decided to bike back. We took a different route and it was absolutely incredible. I'm not just saying that cuz no one else went either. The slope of the road was about 15 degrees (there was a sign) and it winded downhill through expansives of green scenery and castles.
We went so fast I was afraid we were going to die, but it was so exhilerating that the uphill on the other end didn't even take away any of it's wonderfulness. Somehow we got back to the bikeshop before the busers, but since the man there only spoke Italian we couldn't really do much, because, well, me and Dave don't speak Italian.
That night we obvi got another nice Italian dinner but then were too tired to go out as planned and played this card game I forgot the name of instead. The next day we saw the duomo and the horse race piazza before I had to roll out to catch my train. Good to see those guys, sad to leave them.
The train strike that had been planned for that weekend (which I was so stressed out about ever since I bought the tickets without knowing about it) either happened on the Wednesday before or maybe would have happened next week, according to the laughing guy on the phone at Trenitalia. Thank goodness for that. 9 hours of training later, I was home.
The next day I had econ/soccer-esque activities all day, so by the time it came to crazy monday, I was way too exhausted to even consider. Luckily though, not going out allowed me to make breakfast on Tuesday where I asked my fellow Americans "Should I go to class or go skiing instead? It's way too beautiful outside." There was a resounding you better skip class or I will kill you, so I packed my stuff and went to catch the bus to Schwarzsee. On the way I saw my friend Sophie who was actually on her way to the class I was skipping and happened to have her season's pass on her. Not bad, only had to pay for the half-price bus ticket.
It was gorgeous as usual, but the snow needed to seriously thaw before you could even attempt to turn on it. I found some decent stuff and it was totally worth it, but the best skiing was definitely in early February.
The next day, by the time I got to church history, I was so tired and hungry that when this guy did his 1.5 hour presentation on witchcraft in some place between France and Switzerland I zoned out after the first 5 minutes (see I don't even remember what he was talking about!) It was terrible, I literally sat there staring at him, but didn't hear a single word for 115 minutes.
Then it was time to pack for Madrid... (to be continued. I don't have all day to write this and I'm sure you don't have all day to read it either!!)
Now for the Italian peoples' observational section:
-There are lots of pigeons.
-Dark purple is in. So in. Ew.
-So are shiny gold sneakers, also ew.
-The Italian reputation for good pasta, bread, olive oil, gelato, and wine is well deserved.
-Italian people can be aggressive/non accomodating.
-There are many many many mopeds.
-Piazzas are a good place to sit.
-We need to introduce deodorent into this country.
-The men actually do say "Ciao Bella" all the time (what can I say!)
-They use foot petals to turn on water in some sinks.
-You have to order pastas, meats, veggies, etc separately.
-Lots of talking with the hands.
-They walk slow on sidewalks.
-You don't need to speak Italian, at least in Florence, everything and everyone is in English.
-When you order a cappucino you are supposed to stand at the bar to drink it.
-Penis shaped pasta.
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