After Rome and Paris, we were totally wiped. Like so completely exhausted that even Brit didn’t care about sightseeing in Florence, and that’s like a huge deal haha. But we basically checked into our really nice yet expensive hostel with a pool, restaurant, and no kitchen and vegged out for a while. We had our own room for the 4 of us and it was huge so we kinda just hung out and ate and watched Italian TV…when the satellite was actually connecting. Eventually we wandered around the city, which was nice because Florence was especially beautiful. Obviously we saw Ponte Vecchio and the awesome cathedrals (like the Duomo) and such. Sadly, since it was Holy Week, all the churches were closed except for prayer. But it was absolutely gorgeous out…god I love Italy! Rafa’s friend, who’s abroad in Florence for the semester, told us some places to go and see. Nothing too exciting to report, but of course I got more gelato. I freaking love gelato. Also, I really love the Medicis, one of the most powerful families in Italy for a long time, so it was fun being in their home base. I was that obnoxious history person who told everyone lots of useless facts. Awwwww yeah.
We didn’t really plan our train to Milan very well, so we ended up with rather expensive standing room only tickets…at 8am…for a 4 hour ride. Fml. Luckily people got off at the earlier stops so we were finally able to stretch out and pass out for a while. Not exactly the best train ride I’d ever had.
Milan itself was really kinda cool, though again we didn’t do much. Essentially it was just a resting place before our flight to Kraków. I had the directions this time, and TOTALLY almost got us to the hostel without getting lost. We couldn’t really judge well what 300 yards was, but we turned one freaking street too early and that got us lost for 15 extra minutes. I was so on the right track though. Def.
Turns out there’s a Duomo in like every Italian city, and they’re always wonderfully elaborate. Again, closed because of Holy Week, but the outside was rather nice. We got our final gelato and sat by a fountain by a castle. Is it bad that I think I was gonna miss the availability of cheap gelato more than Italy itself? Maybe. But I’m telling you gelato is amazing, so I think it’s okay.
ANYWAY, while we’re sitting there, this random black man comes up and brings a whole bunch of those cheap friendship bracelets the street peoples are always selling. Well, we do our customary, no thank you, and try to ignore him, but he kinda throws these bracelets into our lap. We tried to give them back but he’s like, no it’s a gift, regalo. And then he takes them and ties them on our wrists! We’re kinda sitting there like, okay, wtf is happening right now. But we made it rather clear that we wouldn’t pay, so we didn’t do anything. On the other hand, as soon as he started tying them I knew he was gonna ask for money once we couldn’t give them back. Sure enough, he started asking us for a small donation ‘for Africa.’ He was like, money for Africa, waka waka. Oh Shakira, how you’ve spread through the world, cause I don’t think waka waka was ever associated with Africa before the song… Anyway, we ended up with free bracelets, and sadly the guy got no donations for ‘Africa.’
The flight to Kraków was rather hilarious, solely because Rafa and Ronnie were wearing like all their clothes and looked huge. It was funniest when they tried to sit in the airplane seats and all the clothes kinda bunched up around their top halves. They were like, oh noes everyone is gonna think we’re the fat Americans! Oh the lolz.
Slán go fóill!
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