10 Day Break Part 2

Part 2

It ended up only being Cinzia, Giulio and me that went to the beach house for the second part of my break. I thought that the grandparents were coming too, but either they decided not to or it was lost in translation.

It was very beautiful there.  The house was actually an apartment about 5 minute walk from the beach and it had a decent sized garden/yard area.  Cinzia has small lime, orange and mandarin trees growing out there.  They also have three turtles that just live in the garden.  Its completely enclosed by a fence and I guess they can't fit through because they just hang out in there all year round.  We bought lettuce at the store one day and when Cinzia was washing it she hands some of it to me and points to outside.  I'm like, I don't understand… So she makes me follow her and she starts throwing the lettuce in the garden.  At first I'm like what is this lady doing? She was throwing them where the sun was so I thought maybe she was drying them? kinda weird. But then the turtles start coming for it! Its like feeding cows, except Oh, ya know, just out feeding the turtles. 

The ocean was beautiful, very turbulent though.  Cinzia said its that way year round.  The only ocean beach I really remember being to was way up in the Gulf of Mexico where the water hardly makes waves, but here the waves were probably 5-8ft tall. There were a couple guys out wind surfing which gave me a perspective as to how big they really were.  Burr… I'm bundled up in a coat scarf and sweater and they're playing in the water. 

Giulio Climbing on the Lifeguard Stand

We were going out for pizza that night and thats all they told me about dinner.  So we get in the car and next thing I know we're parking in what looks like a residential area. Then we just kinda walk into this house.  I'm thinking are we eating here?  We stopped by to see some of Cinzia and Giulio's friends, but she sorta failed to mention that to me.  Thats where sometimes I wonder if I just didn't understand her earlier or if she decides she doesn't want to explain everything.  Anyway she introduced me and everything and the kids tried speaking little bits of english to me which was cute, but I'm still not sure if we're staying for dinner or just chatting or whats exactly going on.  I'm getting good at just going with the flow.  That kinda seems to be how things are when I hang out with my host family.  I think we're doing one thing and next thing I know we've stopped somewhere else for a while, and then they're like "ok, we're going now" and then on the way we end up somewhere else haha who knows. Somedays I think I understand Italian and then other days I wonder if I really have any idea what they're talking about. 

View of the Mediterranean from the Hills 

We did go to pizza, but not until we walked to this other restaurant and picked up some little girl who for about 10-15 minutes I had no idea who she was.  Italians like to talk. A lot. So getting a word in edgewise just to ask, "who the heck is the 6 year old?" is rather difficult.  I don't remember her name now but she was the daughter of the family we had just seen.  Her brother was with us too, but him and Giulio were so busy goofing off he didn't really acknowledge his sister at first.  By this point I'm just all kinds of confused.  

We ended up having delicious pizza at a restaurant where Cinzia knew just about everyone. Small town. Kinda felt like home.  She told me a story about this one time when she was eating there in the summer, she recognized this guy sitting at the table across from her, but she just couldn't figure out how she would know him.  She didn't realize it until he was paying, but it was Harrison Ford.  

The next day we went for a little bike ride.  They asked me if I knew how to ride a bike and I was like, Yeah, Of course. Well, I should have specified that I know how to ride a mountain bike with the tires full of air.  I had my purse with me, the kind you just have to hold on your shoulder, which is something I am very capable of holding while biking. Normally.  Well… I've never ridden a road bike before.  And to make matters more interesting the tires seemed to be a bit low. Leaning over that far to reach the handlebars is very awkward for me, and also made it impossible to keep my bag on my shoulder.  It was a good thing they went ahead of me, cuz it probably looked like I had never seen a bike in my life.  I kinda thought I was going to run into a tree.  We veered off onto this dirt path thing that is rather bumpy and I discover how incredibly uncomfortable the seat is.  Might as well have been a triangular shaped block of wood… Eventually I kinda got my shit together and stopped almost falling over just trying to turn and was kinda able to enjoy how incredibly beautiful it was.  The path was enclosed on both sides by rows of HUGE trees.  Then we veer off again and we're riding through the middle of an olive grove!  So beautiful. But I'm still secretly praying I don't end up getting a closer look at one of these olive trees.  

Again with the lack of information given out, the bike ride is an adventure to the grocery store. Didn't know that.  We bought stuff for the spaghetti carbonara Cinzia was going to teach me to make. Spaghetti carbonara is made with eggs. Cinzia hands me the bag with the eggs in it to bike home with. Well shit. My pride is too big to tell her we may have scrambled eggs before we get there.  Oh boy.  And instead of taking the quiet way home that we came from, we take the busiest street she can find in town. Of course without a sidewalk.  

I made it. I didn't die, I didn't hit a tree, I didn't even break the eggs (miraculously), but I may never touch a road bike again in my life. 

Cinzia taught me to make the spaghetti carbonara because I told her that hers was the best I'd ever eaten.  It was amazing. Again.  I think I could eat that for every meal. 

The last day we went around and saw a bunch of the little towns tucked up in the hills near the ocean.  They were all really neat and full of character.  They're all little walled cities like Siena, just much much smaller.  

Overall it was a pretty fun time, but after three days with them I was ready to get back to Siena to relax and just take a day off of traveling.   I really do get along with the Grandpa much easier than the rest of the family. He just really knows how to explain things to me so that I understand, so it was nice to come back to him and Carla where I felt like I could talk easier.  

10 Day Break (Part 1)

Finally getting a chance to write about my 10 day break. Things were pretty busy right when we got back.

The usual travel crew had their trips planned out since their parents came to Italy to see them, so I had to find a new group to travel around with.  There were some girls I spend a little time with going first to Paris and then to Amsterdam and I thought about it, but I've had my Thanksgiving Paris trip planned since almost the beginning of September so I didn't know if I wanted to do that twice.  The other group of girls I get along with well were headed to London first and then to Barcelona.  I ended up deciding to go with the 6 of them even though I had just been to London.  It would be Stephanie, Lindsay, Katie, Paige, Shauna, Marissa and myself. 

We were all supposed to meet at the train station Friday evening.  I got there first and when I looked up at the departure board, next to our train it says Soppressa… My heart just sank.  Was that another freaking strike? or is it cancelled or what?  The girls weren't there yet so I texted Jerrod and was like whats this mean? He writes back,  "Surprise".   Jeez.. How typical Italy.  We had decided not to take the hour earlier train because we didn't really need to be at the Pisa airport that early at all.  Once everyone got there I pointed it out and we figured out we could take the train headed to Florence and make the switch in Empoli to our right train.  The Florence train was leaving in like 2 minutes. We didn't have tickets yet. So we got on the train anyway with Marissa reassuring us that you really can just buy tickets once you're on.  I wasn't completely convinced and its a huge fine if you're caught without a ticket or without verifying your ticket before.  We got to Empoli without the ticket lady coming by, checked the board for Pisa and the train was leaving in about 15 min.  We could have bought tickets then but I never trust the trains anymore about when they're leaving so we got right on.   The lady did come by this time and we ended up being able to buy tickets.  They were a little more expensive than normal, but at least we were on the train and headed to where we needed to be.  

Got to the airport in Pisa and everything went smoothly from there til London. Except that I was convinced we were going down upon decent into London.  Thats the most turbulence I've experienced on a plane.  We met this guy in the airport before we took off and he was from New York and has been studying in Florence.  He was headed to London as well and ended up flying with us.  He said that his friend living there told him the subway stops running at 12:30am.  What?!  The airport is an hour outside of central London and we had an Easybus reserved at 12:45am to get us into the city, but from the drop off point we were counting on the subway to get us to our hostel, Restup London, which was in Elephant and Castle.  The site online had subway times running until around 2 or later! Liars.   I was worried it would cost us a fortune to take a taxi, but it ended up not being that bad at all.  We got to our hostel which seemed very clean and a little more modern, but they didn't have the 6 person room we reserved.  Something was wrong with that floor I guess… 

We got put in a 12 person room and they told us that we'd be alone there for the first night but that maybe after that we'd have other travelers with us.  So far, not so bad.  Since we had booked a 6 person room for 7 of us (to be cheaper and to keep us all together) 2 of us would be sharing a bed.  I offered to since I didn't really care, so it was supposed to be Steph and I.  Since we got moved into this bigger room with no one else in it we ended up not needing to.  It would have been a tight fit, the beds weren't as big as they looked online.  

The next day we decided not to take the subway in like we thought we'd need to.  It didn't look as far from the main part of the city as we originally thought.  It was chilly out, but very refreshing.  Definitely not in Italy anymore!  We only walked about 15 or 20 minutes before we got to Big Ben so that wasn't bad at all!  We went to Westminster Abbey first.  A couple of the girls went in, but it was very expensive and they wouldn't give any reduced price for our international ID cards. Poo.  I was kinda on a budget so I didn't go in, but the rest of us went into the church next to it and walked all around the abbey.   Next it was onwards to find a Starbucks.  The girls were all craving it as was I!  I had had my fix earlier the first time I was in London, but its so nice to get a large coffee in a go cup that you can carry and keep your hands warm and sip on for a long time.  I mean I have very much gotten used to drinking shots of espresso in Italy, I like it now, but you can't find a large coffee or even a "go cup" anywhere.  Maybe there are places in other cities outside Siena, but I haven't seen them yet.  So it was really nice to get a latte.  Even more nice to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte.  MMMMM so delicious! 

Next we went to Buckingham Palace.  The guards actually had their furry hats on this time!  Last time I was there they didn't and I was really disappointed thinking that maybe they didn't do that anymore.  Maybe it has something to do with it being cold now tho. Makes sense.  We took a walk through the beautiful park next to the palace and it was nice to see the leaves all changing colors.  That hadn't started at all in Italy before we left.  

We started walking towards Chelsea in hopes that we would find a store to buy Chelsea soccer shorts for my host brother who had asked and soccer sweats for Katie's host brother.  No luck, but on our way there the girls realized we were seeing people with Harrods bags.  I didn't even know what Harrods was but they were like Oh we have to go in! Its a giant famous department store here! 

Holy crap they weren't kidding.  That is probably the biggest store I've ever been in.  It was really neat to see tho, there's a whole room for just the chocolate area and a whole room for just the perfume and then one for lingerie and another for evening gowns.  And it just keeps going and going and going and there's probably about 6 floors or something.  It was crazy looking at the prices of some of the things there.  I've never even been in a store that sells 13,000 pound dresses.  Thats like $22,000 dollars.  Wowzers.  It was an experience.  Fun to look, its like being in a museum almost haha.  Look, don't touch, probably costs more than  all your life savings.  

By then it was already about 5 so we decided we should probably start wandering back in the general direction of our hostel.   We had gotten ourselves a long ways away.  Probably an hour walk or so.  It's more fun to see the city that way tho, taking the subways you miss a lot.  

It ended up just pouring rain about the last 10 minutes of our walk.  No umbrellas of course.  We were absolutely soaked. When we got back to the hostel there were 4 other girls in our commune bedroom. The lights were on when we came in, and they were kinda laying in bed reading. We were trying to dry off and change clothes and we were talking and giggling a little when all of the sudden one of the girls shushed us and told us they were trying to sleep and that we were being disrespectful.  It was 7:30 at night! and they were reading!  Ok sassy pants we'll move this party elsewhere.  As soon as we're changed at least!  

We ended up staying in for the evening and hung out in the hostel commune area and shared a bottle of wine.  It was nice after walking across half of London.  

The second day we headed  back to the palace to see the Changing of the Guard.  They only do it every other day in the fall.  There was about a million and a half people there watching.  It was kinda neat, but pretty anticlimactic.  Afterwards we went into some art museum, not really sure what it was exactly, but most of it was sorta lost on me because a lot of it was paintings of historical figures in the UK and I don't know anything about England.  There was also a photography part though and it had some photos of the royal family and such which was more interesting for me.  Not really in the area at all, but we headed towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge next.  On foot.  We were literally making a lap around London.  It was a really pretty walk along the river and  really didn't end up taking us as long as I thought it would.  I wanted to go into the tower since I didn't get to last time, but its so EXPENSIVE. I tried to get her to lower the price with my international student card, but she said that didn't matter here.  So far that card hasn't helped me anywhere yet!  I'm hoping it will be accepted in Paris at the museums there.  I didn't end up going in because I didn't want to pay.   

We crossed Tower Bridge and I got to see the 406 sticker Jerrod and I put on last time.  I was hoping it was still there and it was! We placed that thing perfectly, its the same color as the turquoise on the bridge and you would probably never notice it unless you were looking for it. 

The time change happened the night we got to London and I'm still not used to how early it gets dark.  It was only about 4:45 and already lights were starting to come on and it was getting kinda dark out.   We headed back to our hostel and ended up coming up on it from the opposite way we left.  We really did make a giant circle around town. 

We went out to a Wetherspoons for dinner.  They are this line of restaurants all over London and they've got pretty tasty food. We ate at 2 different ones last time I was in London and they were very inexpensive.  Oh and I found out after I ordered and paid that the other girls used their international student cards and got a discount! Damnit I missed my one time to benefit from my card!  

It was a very funny night, we were there for probably over 2 hours and I think I was laughing the whole time.  Marissa is always saying the weirdest shit, but its absolutely hilarious. My abs hurt by the end of dinner. 

Room to ourselves again that evening.  That was nice.  

Our last day there we were going to meet up with our friend Joe who was getting there that day.  We headed first to see the Olympic Stadium.  That one was going to be a far walk, so we finally resorted to a subway ride.  Ended up getting a day pass for hardly anything at all which ended up coming in handy for the evening.  We got all the way to the stadium and found out that its considered a construction site for the next 18 months and no one's allowed in. What?! who planned that out? In 18 months the excitement of the Olympics is going to have worn off and it won't be as cool!  So we got to look at it from a third story window in a shopping mall.  I was disappointed, I really wanted to see it. 

We ended up meeting our friends afterward and while trying to find a place to eat dinner, with the help of one of the girls that was studying in London, we ended up in a very sketchy part of town.  It wasn't china town, it was like Indian town.  All the restaurants have guys outside of them that yell at you and try to sell you deals to eat at the restaurant. Its strange.  Oh and its pouring rain at this point.  

Finally we got out of that part of town and ended up at a bar and grill type place.  We all got our food when this guy came up to us and asked if any of us would be willing to be on a tv show. What??  Apparently they were filming a British version of  The Bachelor or something. Anyway, Shauna and Marissa agreed to and pretty much this guy came up to them all dressed in a tux and would try his moves and sweet talk on them and they just had to kinda turn him down or something.  They told the rest of us to not really look at the camera, but it was so hard not to.  Me and Lindsay are probably in the back of that scene awkwardly eating our nachos. No big deal, I'm just on tv. 

It was a really fun night.  The girls signed their releases to be on British television, and we headed out trying to find out way to the nearest tube station.  We made all of our transfers, which was kinda a miracle since we'd all had just enough to drink that it could have been interesting.  

We get back to our hostel and open the door to our room… In the very first bed is on of the biggest black ladies I've ever seen.  She is passed out with one leg, one arm and her bare stomach hanging over the side of the bed.  The room smells awful. Next to the bed is a huge box of like powdered laundry detergent… why? and on top of this box is a knife. Yep. just sitting there.  All seven of us just stood in the doorway dumbfounded like, what do we do now?  Someone grabbed her knife and brought it to the front desk and just kinda was like, Uh… we can't really sleep with this.  The guy walked into the room and turns right around, hands us a bottle of Febreez and says "we'll have her removed, Good luck".  

What a night… 

I had to be up at about 6:30 the next morning to get myself to my plane.  I was flying out differently than the other girls because they were headed to Barcelona and I was headed back to Siena.  

I walked to the tube station, got on the right tube, got across London, found my bus to take me to the airport and made it!  All by myself.  I was so proud haha.  That was my first time really being completely alone trying to travel, being at the airport and flying. 

Success!

I got back to Pisa and realized I would have to start speaking Italian again… It was kinda a strange feeling. I went from speaking only English for the last 5 days to traveling alone in Italy speaking only Italian.  

I made it back to Siena in one piece.  One very exhausted piece.  I ate dinner with my family and went to bed super early.  I had one day to recuperate and then we were headed to their beach house for the last part of my trip…

Photos from London (2nd Time)

The 406 sticker on Tower Bridge

Lindsay, Marissa, Paige, Katie

Katie, Lindsay, Me, Stephanie

A pretty British Building

Lindsay filming the Changing of the Guard

Drummer Man outside the Tower of London

The Palace Flags

Marissa, Katie, Stephanie, Lindsay, Paige, Shauna in front of Tower Bridge

Shauna, Stephanie, Lindsay, Me, Katie, Marissa, Paige  in front of Westminster Abbey

The Changing of the Guard

Lindsay

Me in a Phonebooth

Lindsay, Paige, Katie, Stephanie

Paige, Lindsay, Katie, Shauna in front of the Palace fountain

Singin' in the Rain 

Stephanie

Paige, Shauna, Lindsay, Stephanie, Marissa on Tower Bridge

Taxi in the Fall

More parade men outside the Tower of London

...

If I didn't know any better, I'd think there was a teenage boy living at this house.  Smells like Axe super strong in the bathroom and hallway.  Nope. Just the grandpa. He's a baller.

Londra

It took a trip to England for me to realize how much my study abroad experience has plunged me into a totally different culture.  It's not that I didn't know that already, I knew I was in a new place, but leaving the country for the first time in over a month and going to London was like a mini reverse culture shock.  

Erin, Ariel, Jerrod and I took a train to Pisa early Friday morning and flew from there to London.  At the airport we met up with Erin's friend Katelyn who has been studying abroad in Ireland.  Earlier we had bought tickets for a bus from the airport into London, I was expecting a grey hound type thing, but we got a mini bus, more like a 10 person van that drove us for an hour right into the city and dropped us off right at a Tube station.  Very convenient.  

We stayed in Piccadilly Backpackers hostel which was a short subway ride from where we were dropped off. (1st subway ride! Also 1st hostel experience…)  It was a little rough.  Nothing like staying in a nice hotel, but I hadn't expected that.  We were in a 4 person dorm with 2 bunk beds.  They just give you a clean sheet and a pillow case when you check in and there was a blanket folded at the end of each bed when we got to our room.  

There were all kinds of worldly vibrant murals painted all over the walls.  It reminded me of being back in the dorms when I started college. Maybe a little less clean. Especially the bathroom. But it really wasn't that bad.  I didn't really mind, it was inexpensive and is practically right in Piccadilly Circus.  

We got ourselves checked in around 2 or 3 and went out into London!  We hadn't been walking for ten minutes when all of the sudden someone down the sidewalk is screeching and running towards us.  It was Erin and Katelyn's friends from back in Denver.  How weird.  We're in a huge city and already we see people we know.  

We went to see Buckingham Palace, slightly unimpressive actually.  I thought it would be bigger and fancier, but it just looks like an old stone building.  The guards don't even wear the traditional tall hats anymore! Thats what I wanted to see!  

We walked back towards Piccadilly and went on a mission to find a pub and fish and chips, which there are both on practically every corner.  We found a nice little pub that was really busy downstairs, but they sent us upstairs to eat.  It was cute, we were the only ones up there, we sat in front of a little fireplace, and our waitress was so adorable with her accent and she was just so nice!   This was kind of our first encounter with the reverse culture shock.  I had realized when we got to Italy how their culture is just very blunt and what we would consider rude back home.  It's completely normal in Italy. Its just a behavioral thing, they don't find it rude.  I think I have just come to accept it and also fit myself into in some ways.  When everyone from little kids to little old ladies will just shove by you without even the slightest hint of an excuse me, you just learn to do the same thing.  I find that when I say excuse me, the Italians give looks, almost like that is a weird thing to say in that situation.  Waitresses, baristas, etc. are often very cold when they wait on you.  Some of it may be that they may not like Americans, but I always try very hard to use as much Italian as I can when I order to show them that I am trying.  

So when our waitress was all cheery and sat there and told us which beer she liked, answered any questions about the menu, told us just to "shout if you need anything" etc. she seemed like the nicest person I'd ever met.  We all couldn't get over it.  Katelyn was kinda blown away when we told her about some of the cultural differences. I guess people in Ireland are also normal, friendly, human beings.  

Same thing at the pub later that night.  The bartender was so friendly when we walked in, he joked and chatted with us while we ordered, asked us where we were from and offered up suggestions about the beer.  This all seems like such a normal thing back in Montana, but I've been away from it for close to a month and a half now and hadn't realized that it would feel so strange to go back into. 

In the hostel that night we found out that our beds had a bit of a squeak issue.  Any time anyone even moved a finger they might as well have been jumping on their bed.  I don't think any of us really got very solid sleep.  And because we had Katelyn with us and we were trying to be cheap, we had snuck her in and she had to share a bed with Erin.  Good thing they weren't Italian size beds, two people in one of those would really just end up just being one person in the bed. The other would most likely find themselves on the floor.

Got up at 9, started our day by getting Cinnabon and Starbucks. Not very local of us, but A) Cinnabon was right around the corner, and B) I have not been able to order a latte in Italy because they just don't do soy milk at cafes, and C) its pumpkin spice latte season.  You can't just miss that. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around London.  We saw Big Ben, the London Eye (which we didn't end up riding on because it is pretty expensive), Westminster Abbey, and Tower Bridge/London Bridge whichever its referred to.  Jerrod and I stuck a 406 sticker he had onto a discreet area of the bridge.  We had to leave a little Montana behind.  I took my Holga camera with me on this walkabout and ended up taking a triple exposure of Tower Bridge from far away, the sign saying Tower Bridge, and the Montana 406 sticker.  I guess I will wait for 3 months to find out if it worked. 

I didn't realize that Tower Bridge was a draw bridge.  Those things always amaze me.  A little bit after we crossed, they pulled it up and let a ship out.  It was kinda neat to see. 

We went out for Thai food that night.  Also not a very local Londony thing, but there are tons of Thai restaurants there.  Also, Italians don't really switch it up for dinner and such.  They are rather proud of their food, we eat Italian meals for every meal.  Its probably some type of sin to cook any other ethnic food. Don't get me wrong, I love Italian food and could probably eat it for the rest of my life, but it was fun to switch it up for a couple days. 

The Pound is so strong compared to the dollar. Right now it is 1.6 dollar for 1pound. If you think in pounds when you're buying things it's not that many, but if you do the dollar conversion you realize it costs you an arm and a leg to pay for anything…. I didn't buy anything other than food and drink, but I still felt like it was a pricey couple of days.  When I go back for the few days of my 10 day break I will be finding a grocery store and eating bread and cheese for lunch and dinner.  Which is just fine by me.

When we were walking around that evening there were lots of guys out trying to promote the clubs.  They just come right up to you and start to talk to you about the club.  We automatically went into our Italian Defensive mode and as soon as they walked up we were like "No thank you, Not interested, Go away"  Then we realized that they are not quite like the Italian vendors. They actually were all pretty nice, they weren't trying to force us to buy anything, just handing out flyers for the clubs and telling people about them… We probably looked like rude Americans, but you can't be that nice in Italy, you give them two seconds of attention and they won't go away.  

We had to get up and going the next morning around 9 because we had to catch our little bus/van back to the airport.  I have decided I should not be allowed to fly anymore… When I printed off my boarding passes earlier, it was the day I found out my bank account had been wiped out. My head wasn't really there and I wasn't thinking.  I knew I had checked the "check in for both departure and return flights" box, then I hit the print two copies button.  I had some problems getting the printer to run, but then I got the two copies finally and just kinda had this thought in my head like both my departure and return boarding passes were both on the paper. Who knows.  

Anyway It didn't even hit me  until we were on our way to the airport that I did NOT have a return boarding pass…. We were flying with Ryanair and there are all kinds of rules for flying with them.  We were at the airport 3 hours before our flight and I found a place that I could print a pass from a computer.  Well with Ryanair's stupid rules, you can't reprint your boarding pass with less than 4 hours to your flight. gahhhhh….   So I paid a pricey fee to have their flight desk print it. That is how they make money apparently.  Luckily the original flight hardly cost anything, but it still sucks. A lot.  I cannot make flight mistakes anymore, its killing me!

The flights were a little interesting as well.  The plane wasn't small like I was imagining, but It is crazy loud during take off and the entire flight my ears were popping just about every 5 minutes.  I've never had that happen on a plane before.  Landing was also kinda scary… Both times it seemed like the pilot was like 'oh shit, I should have started decent like 5 minutes ago, I better get down there!'  The plane was so up and down while we were descending, I thought we were falling out of the sky like ten times. 

Right when we landed back in Pisa, Erin gets a call from her room mate here in Italy who was also traveling saying that the trains are on strike until 9 that night.  Are you kidding me?! W`e can't win with the damn Italian train system! They are strikes with the busses and trains like ever other week it seems like.    

The train runs right to the Pisa airport, and thats where we were supposed to get on.  We had bought our tickets beforehand.  But sure enough when we looked at the board, it says strike next to our train.  We decide to try and walk to the Centrale station, it didn't look too far away on Erin's phone map.  We figured we'd just find that one, and then hang out in Pisa for like 5 hours until the strikes were over.

It only took us maybe 20-30 minutes to get there, and right when we walked in to the station, we realized there was a train headed for Empoli, the station where we needed to make a train switch, in like 5 minutes.  It didn't say strike next to it.  So we rush out to our platform to see if its really true.  There is a ton of people out there waiting.  I think everyone figured We might as well get on a train thats moving in our general direction since it may be the last for a few hours.   We listened as the announcement came on over the platform speakers listing the departures that had been cancelled. And then it came on again saying that the train for Empoli would be arriving in like 3 minutes.  Everyone on the platform started clapping and cheering, it was kinda funny.  

Right as we were getting off the train in Empoli, we overheard this lady was asking someone about the train to Siena and he said something about it being delayed 10 minutes. Wait What?!  We sprint into the station, see that there is a Train to Siena without the stike listed and its technically supposed to leave in 3 minutes.  More sprinting out and down under the tracks and back up to our platform.  We've learned you can never quite trust the times with the train.  It doesn't always stay until its correct departure time if it comes early, and if it says its a ten minute delay, they also may show up early and leave early.  So its always a mad dash up and down the stairs to the platforms if you're anywhere within the 5-10 minute range of the train time.  

It came!  We were actually going to get home! This is never our luck, I thought for sure we were going to be getting home by midnight if not later.  If we had hesitated any longer about walking from the airport to the Centrale station, we would have missed that first train to Empoli.  We win. For once.  With all the strike crap happening, we actually ended up back in Siena earlier than we were supposed to with the original train times.  Too lucky. 

When I got to the house, the grandpa was so surprised to see me.  He was like, "I didn't think you would make it home because of the strikes! I thought we wouldn't see you tonight!"  I guess he figures that if I can't even make it back home when the trains really ARE running, then there was no hope for me at all when they were striking.

      I really liked London a lot, but it is strange how homesick its made me feel.  I felt that way a little bit before going, but being there was so much like being in the States, just with better architecture.  Maybe its also that we're about at the half way point of being in Italy so the newness has worn off and its become a reality that I'm living here...

Italian Medicine

So I've been sick for the last 4 days or so. Kinda just started out with a little sore throat and then went into a lung thing.  I've just been taking my Umcka and Esperitox  and  drinking lots of tea (which I finally found a coffee shop that serves hot tea. Its not something very common).  

The grandpa is sick too and has been for longer than me.  I assume thats how I got it, mostly because he literally can't seem to talk to me unless he's got his face 2 inches from mine… when I back up he just steps forward. Sometimes we do this awkward dance for like 5 minutes… 

Anyway today I was coughing at dinner and the grandpa was saying how he takes medicine or something and I'm like yeah yeah, I take stuff too.  

Later I find myself in the living room with him and he's got some kinda powder in a white packet and he tells me to watch.  He tears it open, and knocks it back.   Then he tells me to.  Uhhhh…. 

Medicine, he says. For the cough.  

I felt like I was doing drugs with an 80 year old. 

I think it was just like the Italian version of an Emergen-C but he doesn't mix it with water.  Tastes like oranges. 

I may wake up dead or feeling like a million bucks. We'll see. 

No $$

Ariel texted me last night saying that her debit card information had been stolen and her account had been drained.  I didn't even know what to say to her, I just kept thinking this is so shitty, I wonder if she can file it with her bank and get her money back or not.  I felt so bad for her and was thinking 'Oh I should get online and check my account just to be safe.'  I hadn't really checked it in probably 10 days or so.  I was just thinking it would be a responsible thing to do, ya know, just keep a closer eye on it in case something like that were to happen to me.  

So this morning I went to a little cafe and was doing my homework when Ariel came to meet me. She said how she had called the 24 hour line and had her account frozen, but because it was Columbus day the day before in the states and because we are an 8 hour difference from Montana, she hadn't been able to call her actual bank yet.  It reminded me I should check my account.  So I got on and couldn't believe it.  My account was $250 in the red. Holy shit.  How is this possible?  How do we both get hacked at the same time?  That is the worst feeling.  In 2 days someone had taken 36 small withdraws from ATMs in Italy and completely  drained my account. 

We realized what must have happened was when we went to Venice the other weekend, we both stopped at the same ATM right after we left the train station.   It had to have been that because all of the fraudulent withdraws on my card were from Venice.  

I called my 24 hour line and had my card cancelled and because of the time difference my parents got a wake up call at 5 in the morning.  Everyone kept trying to reassure us that we would get our money back and that it would be ok, but I was just not sure.  I understand with a credit card how they can just reverse the charges that were put on, but it was a debit card.  They went to atms and took cash out. The money is gone. How does a bank reimburse people for money that is gone?   I had to wait until 4 O clock my time before I could call my bank back home, so I spent my whole day just waiting and feeling so helpless.  

I finally got ahold of them and talked to the lady about which charges were and weren't mine and she was like, "well I have to run the numbers and process the claim. I should have the money back in your account by tonight hopefully.  Wow. I was expecting it to be a very lengthy process.  I still haven't heard anything, but I actually have hope that I will not be broke for the rest of my time in Italy.  I was starting to think I was going to have to try and get a job here! 

We'll see tomorrow what it looks like and if anything has gotten straightened out.  

It was also very sickening because I leave for London on Friday.  I have my ticket and room already, but its almost impossible to travel and not spend a single dime.  I still am not quite sure what I'm going to do about that.   I have very little cash on me.  It will all work out I'm sure, but I may be borrowing money from someone until I get a new card.  Difficult. 

This kid asked Ariel awhile ago if me and her were BFFLs (apparently that is Best Friends For Life) because we're always together. She was kinda like, heh no, we just get each other.  Its easy to hang out with one another.  

I am starting to think maybe we ARE becoming BFFLs.  We can't even get our bank accounts hacked alone, we gotta do it together. Jeez…

10/6 Beer Festival in a Castle (or not)

Ok joke's on me. The whole time we were on this little trip I'm about to explain, we thought we were in Castellina in Chianti.  Except after trying to describe to my host family what I did, they seem to think I was in fact not there, but in Monteriggioni. Oops. No wonder there was some confusion…

Ok, so….

Jerrod's host dad told him about a beer festival happening close to Siena, so him, Erin, Ariel and I decided it was a must.  We've been having cravings for good beer in Italy, its kinda hard to find.  We found out we were headed to Castellina Scalo and that you can take a 15 min train ride to the town. Perfect. 

We had started our day off in town trying to book tickets for hostels and trains for our trips to London and Paris. Jerrod had his computer for this and wanted to drop it off at home before we headed out to to the festival. He lives about a 20- 30 minute bus ride out of the city.  So we all hopped on his bus and headed out into the country side.  Then he realized that once we got dropped off, there would be a bus coming in only about 10 minutes to take us back into the city and that its the only one for another 2 or 3 hours. Yikes.  He also informed us that where the bus drops him off is about 3/4 of a mile away from his house still...  

We get off the bus and Jerrod takes off running down the road with his backpack.  We were left in charge of waiting for the bus, and if it came early, begging the driver to stay for just one minute!  Jerrod made it back in time, a bit sweaty from his mid distance sprint tho.  

Part of our walk up to the Beer Fest

We finally got on the train once we were back in town and we were off to Beer Fest!  I thought we had a pretty small station in Siena, but when we got off in Castellina Scalo I thought differently.  We were in a super tiny town.  But thats when Jerrod informed us that Castellina means little castle and we were actually going to a beer fest IN A CASTLE!  What?! no big deal, they just do things like that here in Italy.  (Not even sure now if this is true… Jerrod, I put too much trust into you and your ability to speak Italian)

Well, it looks like a castle doesn't it? 

Thank God for Erin having her iPhone. She navigates us all over the place when we're lost.  I don't know what we'd do half the time without her.  We got a route on her phone on how to get up to the castle and started walking down the highway like a bunch of foreigners.  I don't think its very common here because people were giving us some pretty funny looks. We realized about half way that there was a dirt path down the hill a little that we probably should be on. 

One of the many vineyards

It really wasn't that far of a walk at all.  It's all in perspective though because we have walked our asses off here, so everything seems pretty conquerable.  1/2 hour walk to get a glass of wine? no biggie. A 3.5 mile walk to the discotecha? whatever.  A trek across town and then up a mountain to a castle for beer? Piece of Cake.  

On the way up the hill to the castle there were grapes just growing on the side of the path.  They're small but pack so much flavor! We may or may not have also snuck into a vineyard as well and picked a few clusters from the vines.  Nothing said no trespassing, we're just dumb Americans right? We don't understand!   Thats the argument I have in my head for if I ever do get caught doing things in Italy that I shouldn't be. 

Grapes that I may or may not have picked from the vineyard...

Finally at the Castle!  We walk in through an archway (and up the slickest cobblestones I've ever been on, holy crap!) and into the Beer Fest!  It was so cool! The stands for the microbrews were set up in kinda the central courtyard area.  It wasn't huge, but very local feeling and not a ton of people.  There were 9 different breweries with about 3 or 4 beers each to try.  The way it worked was you purchased tickets for either samplers, small beers or large ones.  We all decided to buy 10 sampler tickets for 10 Euro.  The sampler size was about that of a dixie cup, so it was just perfect to taste.  

There was a man dressed in kinda a peasant outfit running around with a basket full of bread for everyone.  I think it was supposed to be a pallet cleanser but it was more like my appetizers.  

The Bread Man! 

Most of the booths had a Blonde, a Nero (a stout), and a Rossa (it's kinda like an amber, or the closest thing to it. )  The Rossa beers were really good from almost every booth, I think that was my favorite category of the evening.  We tried about 5 of our tasters and then we couldn't resist the restaurant that was next to the event.  I had amazing gnocchi with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. It was one of my favorite things I've had here.  

Just being a Fat American. Gnocchi is the best.

I was all excited because there was Celtic music starting at 9 and I was hoping it was going to be really fun, but once they started it was so quiet you couldn't really hear it which was disappointing. 

I tried one taster from each of the 9 breweries, and then had one ticket left to get my favorite one again, it worked out perfectly and was just the right amount of beer.  All ten samplers probably only amounted to 2  or 2 1/2 pints, but keep in mind that it is all 6 or 7%.   

Drinking birra in an ancient setting. Couldn't get more cool.

The whole night was a lot of fun and it was just such a neat setting for a beer tasting.  I definitely want to go back another day and see how much of the old castle grounds you're allowed to explore.  

Me, Erin, Ariel, Jerrod

We had checked the train schedule to make sure we could get home and there was supposed to be a train every hour until 1.  We left the castle a little after ten to make the 11:15 train home.  We got back down the mountain and to the city way quicker than the way up and we were at the train station at like 10:45.  The station isn't even a building you go into, it has just a little area kinda more like a covered bus stop with a ticket vending machine.  We all got our tickets and sat down thinking we had about a half hour to wait for the train.  In about 5 minutes there is a train that pulls up and we kinda stand up, like is this ours? its WAY early.  We also realized we needed to be on the other platform so in a panic we have to dart down the stairs and under the tracks and as we come up on the other side the doors shut and the train leaves.  We were all convinced that it couldn't have been our train because it was so early and didn't wait around.  So we wait until 11:15, no train.  11:30 no train.  We accepted that we had missed our train, so we would just have to wait for the next hour's to arrive. So we waited. And went back into the tiny so called train station. And all huddled together on the bench for warmth, because it is damp, and freezing. And then we moved back out to the platform to wait for our train again.  I wish I could see a picture of us at that time. Jerrod's in the middle of the bench, he's got Ariel laying down into his lap from one side, Erin from the other, I'm huddle next to Erin, and he's got his arms around the whole of us as we shiver and wait for the nonexistent TrainItalia.  Until about 1:20. NOTHING. Also, right at 1:00 all the lights at the station just shut off all at once.  It felt like something out of a horror story. It was a foggy night out and we're kinda out on the edge of town with a field behind us and the moon making creepy shadows out of everything. 

Then Erin got her phone back out and we started looking at the schedule again when we noticed that when you scroll all the way to the right on the last 1:00 train arrival, it says Autobus next to it.   What?!  Right at one when we were all startled by the lights turning off, a big greyhound bus came to the other side of the station area and then disappeared.  The train just turns into a bus. WTF.  Italy, sometimes you befuddle me. Unless you are a local and take these busses and trains on a regular basis, you would have no freaking clue that the train magically turns into a bus at 1 am. What is this?! Cinderella?

So onto plan B.  We walked back around the station to the street and just kinda stand there staring off into the town like Now what?  We thought we'd try to call a taxi, we really were not that far from Siena.  That wasn't exactly working though because we couldn't find a separate number for Castellina Scalo taxi (because it doesn't exist) and when you call Siena Taxi you get an automated answer… 

One of the rooms in the apartment 

As we are standing there thinking about trying to find a hotel, this guy gets out of his car and I get his attention to ask him about a hotel and if it was even possible at that time of night.  It took a while to get things across, another guy (his brother I think) came from across the street to help, the 1st guy drove to the hotel and back to see if it was open or not, it wasn't, he got the number and called, no answer at first, called again, and then he got a guy who through the hotel service rents out this house/apartment type thing.  The poor guy was of course already in bed and its really his parents that own the place.  We all end up piling into the 1st guys car, he drives to pick up the apartment guy, and we all drive just a little ways outside the town to this apartment.  He gets us in, shows us around we pay him and get things figured out with how to check out.  The place was really nice!  There  was a queen bed, a pull out couch and a twin bed, it was really clean and had a tiny little kitchen. Not that we used anything besides the beds in the 7 hours we were there…  And there was a pool outside! Kinda a fancy place.  We paid about what you would pay in the states for a kinda ok average hotel room, and we were staying in a private apartment in the countryside with a pool and a fantastic view (as we found out in the morning).  It's really too bad we couldn't stay and enjoy it a little longer.  (And it was a legit deal, there were papers on the back of the door with the rates and business name and such, I have to throw that in because it may sound like the process of getting it was a little sketchy) 

The pool outside our hotel/apartment 

The next morning we got up at 9, left the key in the door like the guy told us (oh, small towns) and started our walk back to the town.  We really hadn't driven that far, so we knew it was a do-able walk, but we had done it in the dark the first time so it was sorta a guessing game.  It took a couple of wrong turns and a little backtracking but finally we were at the dreaded train station once again. 

A train really did come this time.  And we got on it.  Finally.  

I had a lot of explaining to do to my host family who I had told I was going to a beer fest, but I didn't know where it was and I'd be back that night probably around midnight.   I had called before we left the hotel in the morning and Loriano, the grandpa only could understand where I was, so I called Cinzia and she was even more confused and so I just had to keep saying "its ok, I will be home in probably an hour or 2"  (could have been 3 or 4 or 24 hours, who knows with TrainItalia) 

We finally got back to Siena, I went home, and the grandma Carla was the only one there.  I did a pretty good job trying to tell her what happened, she seemed really nonchalant about it, kinda laughed and said "its an adventure!" (in Italian of course, I've never heard an English word out of her).  Then later Loriano shows up and I go back through my story as best I can with very limited vocab.  He is not so impressed.  He asked how we got from the station to the festival and I said we walked. And he's like its 7 kilometers! And I was like, no the sign says 3! It only took us 30 minutes! And he argues back saying he spent 30 years working there, he should know, and I'm like well ok, I should believe you then, but somehow we musta taken a crazy shortcut I guess.  That was the first time I had a little doubt about where we had actually gone..  Well he kinda freaks out and shakes his head at my and says something along the lines of, "thats so dangerous! there are Russians and Ukrainians! " 

uhhhh…. what the?!    Hey crazy old man, I don't know why you're always freaking out about the foreigners (its usually the Albanians will get you!) but we were in a town where we maybe saw 50 people total throughout our walk.  And it was like a 30 minute walk.   Oh and p.s.  Russia's not exactly real close.  I'm no Geography wiz, but even I know that.    Sometimes Loriano just makes me laugh with the things he says.  And I just have to continually tell him, Its ok, I was fine, We are fine, we will be fine, I can walk places on my own, or with 3 other people.   If I get lectures from walking for a half hour in a town of maybe 1500, I can't imagine the talk thats coming before I leave for London this weekend… ay. 

Then I went to dinner at Cinzia's house with her, Giulio, Claudia and her boyfriend Marco.  The story had to be re-explained, upon which I found out that we were NOT in Castellina in Chianti.  We were in Monteriggioni.  Castellina in Chianti is close but its just confusing because thats what the train station is called, and the city that the station is in in Castellina Scalo.   Why do they do this? 

They all think its just really funny that we were confused about where we were. 

It was funny while it was happening, and even funnier now, and well worth the trip to whatever awesome place it was.  I don't think we were at a castle, it just kinda looked like it could be one because of the wall around it and such, but I may just keep telling myself it was so that I can be like, Yeah, this one time when I went to Beer Fest in a Castle….

Pictures from Padova & Venice

The store owner dressed me up

Ariel & I in Venice

Erin & I in Venice

The Padova Carousel