Florence, Italy

We arrived in Florence in the early afternoon, made the long trek to our hostel, and were actually quite surprised at how nice the accommodations were! No bunk beds, wifi everywhere, a kitchen, and a very nice front desk woman makes for a great start to the week! We immediately set down our things and set off to explore the city. Luckily, the most important "to-do" on our list was also the closest to our hostel--the leather market! We spent about an hour roaming the streets looking at the millions of purses, wallets, jackets, etc, and we were in complete heaven! From there we saw the Duomo, Repubblica, Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace, etc. We literally conquered the city, by foot, in about 4 hours. We ended our walk at my favourite panini place from my last visit to Florence, called Gustapanino, where we had a delicious caprese panini for dinner! From there we decided to venture over to the "bar street" to check it out for the night ahead. Upon arriving back at the hostel, we knew that the next day we wouldn't be able to find enough to do, so we tried getting onto an amazing tour of Tuscany for the next day, but the office was closed. So, the front desk lady told us to show up at the tour desk 45 minutes before the tour was to take place, and we would likely be able to get on. So with this in our minds, we dressed up and headed to a go-to Irish pub for a little night out. We happened to meet some fellow travellers from Australia who had some amazing advice for us for Greece, so our small night out turned into a rather late night, arriving home at 3:30am.

9/11

Duomo

Market

3 parades in 1 day!

PANINI'S!!!

Ponte Vecchio

Even after such a late night, we knew the day would drag on if we were left to occupy ourselves in Florence, so we pushed through the tiredness and woke up at 7:30am to try and get to this tour desk by 8am. We walked down the street, into the office, waited for the director, only to be told at 8:45am that we missed the tour. BUMMER. We both were so so excited for it! We asked him if there was any other way to get out and see some of Tuscany, and he recommended we take a bus to the ancient walled town of San Gimignano, so off we went to the bus stop! 3 hours later we arrived in this quaint, gorgeous town. We walked around, took pictures of the city and the amazing views of Tuscany, had a delicious lunch and world famous ice cream, came across a medieval fair, and after 2 hours we were bored shitless with nothing left to see. We had checked the bus timetable earlier and it said the soonest bus home was 3pm, it was 2pm. We sat around, people watched, and at 2:45 headed to the bus stop only to realize the schedule was wrong. The bus had just come at 2:10, and the next one wasn't until 5:40. This was heartbreaking news to us as you can imagine. Luckily, there were 2 guys from Isreal who happened to be on our bus on the way there, who were also stranded, so we decided to share a taxi back to the neighbour city and take the train back to Florence. We called a cab, 1 hour later it arrived. He said it would cost 25Euro, but at this point we would pay anything, so we hopped in and were on our way. Once we reached the neighbouring town, we were about 1km away from the train station when all of a sudden the taxi cab just died. No idea why, but it stopped working. So, the taxi driver refused any payment as he pointed us in the direction of the station. We made it, and 20 minutes later a bus arrived and we were finally outta there. We were glad we got to get out and see another city, but man was it a pain getting there and back! Once we were back in Florence, we made a little pit stop at the leather market to buy the purses we had planned on purchasing, plus a few extras. I ended up buying a pretty turquoise ring, a leather satchel to use for the rest of this trip, and a big leather bag to send home with Chris when I met him in Greece--all for just 65euros! Jaimie bought a bigger satchel, a wallet, and a bracelet. Clearly, this made our day a bit better! When we got back that night, we had planned on going to this buffet restaurant that the front desk lady raved to us about. So, we made our way to the restaurant expecting to find a huge spread of all sorts of delicious pastas and meats. Nope. Shoulda known that wasn't in the cards for our lucky streak that day. It was a little bar with a card table and disposable plates…sketchy! However, we were so excited to try different pastas, and we were so hungry, and it was only 7euros, so we sucked it up and went on in. For just 7Euros, we had a 500mL beer, and 3 plates of food. The food was delicious, ranging from mussels to pasta to eggplant to raviolis to traditional Florentine fair. Absolutely delicious, it would have been worth 20euro! Extremely full and satisfied, we returned to the hostel to pack our things and call it an early night, as we had an early train to Cinque Terre to catch the next morning!

Tuscany

Random!

Rome, Italy

With 3 cities and just 8 nights, Italy was about to be a whirlwind adventure that we were certainly not prepared for. As great and beautiful everything is in Italy, Jaimie and I reached a mutual agreement that Italy just plain sucked. 1. the food is too good, so we got fat. 2. it is far too expensive, so we broke our budget and are now poor. 3. Italian men. enough said.

When we got off the ferry in Ancona, Italy, our only task was to find the train station and hop on the next train to Rome. Little did we know the trek to the train station would take us across town, take nearly an hour, and leave us hot, sweaty, and disgusting, even at 8am! We waited until 11am for the next train, arrived in Rome at 3pm, and set out to find our hostel. We were a little nervous as to what we would find, because we literally booked the cheapest place we could find that listed no bed bugs in the reviews of the place. We weren't in the nicest or prettiest part of town, that's for sure, but it was quite central and in no way dangerous, and the hostel was surprisingly clean and not bad! We immediately set out to see the sights, the Colosseum, Castle, Jewish district, and Trastevere being the main ones. We stopped in Trastevere for dinner at my favourite restaurant from my first visit to Rome. I ordered my favourite pizza with eggplant and zucchini on it, a "personal" (huge) pizza for just 4euros! After dinner we roamed a bit more, as dusk is the best time to see the city. Visited Piazza Navona, where a VIP event was being held at the Brazilian Embassy--sooo many expensive cars, drivers, and ball gowns! Very impressive. We passed by the Pantheon, tossed a coin in the Trevi Fountain, and then made the long walk home.

Colosseum

Roman Forum

Masters of the selfie

Trastevere

Jaimie's "green salad"...they weren't kidding...

Thursday we began our day at the Vatican, planning to visit the inside, but quickly changing our minds after seeing the insane line wrapped around the entire Vatican Plaza. Snapped some pictures and moved on to see some new and old sights, including the castle, Trevi fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Villa Borghese for the view and the delicious gelato. We decided to save money and walked to the complete opposite side of town, back to Trastevere for another cheap meal. We ordered the most delicious bruschetta I've ever had, and salmon pasta for me, and raviolis for Jaim. We went home to rest a bit, shower, and then head back out for a night on the town. We got dressed up and went out to Campo di Fiori for drinks, where the creeper Italian men treated us to a few free drinks…ok, if you insist. Headed home around 3am and managed to catch my mom and dad on Skype! I think I will pass on all future drunken Skype calls…

Kodak moment?

Castle

Parliament

Pantheon

Summertime and the livin's easy

Friday we slept in, did some laundry, and roamed some more. Stopped for a completely unsatisfying caprese salad and a long break from the heat, then ventured to a new area full of artists and antiqued streets. Realized we were far too tired to function, so we went home early and painted our nails, made hemp bracelets, watched a movie, and just relaxed. We ventured out to dinner and to explore the area around our hostel. Had delicious Napoli lasagna (seriously, heaven), roamed around, stopped so Jaimie could have her daily gelato fix, and called it an early night. One thing that stood out to me about Rome more this time than last was the insane number of crippled beggars in the street. They all have extremely deformed feet, and we learned that they are part of gangs who are brought over from Romania, purposely deformed, and deposited on the street to beg for money to give to their "pimp". So horribly disheartening.

Spanish Steps

Saturday we had our cheap hostel breakfast and went straight to the train station to board our train to Florence! Jaim and I played our favourite go-to game, Rummikub on the train, and she beat me every single time!

Split, Croatia

WOW it has been a long time!  So so sorry for my lack of writing lately, but as you can imagine, it has been a complete whirlwind!  With just 2 or 3 nights in every location, we are pressed for time as we try to see and experience everything there is in just a short amount of time, so as much as I hate to admit it, the blog has taken a backseat.  Lucky for you, we take excellent notes about every city as soon as we board the train, ferry, or plane outta there, so I will still be able to tell you every exciting detail of our trip!  Now, onto Split!

So, if you remember, it was quite a harrowing adventure getting into Split.  With a 6 hour ride and near deportation and a 10 hour ride with 4 other strangers, arriving into Split at 7am, all we wanted to do was sleep.  Unfortunately, check-in wasn't until 1pm.  So, we dropped our bags off at the hostel, changed into our bathing suits, and headed straight for the beach by 8am to get our sleep on.  We passed many beachside cafes and decided to pop in for a refreshing and much needed coffee before passing out.  After our 3 hour nap, we went back to the hostel to check in and decided to head to the old town to explore.  What an absolutely beautiful city!  It was completely deadly hot out, so after walking a bit we decided to treat outselves to a yummy mango smoothie, which was more like milk with mango syrup and ice...awful.  Unfortunately that treat didn't do the trick, so we retreated back to the beach to cool off in the perfect water.  After a quick shower, we opted to head back to old town to have some dinner, but the menus at the seaside restaurants were too enticing, so we stopped there for a delicious dinner instead.  We were much too tired to actually go out that night, so we called it a night and went home to book the rest of our Euro-adventure!

So many people!

Relieved to see such nice accomodations

Dionysis

Sunday we treated ourselves to a much needed sleep in before spending the entire morning and early afternoon at the beach.  Come 3pm it just got far too hot to bear, so we went home to have a nap and a shower.  By 5 it had cooled off enough to explore the old town by night, and what a different city it was.  The ruins were glowing in the moonlight, the town was buzzing with people, and the millions of cats were roaming the streets everywhere we looked.  We stopped for dinner at a rather unexpectedly expensive meal, and the food was complete shit.  Luckily they messed up Jaimie's order so hers was free, why does that NEVER happen to me?!  We again attempted to have a fun night out, but because it was Sunday and no longer tourist season, the "most hopping" bar in town was completely dead.  We settled for a glass of wine by the water and again called it an early night.

On Monday the hostel we were at was shutting down for a night for fumigation, but somehow their website still allowed us to book.  Instead of throwing us out on the street, they moved us around the corner to a private room in an apartment all to ourselves...no complaints here!  However just when we had packed up to walk around the corner, a storm rolled in and it just started POURING on us.  We donned our rain jackets and garbage bags (Jaimie) and made the trek, deciding to continue the fun with a trip to the grocery store.  Fortunately with my nifty rainjacket, running shorts, and flip flops, I wasn't too wet, that is until a car drove by too close, hit a puddle, and completely soaked me.  Just like in the movies.  So gross.  We decided to hang out inside, watch a movie, have a nap, and wait out the storm, and luckily by the time we woke up around 1pm, the skies were clear, blue, and sunny again!  So, off to the beach we went!  We came back around 5pm and decided to head to the big park on the other side of the city to go for a hike and take in the views.  What a beautiful place, and the pictures as always just don't do it justice.  We went home to shower and planned on saving money by having cereal for dinner, but realized that with only one day left, we had far too many Croatian Kuna to use, so we went to the Black Cat Bistro for a delicious dinner.

Jaimie all ready for our trudge through the rain. What a bum.

Clearly bored as we waited for the storm to pass...

Finally at the top!

So beautiful!

Tuesday we decided to take advantage of having the whole place to ourselves, so we slept in and lounged around for a while.  While packing, we went out to retrieve our bathing suits that we had drying on the deck, only to see that they had blown off to the walkway down below.  We finished packing and Jaimie ran down to get them, but they were gone!  My favorite bottoms and her favorite top, completely unmatching, and stolen.  How rude!  We took our bags back to the main hostel to leave them with the manager, and because there were no guests and nothing for her to do, we invited her to join us at the beach!  She is a crazy Norwegian woman with a heart of gold and a mind that is out of this world (literally, she calls herself ladybird, is 42 years old, has a 21 year old daughter, and brags to all the guests of her sexual conquers in Split...awkward)!  But, she is also clearly lonely, so we felt good about inviting her to join us, and it was quite interesting to hear her life story!  After all day at the beach and a quick shower, we were off to catch our overnight ferry to Italy!  The ferry was much bigger than expected, and we actually had our own room with bunk beds, just like on a cruise!  We watched the boat take off from the port, went to dinner in the fancy restaurant, and retreated to our room for a movie and yet another early night.  Split was definitely a time of recooperation, which definitely came in handy as we entered into 10 days of non-stop madness in Italy!

Not too shabby for 35euro each!

Subtlety at it's best.

This one's for you, Dad!