TURKEY!

Today was an amazingly awesome day. It started off with a really interesting Global Studies class (quite rare) and then got even better. In geohazards we got to watch a movie. Then we had tacos for lunch, which is a really, really big deal! They are AWESOME. Then, as we were wolfing down the tacos, we look outside to see land. We had just entered the Straits of Dardanelles, which is basically Asian Turkey on one side and European Turkey on the other. On the Asia side is the ancient city of Troy (which I wanna say I could see but it may have just been that I simply WANTED to see stuff haha) and on the other is Gallipoli monument (Europe), a massive statue commemorating the WW1 battle. We were super duper close to the land, so we could see the flags and everything! It was great. Then I finished my pirated Harry Potter movie and had the craziest anthropology class ever. It was so funny/awkward to hear my prof talk about sex for an hour and a half. Then I got to lie outside and tan while I watched the mountains of Turkey pass us by. So pretty! Then I had chat time with my ship family, which was nice, and had a burger and pizza night with all my friends! It was a lovely day. Then we painted our nails and talked until the ship started rocking really hard. We knew that around 9pm we would be entering the Bosporus, basically Istanbul, which has super rough waters. So we ran outside and got the best seat in the house on the front of the ship before anyone else got there! We stood outside for two hours watching Istanbul fly by. It looks so beautiful and I cannot wait to be there! Six days… The city was huge! It went all the way up some of the surrounding hills and then some! We passed under two huge LIGHTED bridges and barely cleared them! I’m talking like we missed the concrete by 5 feet! The city had fireworks (for us? Haha) and then we had our eardrums blown out when the ship honked…. Yikes. We saw the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, two of the most famous mosques in Turkey, right when we got in sight of the city! They are massive and looked gorgeous in the moonlight/ street lights! I basically just cannot wait for Turkey. Cannot wait!!!

But yeah, I’ve been researching Bulgaria and getting more and more excited. There seems to be a whole lot to do there- Archeological Museums, Byzantine churches, the Black Sea, forests of limestone, a water park called Aquapolis (like Acropolis? Get it?! So clever… but I won’t be going haha), and more! It’s gonna be a blast. Tattoo? Ahahah jkjk… maybeee. We shall see if we all get up the guts! Hahaha :)

Taxi strikes, missed flights, and digestive shots.... Mykonos

So, we had a ball in Mykonos! It was beautiful and full of nice people! But getting there…. Hahah. That was quite the experience. Since there was the metro/taxi strike, we thought we’d be safe and leave 3 hours before our flight, thinking we could just take the bus. That should’ve been plenty of time, right? Ha. What we didn’t know is that a taxi strike isn’t just when the drivers don’t show up for work. It is when they all park their cars in the middle of the road, block ALL traffic, and then stand outside and yell at people who are walking by or trying to drive through. So that kind of shot our plan down hahah. So we walked around Piraeus trying to figure out what the heck to do. We got offered a ride to the airport for 30 euros each… ha no thanks! So we ended up walking around Piraeus for an hour asking various people how we could get to the airport. Turns out that one metro line was working, so we immediately hopped on and headed over to the airport. It took forever! The metro was so incredibly sloooow. Some stations were closed due to the strikes, so that slowed us down significantly.

There were two creepy French (I think that is what they were talking in) men standing next to me, so I grabbed my bags and camera and held them closer to me. And good thing I did cause we saw them pickpocket this poor tourist!! The French guys jostled the man (and me!) when they were getting off. Once they left and the doors closed, we noticed the poor guy’s short pocket was unzipped!! Poor guy :(

Then, with 45 minutes till our flight, our train stopped. So we had to rush and barely just missed a train pulling out. We had to wait 15 more minutes for the next one and were getting more and more nervous about missing our flight. We met some people from OK that had a mutual friend with Casey while on the train! Small world!!

We ended up getting to the airport with 15 minutes to spare and literally ran to the first open kiosk we could find. We thought for sure she would say it would be too late, but she called our gate and told them to wait and told us to “RUN.” So run we did! We all had our new sandals on and were clonking all over the place haha. We got shoved to the front of security and were sprinting to our gate! It was literally THE LAST gate in THE FURTHEST section away. Everyone was staring and we were all cracking up at how ridiculous we looked and our situation. For real though, this doesn’t happen to normal people hahaha!

So we get to the gate at 11:55 (flight was at noon) and the door was open, so we thought we made it! But no, the dude shot down our dreams and said it had already left. We were really confused cause we had 5 minutes till take off, but he told us to go to the front and get a new ticket. So we had to do the walk of shame right past everyone we had just ran past… how embarrassing hahah. We get to the front and start playing the dumb kid role to get a free flight change. It worked and we got one 4 hours later at no extra charge! Perfection. Casey, Laura, and Kyleen were all awesome. No one was grumpy or pissed that we missed our flight; we were all laughing about it and having a good time! It’s so rare to find girls so laidback, it was great! So I think we all knew we were in for a good trip. We hung out at the shopping area and read/talked on skype/played on facebook until it was time. Our flight was in one of those tiny airplanes with the spinning propellers, so it was really cool. The flight lasted 25 minutes and we were in Mykonos!

Our first impression was it was gorgeous. All the homes are the white with blue shutters and doors- absolutely beautiful. The beach was that cliché perfect blue that looks photoshopped… it is real! We got a shuttle to our hotel and it was so pretty. It was within walking distance of the beach and the bus station to get to the town. It had an infinity pool that was filled to the brim with guys; we were all drooling (we actually never went in haha). But the best part wasn’t that though, we were right next door (literally! They were number 25 and we were 26!!) to some of our guy friends on the ship! We didn’t know they were staying there, so it was a complete surprise! The rooms were great. We had AC (gasp!), a little kitchenette, a patio, and a bathroom with a hole that looked out into the room! It was awesome and so cute; the owner loved us (then). We pushed the beds together and went out to get snackies from the grocery store up the hill that was owned by the nicest little Greek lady! We came back and headed out to the beach with the boys.

There was apparently a better beach (called Paradise Beach) up the way from the beach near us, so we asked directions and started the trek. And boy was it a trek! We had to walk on a tiny little dirt path, like a deer trail or something, on the cliffs and hop over fences and climb through an old wall… it was not for pansy girls (thank goodness none of us were like that!). We finally made it after an hour of trampling and ate at the first place we saw. It was the best dang gyro I’ve ever had!

We just hung out and ended up going to this seaside bar that was next door and dancing for 4 hours on tables with about 200 other people. We had a blast, but some of the guys (mostly Italians and Russians) were super grabby, so we left. We didn’t want to walk that treacherous path in the dead of night, so we hitchhiked, sorta. We ended up paying the dude like 10 euros, but it was still good cause it was like a 7 mile walk on the roads. So we passed right out.

The next morning we woke up pretty early because the sun rose right in our eyeballs. We ate cereal out of a communal bowl (since we had either a salad bowl or those fancy bowls that rich people eat 2 spoonfuls of $25 soup out of!) and got ready. We went to the shopping area in town and walked around a lot. We actually got lost in the maze of streets. The houses are super adorable and it is just so dang white! It’s precious. We saw the windmills and took a ton of pics. We headed to the beach and rented a chair (so lame that you have to pay money to sit!) and sat for like 4 hours.

We had the best dinner at the restaurant by our hotel. They basically gave us free food the whole night! We got another free “digestive” shot, which I was wary about since that horrid grappa in Italy. It wasn’t THAT bad, but it definitely wasn’t tasty either. It tasted like a bush sweetened with splenda… weird. We also got free fruit and it was sooo good. Greek food is amazing, it may just be my favorite thus far!

They ended up adding our bill wrong so we left a huge tip cause we felt bad. We went back and hung out with the boys for a while and then decided to go to the famous club on the island. It was like 11 at this time so it was totally dark, but since we were cheap we didn’t want to spend extra money on a taxi. We left Kyleen and Laura at the hotel cause they were tired and headed over with the guys. We walked that path back to Paradise beach and none of us died! It was quite surprising. We ran into my roommate on the ship and some more SASers who told us the club is expensive and not worth it, but we kept on.

The club was perched on this cliff over the ocean so it looked awesome at night all lit up! Casey and I tried to get in for free playing the girl card, but no bueno. Since we were not going to pay a 30 euro cover charge to just get in, we almost started back. We ended up sneaking in (don’t look down upon me!) by just walking in the back door… so really they deserved it! It was full of guys and foreigners. Our whole group really stuck together and we all danced/ had a wondrous time!

Casey and I got tired and decided to get a taxi back. We couldn’t find one so we started walking, hoping to find one on the way. We ended up running into more SASers that we knew who convinced us to go back into the club. Knowing we couldn’t sneak in twice and we weren’t gonna spend the money on it, we hung out in line and waited with them. An Australian dude came up to us and asked why we weren’t inside. When we told him we were too cheap to pay, he ushered us in the VIP line and told the bouncer to “put it on his tab.” Sweet! He got like 11 girls and a guy in, for free!!! So we got in VIP, what is up!? Hahaha it was super cool, we got free drinks and everything! He was really cool, but super old so we had to sneak away after a while.  The guys who tried dancing with us got grabby so Casey and I left.

Outside were the boys we came with in the beginning, so we tried to get another taxi home. There was only one so we gave it to this poor group of SAS girls whose friend had gotten drugged or something. It was terrible, the girl was totally nonresponsive and the dumb bouncer just told them to “let her sit outside and calm down for a bit.” Uh, yeah, I think she is calmed down so much she can’t sit up, thanks. Idiots. So we got them home and started walking. We decided to not take the treacherous path since the guys were pretty wasted and it was 4am, so we took the road. It was so hilly and the roosters were clucking already! So then, after like an 8 mile walk (not really, probably 2 or 3), we can see our little village area. The only problem was we were on a road that was definitely NOT going there. So we do what any kid would do, we hopped the fence and ran through people’s yards! Damn Americans. We got so cut up and I had thorns in my legs! But, good times.

By then it was starting to get light and we were just going past the beach area, so we decided to watch the sunrise! It was beautiful. Casey and I were watching it in awe. We turned to gush to the guys about it and…. They were all passed out dead asleep in the middle of the road. Hahahah so they really appreciated it!

We headed back and slept for 3 hours and then got ready for the beach. We rented another chair and we all slept on the beach, which was exactly what we needed. I am getting so wiped out from going going going all the time (for real. I won’t sleep in during the countries and then I can’t sleep in for classes! Too much homework and papers and tests… ugh) so having a lazy day while we DON’T have to walk 14 miles was absolutely fabulous. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare (we could NOT miss our flight!) so we played with the kittens that lay around inside the building. We named the cutest baby tabby the only Greek name we knew, Apollo hahah. He gave us all fleas cause he was so dang cuddly! We almost smuggled him back haha. So we got to Athens and found the bus home, on our first try!! We had absolutely NO public transportation woes that time! It was a great feeling haha. We got back at like 8, ate dinner (Greek salad, YUM) and showered to go out.

Everyone was going to a karaoke bar that was a block away; since none of us had ever done it we decided to go! We walk in and some old man is belting out Mariah Carey… so we know we have to stay. A lot of SAS people came and we all had a blast screaming out Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, and Journey… It was so much fun. We woke up the next morning and left at 9am to get to Athens for our last day. We headed for the flea market and just wandered around in there all day. I had been hoping to get to the Archeological Museum, which is apparently awesome, but we ran out of time. I swear that I saw the same guy who got us in VIP at a small store in the market… no joke. He had the same tattoo and everything! Awkward hahah. We ended our day by going to the super market and buying tons of sodas and juice! I thought it was gonna be like 20 bucks worth of stuff, but it was only 8! Awesome, cheap food!

So now we are sitting on the ship and I can only wish we had more time here. There is so much more to see in the country that I need to come back! No more Athens, but everywhere else- Meteora, Olympia, Hydra, Rhodes, the list goes on!

Now it is off to the place no one knows about- Bulgaria. When we would talk to Greeks here for advice on what to do, it is always the same, “don’t get off the ship.” So we’ll see what ends up happening! All I have planned (sorta) is bungee jumping off a bridge! WOOOHOOOO!!! But alrighty then, dovízhdane!!!!


Also, Greek letters are confusing, but the Bulgarian alphabet…. Hahahhaha let’s keep the fingers crossed we make it out alive haha. It seems like as time goes on, the language gets more and more difficult! Yikes hahah.

Athens= ehh

So, SURPISE, but I don’t love Athens. Maybe I was spoilt with all the lovely and wonderful ports we’ve been to, but this one just doesn’t compare. We walked out and it STUNK. When we walked inside the customs area we thought it would smell slightly better. Wrong! It smelt worse. There is trash piled up everywhere, graffiti everywhere (which some is kind of cool!), and wild animals roaming the streets (really only cats and dogs but still!!). The rose and beer Indians are back and on the prowl begging for moohlah! Besides that, the city is trashy and there is not much uber exciting. But we still had a really good (and random) day in the city!

We started off with one plan- Harry Potter tickets. So we hopped on the bus and sat in it for 30 hot and sweaty minutes till we reached the Acropolis stop, thinking it would be central. We only had a list of the names of the movie theaters, so it proved difficult. We ended up just going to a famous sandal place- The Poet’s. He makes all these sandals handmade and has created them for celebrities (supposedly) so we decided to give it a try. We walk in and expensive radar goes off since it’s real HANDMADE leather shoes. So we grab a “shoe menu” (literally what its called!) and, since I somehow am the designated talker (when did that happen?), they made me ask. Turns out they were all under 30 euros and we were in!! So I got a pair that I watch him fit to my feet and then nail the straps in the approximate size! It was awesome. There was a dude in there getting new shoes that said his old ones lasted for 8 years! So I’m super stoked.

After that, we asked directions to a theater and they pointed us toward the Acropolis. So we hiked all the way up and asked again. They pointed us around the Acropolis. So we asked again and again and again, all of them telling us different ways. We end up at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watch the guards change. Right across the street from that was the main square and there were signs and protest graffiti (I think. I don’t exactly know what letter lambda or delta are….). The square literally had police in riot gear guarding every 10 feet… pretty sweet! So we didn’t explore. We keep asking directions and end up on the opposite side of the world, so we ate lunch (gyro…. YUM) and headed back to the Acropolis.

By this time it was like 3 and the perfect time to go. The crowds were gone and the sun was slightly (and I mean VERY slightly) cooler, so we had a grand time. The Parthenon was amazing, I can’t believe it is standing after all this time! The fact that we learned all the caratids on the Erechtheion, along with the friezes on the Parthenon, were fake kinda made it less impressive… but oh well. It had a great view and was mind boggling to look at how it was built and still stood!

After that we decided to head on down to the Temple of Zeus and start sight seeing. On the way there, we ran into the Acropolis Museum, a new Greek museum that is apparently stellar. So we went in and looked at the REAL caratids, sorta. They had the front part of the exhibit where you can see the faces blocked off, so we were bummed. We noticed there was a lot of security and people with ear pieces in, so we were moderately confused. We quickly figured out why. As we were leaving, we were suddenly pushed to the walls of the museum by a huge mob of people in suits. Turns out, as we saw, the Hillary Clinton was making an appearance in the museum for some odd reason. But we saw her! I think we made eye contact, but who really cares. So it was HER that made us not see the caratids’ faces well! Erg. But the museum was awesome and really amazing. The ground level floor was completely see through glass, so you could look beneath you feet to view current excavation of Greek ruins going on! They also had a wall of windows that looked out at the Acropolis, which I can only image what will look like at night! We were not allowed pics in the museum (sadly. The one bummer of the place!) so I shant be able to show you… oh well.

After that we started back on our way to the Temple of Zeus, which had closed at 2:30 (who does that?!). So we were figuring out what to do when we ran into some friends from the ship. They were hightailing it to see Harry Potter in a theater they had found. Since we had gotten no luck on the wild goose chase to find HP, we followed them and had to ask directions another 40 times. Athens’ roads really blow. They aren’t spelled with letters we are used to, so if you get an English map but the roads are spelt with Greek letters, you= screwed. So we got there with 2 minutes to spare and… I won’t say much. Just that I bawled through about 98% of the movie and thinking about it now is bringing tears to my poor eyeballs. Childhood= gone :( WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH MY LIFE NOW?!

Now I’m packing for Mykonos (adios Athens! Thank goodness) and cannot wait! Except for the fact that we are winging how we shall get to the airport. There has been a metro strike for a few days now, and tomorrow is a 48 hour taxi strike. Hopefully the buses or the planes don’t go on strike, but if they do it’ll be a good adventure!! Yayayayay!!! 

ATHENS (almost)

Well, got my cabin searched for drugs and stuff today. It was lovely cause I had literally JUST gotten in the shower and had my hair wet when they knocked on my door. They didn’t even let me finish showering and stuffed me outside!! So I sat in the hallway with a towel head while they looked for illegal stuff. Thankfully I had just eaten the peach I smuggled from the dining hall, so no write up for me! ‘Twas great fun.

Super duper stoked for Greece tomorrow!! We are going to have a BLAST. The normal group is being split though :( Nikki, Kellie, and Amanda are headed to Santorini tomorrow night while I am going to Mykonos with some girls I booked on facebook with—complete opposite islands in the Aegean Sea. So tomorrow we are hitting the main sights all together- Agora, Acropolis, Keramikos Cemetery, ect. We are hopefully also seeing HARRY POTTER FINALLY. I wish we would’ve seen it before everyone else in Croatia, but I’m still excited nevertheless. Then it is off to Mykonos for 2 nights!!!

Apparently the government is going to announce what they are going to do about the current economic situation while we are there, so that should be interesting! Between Spain, Greece, and Egypt (almost . sad.), SAS has been in the middle of some pretty historic events!! It is slightly worrisome about how public transportation will be affected if it isn’t a good deal… like strikes and such…. but if we get stuck at a Greek island I deff wouldn’t be THAT upset!!!!!

Hahahha I CANNOT WAIT. BWAHHHH

Croatia was a blast and the men are beautiful

I hate to say I love Croatia, but I do. I think I am just gonna love EVERYWHERE we go! They are so different but amazing in their own way… like Barcelona was just hoppin all the time, Italy was so happy (I just don’t know how else to describe it!), and Croatia is freaking chill and rustic and normal. It was way hot everyday, allday, but the geography and people made it so much better. It had all the best parts of a city- mountains, trees, a beach, and islands- but the people are what sold it. Besides a few (alright, like 15) old women we saw with hairy moles, Croatia has the prettiest people. Everyone is tall and has dark hair, which makes for a super saucy guy hahah. But for real, Croatia is probably the one country we have visited thus far that I could actually live in.


DAY ONE---

This morning we woke up at 8 as always for breakfast, so me and Amanda went over to get Nikki and Kellie (since they are roomies and Amanda and I are neighbors). They have a window and outside was… phenomenal. All the houses are white with red tile roofs and the water is the bluest thing I have EVER seen. We had breakfast on the deck and… golly. It is awesome pretty.

Once we cleared customs at like 9:45 we all went out immediately. Since Nikki, Miranda, and I had FDPs at 1, we decide to split from the rest and go see as much of the city as possible. Well, we ended up only walking like a mile in cause there was soooo much to do! I exchanged my money to kuna and the dollars are so cute! It also makes me feel rich cause $1= 5.14 kuna. Let’ just say I have a couple of 200$ kunas in my purse hehehe.

So I was about 10 seconds away from selling my FDP to someone, since it wasn’t required, but Nikki convinced me to keep it…. And boy am I glad she did. We had a blast!!! It was called “Osojnik Village and Folk Show” and it was sooo much fun. Basically we hopped on a bus and went into the hills around Dubrovnik (which is like a super small and cute peninsula city in way south Croatia) and could see EVERYWHERE. I think it may be my luck to see the view of all the cities since I have seen them everywhere thus far. We went to a village-ish area (I brought like 50 out of my 200 silly bandz thinking there would be kiddos, but no) and went into this lady’s home. They immediately handed us a shot glass of plum flavored brandy (apparently the drink of Dubrovnik), a dried orange slice, and a candied fig. We didn’t know what to do with the brandy (sip? Pshhh we are NOT that cultured!) so we threw it back. Yuck, never again. The fig was not too tasty and the orange was alright. After that the lady and a man (who were both dressed in “traditional” garb of Croatia) sang and danced with a lijera (like a bango but smaller). We all started dancing with them and had a blast. Not a lot of bootie shaking like in the US, more finger snapping, clapping, and feet stomping. But it was fun nevertheless. After that they put out raw bacon with bread slices and handed us sticks with a sharpened edge. So we roasted our own bacon and toasted our own bread to make BLTs… minus the L and Ts hahaha. It was quite interesting. That kept us occupied for some time. Then they passed around a ton of wine, water, and OJ to keep everyone happy. For dinner (literally at like 5pm) they sat us all outside in this covered porch that overlooked the family garden and vineyard. Nikki and I stole grapes so shhhh hahaha. We had “traditional” salad, potatoes, and pork ribs… probably in the top 5 list of best things I’ve eaten on this trip. So yummy.

So we got dropped back off at the ship and sat around a bit. We were wayyyy sleepy, until we met up with Kellie, Amanda, Lindsey, Miranda, and Randy. Instead of going to Fuegos (the club that everyone is going to tonight, not the taco bar :(  ) we decided to walk in the old town (a super cute area of Dubrovnik) and find a place to chill. We ended up walking and walking and walking and walking, but the downtown area is so cute that none of us minded. The streets in Dubrovnik are like cliché ‘40s movie scenes… narrow streets, clothes hanging from windows, flowers in window pots, cool wooden doors… it is beautiful. Dubrovnik is by far the prettiest city. We found an Irish pub (always a safe bet) and walked in to see like 40 SASers. It was fun, but we decided to head back earlier for our early morning. On the way back we chanced upon “Buza” which is a famous bar. It is literally a hole in the old wall (the wall that encircled the city back in the 1100s ish) that you step out on and BAM is the water. It’s a big cliff-jumping bar (take a shot and jump!) but since it was nighttime obviously no one was doing it. So we sat and looked out (beautiful!) and left cause the drinks were expensive…. And it was a romantic spot and yeah. We were 5 girls. So we walked back and called it a night.


DAY TWO---

Wow, I love Dubrovnik so so so much. I know I say that about them all, but I do!! Today I was supposed to go on an FDP for my anthro class to Medugorje in Bosnia, but I bailed cause it seemed so dull. It was a required one so… we shall see what type of trouble I get into. Oops! So today we went on a cruise to three islands on a boat! It was with all SASer and was only 50$ for a whole day of fun and lunch, so we went! We were told of it yesterday by a girl on the Osojnik trip and decided to just go for it.

So we walked out of the ship at 9am with about 40 other SASers and walked over to the docks. The captain was THE cutest man ever- Mario. He was super sweet and made us listen to his Croatian music, which I actually enjoyed! We were cruising along when he gave Amanda the wheel and started passing out what he called “Moonshine.” It was in an old Jack Daniel’s bottle and had sea weed in it so everyone was kind of just like “what the heck may as well!” Yuck. I shall never have moonshined Croatian liquor in my life ever again hahaha. It tasted like pee. After that I think he felt bad so he gave us cookies hahah.

Island #1 was called Lopud and it was really fun. We all jumped in the Adriatic at the same time and it would have been an AWESOME picture… if someone had taken it haha. The water was freezing and super salty, but because it was boiling it was perfect. I went off to go climb rocks and cliff jump around the side of the island with people while Amanda, Nikki, and Kellie stayed in the beach with the others. Me and Emily (the girl I lost the drinking game to at Sr. Frogs) were climbing every which way trying to find a non-sea urchin infested area to jump in… but no avail. So we ended up climbing to a huge rock and waiting for the rest of our troupe to catch up. We eventually frog dived in and swam back around the island. We hung out around there before leaving for the second island, where we would be having lunch.

It was a super cute little fishing village with not any tourists… way old with a cobblestone main road with a wall around it. The church looked like it got blown to smithereens (maybe it did!), but the city was adorable. We walked to Mario’s house, cause that was where we were having dinner. I thought we would have sandwiches or something, but no. They went all out and cooked a delicious 6-course meal for us!

They gave us an appetizer of bread, cheese, and ham, chicken noodle soup, a salad with homegrown veggies and delish tomatoes, a side course of mussels (I tried them and ate like 7. So flipping good!!!!), a main course of fish (literally a whole fish cooked. I tried some and I could’ve eaten it. Sooooo good.) or chicken with mash potatoes. Dessert was little donut hole tasting things with sugar and cinnamon. To drink was moonshine brandy (to start with) and moonshine red (sooo strong) or white wine (it was brown). All of it was super amazing and was WELL worth the $50, EASY. Mario’s little son was serving us and he was soo cute. We were teaching him some slang English words hahah. The bathrooms at the house were literally an outhouse hahah. SO COOL.

After literally having to roll out of there, we went back to jump into the water before going to island 3. There were little kids playing in the water and were splashing us, so we splashed them back! It turned into a pushing match where we pushed them in and they tried to push us in. They were adorable and really hard to get in!! They were so rowdy hahah. Super adorable though. When we left we were trying to say bye in Croatian but majorly failed (dovindenja= hard to say) and said it in English. They understood and then it turned into a “let’s say bye in every language possible” competition. They won, needless to say. It was super cute when they repeated our adios (I guess they didn’t know that one!)

On the cruise to the 3rd island, we just hung out and swam since we were pooped. We headed back and crashed for a bit and then a few of us went out. Croatian men are SMOKIN. So perfect in everyway.

DAY THREE----

Since the ship had to be moved out to the middle of the port today (cause a bigger ship needed our space!) we had to leave before 9am or get stuck there until 11. So we left with the intent to find a kayaking/snorkeling place. We went into a few, but ended up with a gem. We somehow got 20% off and it was like $20 USD for a 3 hour tour and lunch. Nikki, Kellie, Amanda, and I had a blast! Amanda and I shared one and we were quite the team paddling across the channel to Lokrum Island! We went all the way around and saw the whole place, caves and all! We paddled past a nudie beach… which was ALL nude, not just topless. Eww for old naked men! Thank goodness there are not too many of those in Texas… hahah.

After that we got dindin at the only Mexican food restaurant in the whole country (maybe)! It wasn’t nearly as good as Fuegos or Alamo Café, but it was pretty dang delicious for Croatian-Mexican hahahah. Sooo good. After that we looked for a theater playing Harry Potter (SINCE IT CAME OUT LIKE 2 DAYS AGO!) but sadly the last showing of the night was at 9:30 (HOW LAME!). We split up after that- Amanda and Kellie went out while Nikki and I went back cause she pulled a muscle in her arm paddling. It isn’t surprising cause it was ridiculous hard. The channel between Lokrum and Dubrovnik was probably like a mile, but we had to go super fast cause cruise ships pass through there and we almost got hit! So poor thing. We ended up missing our bus stop with a lifelong learner couple and ended up 2 cities away hahah. Just our luck… I swear public transportation has it out for us. So it took us 1.5 hours to get back to our ship, when it would’ve taken a 40 minute walk. Haha oh well!

DAY FOUR---

We had a great idea to get up EARLY and get out of the ship by 7:45am to walk the walls of the old city. Needless to say, only Amanda and I woke up. We ended up seeing Randy at breakfast and inviting him to go with us to walk the wall. Basically, back in the day (1100s??), this huge long and thick wall was made to protect the city, complete with towers. When we got there it was like 8:15 and BOILING outside. Dubrovnik is super duper hot, we were all dying. But we soldiered through and walked the whoooole thing in about 2 hours, by which time we were completely pooped. The walls had an incredible view of both old and new Dubrovnik and the sea! It was really cool and… well, as fun as it can be at 9am in 100 degree weather (no joke, 37 degrees Celsius at 9:15. That’s like 98 degrees!! Yuck.).

After that we decided a dip in the ocean was in order, so we walked until we found an exit and jumped right in. The water felt AWESOME. After that, we decided it was time to meet up with the other girls, but realized that when I left my phone with them, I forgot to give them my passcode haha oops! We accidentally ran into them while we were eating lunch and decided to hit up Buza (the cliff diving bar) and hang out. A ton of SAS people were already there and it was so fun watching them all jump (I didn’t. Amy= chicken hahah).

The guys jumped off a 60 ft rock that was by the bar of Buza, which I thought was impressive until they climbed up all the way to the middle of the wall. They got out on some rocks and were literally like 90 feet above the water with plenty of rocks and boulders to hit on the way down. I though they were gonna die! But they didn’t and it was AWESOME. It was a solid 5 second fall and it looked painful yet so cool. After that we just headed into the ship and we all passed out before a lifeboat drill.

Croatia was awesome and I hope I come back someday! I really loved it, but I think I will love every country we go to haha… oh well. I liked how we didn’t go to museums everyday and instead saw the landscape, it was a nice change of pace! Right as I was just about to get teh language and it is time to move on. Now for 2 days of icky class again and then the history and beaches of Greece!! Let's see how good I am at sounding out non-english letters! Yayayyayy hahaha... yikes.

γεια σου!!

Italia was quite the trip (part 2)

(ITALIA PART 2- since email couldn't handle 10 pages)

We took the bus to town and went to the Duomo, the biggest church in the area. The line to walk into it was hella long and after like 20 minutes of waiting, we found out that you had to be covered up. Since it was like 85 degrees already and we were all in skirts and spaghetti straps, we called it quits and decided to wait in the line that goes up the dome. And this dome was MASSIVE. Like I couldn’t get the whole thing into a photo unless I was like ½ a mile down the way. So we waited for like 45 min (we took turns to browse in the stores) and finally got in. You had to climb like 41,000 stairs (not really, I think it was like 500ish) up narrow, steep, rock stairs (build in like the 1100s) to get to the dome.

On the way up, we got inside the church on a rim-ish thingy that you could see down like 300 ft to the pews and up like 300 more ft to the frescos and such. It was crazy huge! I bet it echoes a whole lot in there… but anyways so we finally get to the dome and outside and wowzah. Best view of the city you could EVER have. It is the tallest building in Florence so you could literally see the WHOLE city and then some! It was so crazy. We took really good pictures of the view (and us!) and headed down the stairs which was pretty frightening. Some idiot lady had heels on and I thought for sure she was gonna fall and take us out with her! Stupid. So we finally get down and all our legs were shaking from the stairs.

When we were sitting down, we had like 14 Indian begger ladies come up to us. It was terrible but kind of funny because they put padding inside their clothes to make themselves look prego and thus, more money. We didn’t bite so we just ignored them. They are quite aggressive in Italy!! I think everyone is aggressive- beggers, taxi drivers, bus drivers, street vendors, the whole shebang! We walked by a couple of paintings and the dude like basically rolled up a pic and tried to put it in our hands, without us even saying a word! We did get offered a free one if we gave him a kiss… so we all got free paintings!!! Hahahah totally kidding, we laughed and walked away because the art was ugly and screen-printed.

After that we wandered around and dropped Mckenna off at a café cause her feet were hurting so bad… poor thing. So we got into an internet café and went in a few shops before we accidentally ran into the leather market! OH.MY.GOSH. so much fun. They are WAYYYY aggressive sellers as well, but it is too much fun. I almost got a leather jacket for way discounted (originally 740 euros for 128!!! All because I looked like Shakira (?) hahahah riiiight) but decided against it. I did get a purse though… it is super duper cute and smells like a dead baby lamb hahaa. Yummm. So yeah, shopping and bartering was fun, I can’t wait for Morocco!!

After that we went to meet Amanda’s parents for dinner and had a blast. They are super cool and way nice! But better yet, I had the best bite of lasagna that I will ever have. Mckenna ordered it and OMG, so delicious. After that we went to an Opera concert in an old church. We had like 15 minutes to get there and were having the hardest time finding a taxi! I thought for sure we wouldn’t make it, but we did. And it was quite the experience. Opera is… different. I think I liked it though! My favorite part was when the piano guy just played the piano with no singing… it was absolutely amazing. Such god fingers!

 After the Opera it was almost 11, so Nikki and I walked Amanda to her parent’s hotel while Mckenna and Kellie went back to the hostel (so Mckenna’s feet wouldn’t die). We wandered around Florence for a bit and took a few pictures before we heard a free concert going on. He had an angel’s voice, so freaking pretty. He sung “Stairway to Heaven”… drooooool. Then we grabbed a bottle of wine (2 euros!) and sat on a bridge and hung out. We kinda had an “ah ha!” moment when we decided that we have the perfect lives. Like who can go do this?! We are making all these memories that we will never forget with people we have only known for less than a month…. It is insane. We live la dolce vita, the sweet life. New tattoo? Hahahah jkjk

Once we got back to her parent’s hotel it was about 12:30 so we decided to take a taxi back. When we got there, we saw Mckenna and Kellie literally just walk in ahead of us. Since it shouldn’t take 1.5 hours to get back on the bus, we were a tad confused as to what happened. Turns out the bus station we left them at stopped running at 10, so they had to walk across the river to find the nearest one. Then, they got on it and about 15 minutes in, the driver shuts the bus off and goes outside to make out with his girlfriend (Kellie claims it was a prostitute hahah).

And FYI, the stereotype about people making out everywhere is COMPLETE TRUTH.

Then, they sit there for like 30 minutes before he finishes that and they get going again. Then, the driver is going like a maniac to impress his gf, so they get off and take a taxi. The taxi driver drove even more like a maniac, but got them to the hostel okay. So we end up at the same place at the same time, but with less of an adventure then they did. So we walk into our room and BAM, there is another girl in there on the top bunk of my bed. A tad weird when you don’t know someone will be in there.

Turns out we got a roommate!! Vega (her real name was like Rajavegavik or something) from Iceland!! She was super nice and was having a gap year with her cousin. I asked her if they had trees in Iceland (since the Icelandic people at Ryan’s bar in Barcelona made fun of me for it!) and turns out I was right. She said “If people get lost in the forests of Iceland, we just tell them to sit up” hahah. She was real cool.

After talking for a good portion of the night, we woke up, ate our free hostel breakfast (really good bread), and headed to the bus station. We decided we were going to go to the Boboli Gardens to have a picnic and wander around as a chill day since we were totally beat from 6 days in Italy. On the way there, surprise! Our bus broke down. So we walked in the hilly suburbs of Florence for like 20 minutes until we could find a person who spoke a tad bit of English and could point us in the right direction. Once we got going, we picked up some bread, cheese, fruits, veggies, and wine from the markets and shops on the way. We finally found the garden after about 45 minutes of walking and the garden was 8 euros to get in. Bummer. So we walked over to this school/library-ish looking thing and found a nice wooded area with a bench and had the BEST time ever. We all just hung out and had a good time in the peaceful area we were in…. except an old lady sat down on the bench like 10 feet away and wouldn’t stop staring. Slightly creepy. But yeah it was great. We found out that in the summer time, high school aged kids all buy champagne and shake them up and then have a champagne fight…. We wanted to join them cause it looked like soooo much fun!

After an hour or so we decided to walk to this ritzy shopping bridge (Ponte Vecchio) and just wander (as usually). We dropped Mckenna off at another café (since she wanted to sit because of her poor feet!) and headed over. We went into a few gold places because we want to get our 1 cent euro coins made into necklaces, but apparently it is illegal. Croatia better be able to!!! We soon got bored of lame-o fancy stores and went to the city center, Piazza della Signoria, where we were supposed to meet Mckenna at in a few hours. We saw a chalk artist recreating the Mona Lisa and got yelled at for putting out feet up on this concrete wall (it was so lame… it is concrete, not marble! Retard.).

At this point we were soooo exhausted and ready for naptime and it was only like 5. So we sit on the ground and doze a bit waiting for Mckenna. She finally shows up and we got an early dinner and got on the bus to go back. But, surprise! Public transportation SUCKS in Florence.

We got on the first bus we saw because all buses go to the train station, or so we thought. After 30 minutes, we asked the driver and he laughed at us and told us to get off at a certain stop so we could get on the right bus. So we do and are literally waiting for 30 more minutes for our bus to come. The bus we were on before had looped ALLLLLL the way back around and he was laughing at us still sitting there. FINALLY, our bus comes along and we get on. Bus passes only last for 90 minutes, and we are on like 70 at this time…. If an inspector got on and it was expired= 240 euro fine. YUCK. So we sit and wait. And wait. And wait. We are on that bus for a good 30 minutes before we start thinking we are going in circles…. So we sat for another 30 minutes and FINALLY get to our stop. I’m pretty sure we got on like a stop or 2 after our stop… but yeah. So we were on a bus for like 2 hours and it SUCKED. But I laughed, everyone else was a tad annoyed and frustrated with it hahahah. Just our luck. So we completely pass out at 9pm.

We didn’t go to see Michaelangelo’s David cause none of us had any desire. The line was out the building and down the street, so it was totally not in our best interest to visit. Plus, pictures of David are fine with me. Oh well!

The last day we woke up at 5am to get to the bus station at 5:30 to get to the train station by 6 to make our 7am train to Pisa. We made it AND validated our tickets (we so smart!). It was great. So we all pass out on the 45 minute ride and I woke up with about 3 minutes to spare, which was quite lucky. If we had missed our stop… oh gosh.  So we get on a bus and go to Pisa. It’s not even 8am yet so it was EMPTY. We got a few good pics before the crowds started pouring in! People (and us I am sure) looked ridiculous doing poses hahahah. But our pics are way cute. We met a few people from Florida and told them about SAS… their daughters were deff liking what they were hearing haha. So by the time we were done it was only 8:45am and our next train was at 11:30 so we got breakfast and the last Italian cappuccino… :( sooo good.

We decided to head to the station to see if they had an earlier trains to Civitavecchia, but sadly no. So we just stayed in McDonald’s for a long long while. When we finally got on the train, Mckenna, Amanda, and I were so wired we were just goofing off the whole time and being obnoxious. It was great. When we saw the ship from the train it was so wonderful! We were all craving good showers and AC and free water… so we squealed a bit. We ate lunch, made it to the ship by 3, and didn’t get dock time!

We fought Italy, and we freaking won (sorta)!! YUSSS.



Now we are on the way to Croatia, which would be lovely if we didn’t have classes. But we do. Today, I have written 3 papers and studied (sorta hhaha) for a test I have tomorrow. So lame. But after that I’m home free!! We also picked up a Croatian guy from Italy so he can tell us all about his home and…. So cute. When the dean introduced him during Global Studies all the girls were giggling. It was so funny cause Nikki and I did it too hahah. We are so starved from boys on this ship!! 70/30 is NO BUENO. But yeah. Tests and papers due tomorrow, Croatia in 2 days. I can do this! 

Italia was quite the trip (part 1)

(ITALIA PART 1- since the email can't handle 10 pages hahaha)

I wanted to cry when we were leaving. I knew I would absolutely fall in love with Italia, but I wasn’t expecting to be so attached!! 7 days seems like quite some time looking straight at it, but it wasn’t nearly enough. It was perfection there, absolutely perfect. I can totally see myself living in Florence in the outskirts up the surrounding hills. Yup, already picked out the area hahaha. But for real, leaving almost made me cry… And I DON’T cry.

After hiking Vesuvius on that second day, we finally met up with everyone we were traveling with at like 5:30 or 6 (I totally can’t remember now!!! :( ). We FINALLY met the guys we were traveling with and they were all super cool. So it was 5 girls and 3 guys. Leaving Naples it was Amanda, Nikki, Kellie, Laura, AJ, Jackson, Jake, and I. The guys packed huge bags while we only had backpacks hahaha awesome. We were got a taxi to the train station and had already lost Jackson twice by the time we purchased our tickets…. I knew we were in for a HUUUUGE adventure. So we get split up- a few of us sit with all the bags in the middle of the station (people SMOKED inside it AND dogs ran free in it!!! Was weird!) while the rest ran off for food and drink outside the station. Me and Nikki went to get a diet coke and came back to a homeless drunk man sitting in my chair (on top of my jacket! Yuck.) directly in front of poor Amanda. He was literally just sitting there and staring at her… it was hilarious. I think he was calling her princess, but I couldn’t honestly understand a word he was saying… and my Italian never got very good hahah. So after seeing a couple of sketch men circle us a couple of times, we decided to move inside a café and sit there while the rest came back. They did and we sat around for a good hour (we wanted to make sure we got there on time!!) So we finally boarded the train and got all the seats together! We had a blast, but all of us were falling asleep. They never even checked our tickets!!

When we finally got to Rome at like 11:30 pm, we decided we were complete idiots. We never booked a hostel and were just going to wing it…. But when we got there it was dark and empty. So yeah. We didn’t have a clue of what to do. We found Mckenna (who had been in Rome for 2 days already with her friend from home) and bunkered down for a few minutes trying to figure out the next plan of action. We ended up finding an annoying Italian man who walked us to a moderately priced hostel right up the street from the train station. The rooms were super cute but the landlord lady was so rude!! (I think). She sounded mean with her Italian at least… haha. But the rooms were cute with shuttered windows that opened out into the street and some little boys in the apartment complex across the street tried to flash us (they were like 12). The showers were basically nozzles in the bathroom with no doors. But it was only me and Amanda in one room and everyone else was split up in 3 or 4 other rooms. Nikki and Laura’s room had a shower that was IN the room, like BAM hello clear wall! I don’t think they ever used that one… but I woke everyone up at like 9 to get going (I mean, we are in Rome…) and I think it made the boys mad… but whatever. I refuse to sleep in while in Rome!!

So we get going and met Amanda’s parents at the Colosseum (literally 20 minute walk away). Her parents were in because her brother was studying abroad in Florence and since Amanda was there too, might as well go visit! So when her mother saw her it was the cutest thing… I wanted to take a picture but I figured that probably wouldn’t be polite hahah. So we went in the Colosseum and it is AWESOME. It is sooo much larger than I ever would have imagined! The lines to get in SUCKED, but it was sooo worth it. I don’t know, there is just something about roman history that is just mindboggling. The stage was the coolest thing- part of it was covered up like how it was in the day, and the rest was…well destroyed… but it showed the pathways they used to put lions and bears up. They had a super cool diagram that showed how they used ropes and wood to lever stuff it. The place also had old granite and marble that had etching of people and animals and also writings, which was cool. I really enjoyed it and could’ve spent HOURS in there… if we had time.

After the Colosseum, we decided to take the metro to the Spanish Steps and try to get a hostel near there, since it was pretty central versus our boondock train station hostel. The boys freaked out in the metro because they had never been in one (nervous travelers!!), it was hilarious hahaha. The steps were awesome. There was a beautiful fountain on the bottom (Bernini made it I think I heard a tour guide say?) and tons of stairs! We didn’t hang out too long because we were going to try to find a place before 1pm, which was when we had a Vatican ticket booked for. Long story short, big groups blow. It took like 25 minutes to get everyone on the same page and together, and by then it was too late to even look around. So the boys left to find a hostel (since they never booked a Vatican ticket) and we hauled our 30 pound bags across the city.

We finally got to the Vatican exactly at 1. We skipped AT LEAST a 45 minute line and got straight in. Thank the lord that they had a bag check, so we dropped the packs off and went in. People were already tired by now so I looked in the gift shop while they sat. We got in and oh my gershhhh. It was MASSIVE. I thought it was just a couple of artifacts and then the Sistene, but yikes. It took like 3 hours to get through it all! It was literally elaborate room after elaborate room…. All of it was gorgeous, but geez. After seeing 14 pure gold rooms, a 15th one isn’t going to impress me. The Raphael room was awesome though! He was quite the painter.

We lost Nikki and Amanda in like gold room #4 and didn’t find them until we went back for our backpacks… apparently they didn’t even make it to the Sistene Chapel… which was crazy. It was soooooo gorgeous. And the Michaelangelo hand painting (whatever it is called) is even better in real life. We were like jam packed with about 5000 other tourists in a tiny little space, but it was STILL amazing. So after stretching out our necks from looking up for hours, we headed over to St Peter’s. All I could think about was “The DaVinci Code” hahah. Great book. Mckenna went there yesterday (went to a Latin mass AND saw the pope!!! Sooooo jealous.) so she sat down while the rest of us went inside. Words cannot describe…. It was huge and pretty and awesome. One of my favorites for sure… like words cannot do it justice. We ALMOST stayed for mass (me and Nikki really wanted to!) but the other girls didn’t want to hang around so we left. We picked up Mckenna (who got pooped on by a pigeon!!! Good luck?? Hmmm) and went to meet the boys at the Spanish Steps. Everyone was really tired, while I had TONS of energy, so I climbed to the top of the steps and WOW. What a view. I got the cutest picture of some random couple gazing off into the city, so it is kind of my favorite. Creepy much? Hahah.

After that, Amanda, Nikki, and Kellie went to dindin with Amanda’s fam while we went with the boys. That was hilarious. We went to the alleys near the steps and found a gem. It was delicious except for one part… the grappa. Grappa is a drink that cleanses your palate (or something fancy like that) so the guys convinced us girls to try it... I should’ve known not to drink it when the waiter laughed at us…. It makes me gag thinking of it. I am almost 100% sure that some of my nail polish came off when it touched it. Apparently it is like 190% alcohol (or something ridiculous) and it is a miracle I didn’t spew. Disgusting. After that disgusting mishap, we went to the hostel (super cute!! Shutters again!) and got dressed to go out since it was the 4th of July. The rest of the girls got back and we decided to head to the steps to see what happens (motto of the trip?). We ended up meeting a Bulgarian guy and chatting for a while (since we are headed to Bulgaria in a few weeks!) and he took us to a bar. We walk in and are the only people there. Then they started playing Lion King music and old school Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, so we stay for sure. Later a ton more SAS kids came, so it got way fun.

The next day I woke up at what I thought was 5 or 6am. Instead it was 8 and it was POURING DOWN RAIN. It was awesome. So I woke up Mckenna and Amanda, who were in the room with me, and try to get them going. In Global Studies class, our prof was telling us about the Pantheon, a huge OLD (120 AD) building with an oculus in the top. He said that it is AMAZING when it rains or snows, since a bit gets in the building, so I knew this was our only chance. We were walking out the door making great time (I had that terrible green poncho over my camera hahaha) when some of the boys wanted to get ready and come. So we waited and they decided they didn’t want to. By this time it was 10 and it was only drizzling. So we finally get to the Pantheon after a 15 min cab ride of going in circles (they always try to squeeze out an extra euro!!), and it is just about to let up. Thank goodness we saw a bit of the drizzle come in and it was sooo cool. The building is by far my favorite on the trip. There are HUGE columns and an intricate ceiling carved from marble. I forget the history, but I am almost certain it is all-original with no rebuilding or restoration.

 After that we headed to Trevi Fountain which is INCREDIBLE. It was that moment that I knew I loved Rome. Regardless of the hundreds of people crowded around you trying to throw coins in, it is magical. Like it gave me goosebumps… though we may have just been having a girly moment believing all the lovey dovey crappo that they feed you to get your coins. But eh whatevs, I still love it.

After that we went to the catacombs. We took a taxi out to the boondocks of the city (like I am almost certain it isn’t even in Rome!) and found out the place closed at 12 and it was 12:15. So we missed it, bummer. Instead of wasting another 15 euro on a taxi, we decided to walk to another catacomb nearby. It was this BEAUTIFUL tree lined road that was absolutely amazing. So beautiful. When we finally found the catacombs, they had also closed. Bummer. So we walked to a restaurant to waste time and eat for the 1.5 hours we had. It was AWESOME. I will have my reception there, so get ready to shell out the dough!! Hahha but for realz, I’m not joking. We sat in the outdoor terrace-y area (whatever it is called). The roof (?) covering was basically huge THICK vines that grew over for years and years and completely covered the area. There was a fountain that had cute little turtles in it too! It was just quaint and adorable. The food was good too! We had our first dessert of strawberries with ice cream and… ZOMG. So. Good. There was actually a reception going on when we left, it was a way cute couple!

The catacombs were a bit of a letdown. I have seen pictures of like bodies and skulls and femurs and such on display, but there was nothing of the sort. It was all like platforms where they were put and stuff…. Disappointing. I just wanted to see some gorey stuff geez! The place we went was the oldest in existence, so maybe we just went to one that was too old? Whatevs.

After that we got in a taxi to go to the Roman Forum, one of the places I’ve ALWAYS wanted to go. But…. A few of the girls forgot their tickets at the hostel, so we couldn’t go in. Sad day. But it is okay cause OBVIOUSLY I’ll go back, duhhh. The Arch of Constantine was pretty awesome though, it is amazing how well preserved and detailed it still is, it is since it is just BAM in the open with rain and wind and snow and stuff… and it’s like 300 AD!!! Pretty sweet! After that we just got our bags and went to the train station to go to Florence. We booked a hotel in advance, having learned our lesson in Rome, and knew to plan a bit better. But…. Yeah. Adventures.

Florence was a trip. Nothing EVER went according to plan, no matter how prepared we were hhaahah. At the train station, we couldn’t find our train. By the time we got to the front of the info booth to ask, we had 5 minutes before we left… so we were freaking a bit. Then we learned it was wayyyyyy across the station in the farrrrr back corner… so we ran. I had a sandwich in one hand, a soda in the other, with my camera wedged in between so that it wouldn’t get too jostled, a 30 pound backpack on my back, a purse, and a bag of souvenirs. It was tricky. But we SPRINTED and made it with only a minute to spare. We were still walking around trying to find a seat when the train started moving. So that was a close one. Since we were so late we didn’t get a place to sit all together, so a poor guy had to smell my nasty sweat bod for a while. After a couple of stops we finally got a place all together.

Then, for the first time, a woman came to get our tickets. Apparently you are supposed to validate your tickets (doesn’t buying them mean they are valid?? Stupid rule) and the fine was 50 euros A PERSON. We managed to talk our way out (450 euros, for real?! Ha that is a joke.) to only 50 cents a person and avoided a potentially disastrous disaster (great sentence.).

THEN, since we took the super looooong train (4 hours!!) to save money, everyone got off at this one stop and we were the only people in our segment. For some reason, the train slowed down and STOPPED in a tunnel! I was delirious at this point and thought it was hilarious, but some people were really freaking out. The boys I think were legit scared so they made a plan on how to take down an axe murderer with what we had (lmao). Kellie had to go pee, so when Nikki went with her, we all ran to the other segment of the train and listened to them freak out for a bit… it was pretty hilarious haha. When we finally got moving we all felt a little better.

We finally got into Florence at like 11:30pm and headed over to the hotel. Since we had so many people, we needed 3 taxis. I told the first one where to go, but the last 2 didn’t seem to understand. Finally they caught on and took us to the Argentine Hotel. We didn’t notice this until we walked in and they said they didn’t have a hotel room for us, even though we booked it the night before. By this time, only 2 taxis had got there. We were kind of frustrated since we were so tired and weren’t in bed yet, but soon realized that we were at the wrong hotel. The hotel we had booked was the Argentiere (EXACTLY what I said and Nikki had written down for the taxi drivers!) and we were at the Argentine… completely opposite sides of the city. So the concierge got us another taxi and took us to the right hotel, where the first taxi was already waiting.

Bum luck again- the hotel stopped check in and closed the office at 11… it was 12. So yeah. At this point people are getting pissed while Nikki and I are basically rolling around on the ground laughing at our luck. Like really, who would that happen to but us?! So we have nowhere to stay, were in the middle of residential Florence, and it is the middle of the night… I spot a park bench and spout out a joke that was NOT appreciated haha.

 So we get back into the taxi and head for the city center, thinking hostels or even hotels will have vacancy. Nope. Nikki and I walked to about 15 hotels and all were full. Surprise! Apparently there was a festival going on that weekend… just our luck. So Nikki and I see some SASers we know and are about 5 seconds away from asking if we can crash on their floor when one of the boys finds a hostel. It was in a travel guide book and he said they had vacancies. So we decided to go there.

Being cheap, Nikki, Amanda, Mckenna, Kellie, and I take the bus (1 euro) while the rest take a taxi (10 euros each). We hopped on the correct bus and asked the driver to let us know when to get off… but, surprise surprise, he didn’t know where it was (or he just couldn’t understand us). So we decided to see if we saw it. An Italian lady overheard us talking and said she knew where it was and would walk us part of the way since it was her stop as well. She was SUPER nice. Super. We get off after like 35 minutes on the bus in the middle of houses. She tells us exactly where to go, but it is soooo dark. There is no one out and there are barely any cars, so it was a horror story waiting to happen (as if, there are no scary movies based in Italy!!). I hid my camera (safety first!) and we got walking.

It was like a 20 minute walk to see the entrance to the hostel… which said camping. The road to the hostel was dirt and basically a forest. It had a huge arched entrance, but immediately behind it was a forest. It was dark and there were NO lights. I walked up to check out a creepy iron gate (it was eroded and locked with a real old lock) and we decided to NOT walk up the long windy dark and scary road… until some people freaked the heck out of us. They walked up right behind us and told us the hostel was up the dirt road like a mile…. So we followed them. Kellie, Nikki, and I basically huddled together the whole way about 2 feet behind the randos. Amanda and Mckenna lagged behind because Mckenna had the HUGEST blister I’ve ever seen in my life. So big and so puffy. After like a 15 min walk we finally get there. We were so freaked out and just exhausted that we almost kissed the wall. So we booked a room for all us girls and started walking up. On the way, we saw Laura and the guys (who took the taxi) and they were all sketched out by the place. We just fell asleep in our beds immediately after.

I woke up completely SOAKED in sweat (no AC and open window= mosquito bites) at like 9 and so I went to open the window and… oh my gosh. Our view is AMAZING. Because we were in the hilly mountain area of Florence, we could see the countryside and it was BEAUTIFUL. We even had a rooster wake us up a few times during the week. It was amazing. So flipping purdy. So we went to take a shower and couldn’t find any towels. We were kind of confused but knew what was up… hostels don’t give you towels. So instead of buying a towel for 2.50 euros at the front desk, we used our sheets as towels hahahahha. We are so so SO crafty. And they worked perfectly fine! So we all got ready and dressed up (since Florence is super fashionable or something? Hahah idk) and took pictures by our lovely shutters with the view. We walked down and saw THE HOTTEST British (or Australian??) I’ve ever seen. ZOMG. When we finally pulled ourselves away and wiped up the drool, we walked outside and were blown away by how pretty it was! It is a total gem and I’d recommend it to everyone… just not to arrive and walk up at 1am haha.