so here i am in florence now holed up in my dorm cause I HAVE FREE INTERNET! this hostel is so great, i even got a free dinner of a whole pizza! so now im being anti social and rather happy about it.
so my initial landing into italy was a bit rough. id had no sleep in 24hrs before and the airport i landed in near venice was so tiny i just accidentaly walked right out! then i couldnt get my backpack and found that if i couldn't get the shuttle into venice, the next one would not be for another two hours! (almost tears-inducing experience!) luckily i finally got it thru lost and found and was on my way, wheeew!
soon as i was in venice i met a lost londoner by the name of kaspa and we set off getting majorly lost in venice for the next 8 hours. i did pretty good off of no sleep. so we mandered around and around and around and i must say venice is beeeaaaauuutiful (also, it reminded me of disneyland. i dont need to explain myself). it is a bit smelly i suppose but what can you expect really. and i liked the novelty of no cars.
so after a couple hours we were like, 'so what do people do in venice? maybe we should find out'. well whaddya know, piazza san marco but of course! it took us literally HOURS to find it and you know how we finally got there? by asking people but more importantly: following the directions to mcdonalds restaurants posted on trash bins. no joke, it'd be like a picture of mcdonalds near the square, with an arrow and approx. number of minutes to get to. and that my friends, is how we finally found it.
so wearing one of kaspa's extra shirts and a big ol piece of cloth wrapped around my legs costing me 1 euro, we went into the basilica (and once inside, we were like, so what is this?) then we went into palazzo ducale/doge's palace and roamed and roamed some more. btw, i was pretty pumped that i didnt have to use a public toilet cus they cost 1.50 euro! highway roberry! and then asleep by 11. yay!
and then this morning i hopped aboard a train and am now in florence! i went to the uffizi gallery which is home to the world's greatest collection of Renaissance art (straight outta the lonely planet). it's got the 'birth of venus' (you know, the one where shes standing in a shell with her hair strategically covering up her bits and pieces) and was very cool indeed.
then i met an old italian man who told me all about florence and where to go while overlooking the river. i was all like, aw, this is so nice, hes so old. then he wanted to take me out for fancy expensive dinner. i thought, is this like kate winslet and that old jewish dude in 'the holiday'? just in case not, i declined (and on this note, i admit defeat, i can never be a golddigger. sadness.), got my first real italian gelato, got lost for the umpteenth time today and then came back to my hostel.
