This day sucked. This day sucked like
no day has sucked before. Okay, it wasn’t quite that bad, but it
definitely takes the title of suckiest day so far.
In the morning we had to farewell
Lanfranco and Marcella, and we left with heavy hearts. We are hoping
to organise to come and stay with them again at the end of our trip,
but this didn’t exactly ease the sadness of the morning. They
really made us feel like family and we didn’t want to leave! Pout.
It’s lovely when you can bond to people like that in a short amount
of time. About the only thing that made the day less crappy is that
Octavius was also going to Siena. Hooray!
Anyway, cue crappiness. The bus trip
was not very long, but very wind-y. We all know how wonderful that
makes you feel. We weren’t too sure exactly which stop to get off
at, but I asked the driver and he let us know. Turns out there was a
bunch of people on the bus that spoke English and no Italian so I
became their unofficial guide for about half an hour. Anway, we knew
that we had to catch a bus out to our B&B, but we didn’t quite
know where from. I asked the bus driver and he directed me to buses
and so our trio plus our temporary gaggle dutifully made our way down
to the buses. Down there everybody was trying to get a bus to central
Siena, and after a lot of reassuring and pointing at the bus routes
(and helping other random people) I got most of the people onto what
I hope were the right buses. Not that there was much of an issue –
all buses went to the centre of Sienna – just slightly different
parts, and if they had a map they would be fine.
We continued to wait and finally our
bus arrived – to be told that we wanted the bus going in the OTHER
direction, to the outskirts, not the centre, which was up at the
station (we were underground). Whilst in hindsight this makes sense
and I have no one to blame but myself because I did ask where the
buses left for the centre when I was helping everyone else, but at
the time (especially considering we had just waited 40 minutes) it
was a little frustrating. SIGH!
So off we went, having got everybody
else onto their buses, and we went in search of our bus. What didn’t
help is that another bus driver told us we needed to be underground.
I was going to kill things! Aaaarghhh!! Thankfully I asked at the
ticket office (though not before asking a young Italian man with eyes
you could drown in – was he useful? Not at all. Was it worth it?
Definitely ) and they directed me to
the correct place. Yay.
So, we waited another 20 minutes for
the bus and we got on. It got us to our destination – the bus
driver even pulled over between stops to let us out as close as
possible. You rock, lady. We trundled down a very narrow road to get
to our apartment, which has turned out to be a bit of a
disappointment again. Doesn’t help that we were in a place of
awesomeness earlier, but we feel a bit shitty that we’re paying
heaps more a night to get less. They’re even charging for the
freaking internet. Bastardidos. It’s nice enough, but they charge
for all the extras and it’s annoying. It’s also not convenient
but not even that isolated. Sigh of frustration.
After Octavius tried to help us get
over the frustration, we decided that we would take the ‘short 1.5
km walk’ to the supermarket to stock up for the week. In short:
It was not 1.5 km. More like 4.5
km.
The directions were incorrect.
There were hills.
There was a large section where
there were no footpaths – this meant hugging whatever barrier was
to the side in order to avoid the cars which SHOULD have been going
50 km/h, but most about 80 – 90 km/h. Apparently they are more
like guidelines.
We found one supermarket first which
was not the bigger one, but eventually (and after asking about 5
different people) we found our way to the larger supermarket. So,
where the directions say ‘turn right’ what they mean is ‘go
straight’. Or, just take the freaking bus that stops right outside
it. We will be next time.
We gathered lots of food and alcohol to
take back with us and started the trundle back home (we hadn’t
realised the bus stopped here until the next day when we caught the
bus back in). To top off the night in an attempt to avoid being hit
by a car that wasn’t moving to the centre of the road, I ended up
scraping the side of my knee against something that I’m sure is
full of tetanus. It’s a good scrape – I had to cut off the excess
skin, scrub out the dirt, soak it in OH MY FREAKING GOD THAT STINGS
antiseptic and bandage it up. I even had to change the dressing today
and it’s all weepy and yuck. Stupid bloody car. It aches! Waaaah!!!
So...after that we decided that we
would take it easy. Frozen pizza and bruschetta minus the bread for
dinner, and then to bed. The next day would be better, right??? Siena
was calling and we were eager to leave this day behind.
