we woke up the morning we were to leave, left our hotel, and walked toward our favorite, cheap
internet cafe to check emails before catching a train to florence. on the way down the street we saw alllll these people marching and picketing in the distance, but all the signs were in italian so we didn't really know what they were protesting, and didn't really care. we got to the internet cafe and checked emails and i added pictures to the previous blog post, etc. then, a group of american guys come in to use computers, "to try to find another way to florence because of the train strike."
what train strike? you ask.... well, apparently all that picketing was rome's entire rail system going on strike!
ahhhh! we had already checked out of our hotel and were all ready to go to florence! we really don't want to buy a plane ticket, and we don't want to rent (or drive!) a car in rome, which is what the group of guys plan to do, so we decide to hurry to the train station to try our luck and maybe there will be at least a few trains running!
we get to the train station and its mayhem! there are hundreds of stranded people and no trains seem to be going anywhere. when looking at the boards that usually list arrivals and departures, every single train says its a no go.
also, every ticket line and all the information stations have lines that look a mile long.
our next thought is taking a bus. we find the bus station area attached to the train station and wait in the bus information line. she says that she only has information for the local buses but tells us another window in the train station that can help with buses to florence. we are wandering around trying to find this elusive help window and stumble upon another window that sells bus, plane and train tickets and since it is so tucked away in the station the line is noticeably shorter than any of the others.
we get to the front of the line and say we want to get to florence. she says no problem and prints us tickets for a TRAIN to florence. we were very confused, and asked her twice if this train was actually leaving and she said yes.
we still thought it was too good to be true. but we found the info boards again and amidst all the stopped trains is one to florence that has an actual platform and departure time!! we still cant believe our luck! everyone on board seemed to be holding their breath until the train actually began to move, but it did and we made it to florence!
once in florence we were touring around and all the sudden it dawns on me... CRAP! I left our usb memory stick with all our backed up pictures in the computer in rome!!! we had left in such a rush i never pulled it out! we really just used it as a back up for our pictures incase the camera was ever lost, stolen, or broken, but it still had pictures on it that we had deleted on the camera memory to make more room. we decided it was worth it to try to save those lost pictures and we got back on a 3 hr train to rome. we ran back to the internet spot and looked, but it was predictably
gone. : (
now disappointed and tired, we had the task of finding a way out of rome for a second time during the strike! luckily we were able to get on the same train we had taken before and escaped again.
we had a lot of fun in florence. its a very walkable city and our hostel was one a fun and lively street with a ton of shops and restaurants and was right next to the duomo.
we also took a day trip to pisa to see, well, you know.
we left florence an
d took a train north to an area called the cinque terre (or 5 towns). these five little italian towns are perched on the coast and there's a hiking path that makes it possible to start at the first town and end at the last. we began at the southern most town and hiked our way through along the cliffs and through the vineyards all the way to the northernmost town. they are all adorable and the hike was challenging but worth it. there was a LOT of climbing uphill followed by hiking back uphill and then downhill again, etc. the 9km takes about 5 hours to cover and we were proud and exhausted at the finish!
that night we slept at a campground (believe it or not.... and michael couldn't believe it) but it was only borderline camping. ok, not even borderline. it was technically a tent, but we had a fake wood floor and two real deal beds. plus there were very nice, very hot showers, toilets, laundry, the works. the only really camp-like thing about it was the lack of light (we used my booklight to see at night) and the bugs.
the next morning we traveled for 5 hours by train and got to venice by mid-afternoon. venice was great. it was even more venice-like than i thought venice was. i knew it was all on water and such, but i seriously still thought they had cars on the streets, which they don't, and they must not even allow bikes (!) because we never saw a single one. if you want to get anywhere you better walk, or take a boat. period.
we also had a ridiculous time with our hotel and crazy italian hotel-man, but that's a whole 'nother story, and this is already going to be a way-too-long-post.
if you are even still reading by now give yourself a pat on the back and get a snack, because we still have a ways to go....
anyways, after a venice day and a half we said goodbye to italy and headed to interlaken, switzerland, where we are now. interlaken is the extreme sport capital of the world, and by-golly we are holding them to it.
we got in really late (after midnight) and decided we would take the next day as a rest day
before risking our lives doing anything crazy. didn't work out as so. the next morning as we began what we thought we be a nice quiet day of touring the little german-like swiss village and we stopped to ask our hostel lady about booking a skydiving trip. well, next thing you know we are being picked up in an hour to jump out of a helicopter!
we decided to go with the helicopter jump because 1) you get a 15 minute scenic
tour of the alps and valleys in a glass walled helicopter before you toss yourself out, 2) there are only 3 cities in the world that even do helicopter skydiving and 3) it is just waaaaay cooler.
so, we jumped 12,500 feet and lived to tell. always a plus.
so, now that we've gotten all that business out of the way, we decided today was defiantly going to be our rest day. and who knows how it happened, but we went canyoning today. canyoning is hard to describe, but you basically make your way down a very fast and very rocky river that is in a canyon. michael decided it's like white water rafting but without the boat (i wouldn't know about white water rafting, because ive never done it, but we'll get to
that in a minute...) there are high jumps (i think i was officially more scared than the skydiving yesterday), waterfalls, sliding down rocks, etc. it was so, so, so much fun. and im pretty sure more dangerous than skydiving considering the startling amount of protective gear you sport to do it.
as for our relaxation day, we will have to take it in tampa. we booked bungee jumping tomorrow (actually michel is bungee jumping and i am canyon jumping, slightly different, but we'll get into that another time) and the following day, our last in interlaken, we are going white water rafting.
wish us luck.
and by the way, don't tell my mom.
ahhhh! we had already checked out of our hotel and were all ready to go to florence! we really don't want to buy a plane ticket, and we don't want to rent (or drive!) a car in rome, which is what the group of guys plan to do, so we decide to hurry to the train station to try our luck and maybe there will be at least a few trains running!
we get to the train station and its mayhem! there are hundreds of stranded people and no trains seem to be going anywhere. when looking at the boards that usually list arrivals and departures, every single train says its a no go.
also, every ticket line and all the information stations have lines that look a mile long.
our next thought is taking a bus. we find the bus station area attached to the train station and wait in the bus information line. she says that she only has information for the local buses but tells us another window in the train station that can help with buses to florence. we are wandering around trying to find this elusive help window and stumble upon another window that sells bus, plane and train tickets and since it is so tucked away in the station the line is noticeably shorter than any of the others.
we get to the front of the line and say we want to get to florence. she says no problem and prints us tickets for a TRAIN to florence. we were very confused, and asked her twice if this train was actually leaving and she said yes.
we still thought it was too good to be true. but we found the info boards again and amidst all the stopped trains is one to florence that has an actual platform and departure time!! we still cant believe our luck! everyone on board seemed to be holding their breath until the train actually began to move, but it did and we made it to florence!
once in florence we were touring around and all the sudden it dawns on me... CRAP! I left our usb memory stick with all our backed up pictures in the computer in rome!!! we had left in such a rush i never pulled it out! we really just used it as a back up for our pictures incase the camera was ever lost, stolen, or broken, but it still had pictures on it that we had deleted on the camera memory to make more room. we decided it was worth it to try to save those lost pictures and we got back on a 3 hr train to rome. we ran back to the internet spot and looked, but it was predictably
gone. : (now disappointed and tired, we had the task of finding a way out of rome for a second time during the strike! luckily we were able to get on the same train we had taken before and escaped again.
we had a lot of fun in florence. its a very walkable city and our hostel was one a fun and lively street with a ton of shops and restaurants and was right next to the duomo.
we also took a day trip to pisa to see, well, you know.
we left florence an
d took a train north to an area called the cinque terre (or 5 towns). these five little italian towns are perched on the coast and there's a hiking path that makes it possible to start at the first town and end at the last. we began at the southern most town and hiked our way through along the cliffs and through the vineyards all the way to the northernmost town. they are all adorable and the hike was challenging but worth it. there was a LOT of climbing uphill followed by hiking back uphill and then downhill again, etc. the 9km takes about 5 hours to cover and we were proud and exhausted at the finish!
that night we slept at a campground (believe it or not.... and michael couldn't believe it) but it was only borderline camping. ok, not even borderline. it was technically a tent, but we had a fake wood floor and two real deal beds. plus there were very nice, very hot showers, toilets, laundry, the works. the only really camp-like thing about it was the lack of light (we used my booklight to see at night) and the bugs.
the next morning we traveled for 5 hours by train and got to venice by mid-afternoon. venice was great. it was even more venice-like than i thought venice was. i knew it was all on water and such, but i seriously still thought they had cars on the streets, which they don't, and they must not even allow bikes (!) because we never saw a single one. if you want to get anywhere you better walk, or take a boat. period.we also had a ridiculous time with our hotel and crazy italian hotel-man, but that's a whole 'nother story, and this is already going to be a way-too-long-post.
if you are even still reading by now give yourself a pat on the back and get a snack, because we still have a ways to go....
anyways, after a venice day and a half we said goodbye to italy and headed to interlaken, switzerland, where we are now. interlaken is the extreme sport capital of the world, and by-golly we are holding them to it.
we got in really late (after midnight) and decided we would take the next day as a rest day
before risking our lives doing anything crazy. didn't work out as so. the next morning as we began what we thought we be a nice quiet day of touring the little german-like swiss village and we stopped to ask our hostel lady about booking a skydiving trip. well, next thing you know we are being picked up in an hour to jump out of a helicopter!we decided to go with the helicopter jump because 1) you get a 15 minute scenic
tour of the alps and valleys in a glass walled helicopter before you toss yourself out, 2) there are only 3 cities in the world that even do helicopter skydiving and 3) it is just waaaaay cooler.so, we jumped 12,500 feet and lived to tell. always a plus.
so, now that we've gotten all that business out of the way, we decided today was defiantly going to be our rest day. and who knows how it happened, but we went canyoning today. canyoning is hard to describe, but you basically make your way down a very fast and very rocky river that is in a canyon. michael decided it's like white water rafting but without the boat (i wouldn't know about white water rafting, because ive never done it, but we'll get to
that in a minute...) there are high jumps (i think i was officially more scared than the skydiving yesterday), waterfalls, sliding down rocks, etc. it was so, so, so much fun. and im pretty sure more dangerous than skydiving considering the startling amount of protective gear you sport to do it.as for our relaxation day, we will have to take it in tampa. we booked bungee jumping tomorrow (actually michel is bungee jumping and i am canyon jumping, slightly different, but we'll get into that another time) and the following day, our last in interlaken, we are going white water rafting.
wish us luck.
and by the way, don't tell my mom.
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