Nice to Florence
Day 10
There was so much traffic in Nice as we tried to leave this morning, it was freakin’ crazy. They had the end of their Carnivale so the streets were gridblocked and closed off. What a nightmare that was. Oh yeah, some bitch stole my phone too. I’m so incredibly unhappy about it because I lost so much stuff on there that was sentimental and I am never going to get it back now. I can’t believe people take other peoples things from the hotel room. Ugh.
We left reasonably earlyish as Ryan had booked us in to go see a perfumerie out of Nice on the way to Florence. It was actually really interesting-although all the different smells was definitely overwhelming. We got to see how they test smells and make soaps etc, it was very cool. We were also allowed time to buy perfumes and stuff if we wanted, but I couldn’t find anthing I liked. It was way too flowery for my liking actually, although they had nice lip balms and hand creams though. It was a cute little place too-almost Tuscan style.
We jumped back on the bus afterwards to make our way to Florence, where we will be spending 2 days. It is a short bus ride and as we stopped at a rest stop I realised I didn’t have my phone on me. A quick call to the hotel confirmed it wasn’t in my room anymore and yeah... I proceeded to chuck an internal tantrum and got on the phone to Mum straight away so I could have the number blocked. It actually didn’t start off as a good morning as I was in quite a rush so that only made me more grumpier and upset. I know it’s only a phone but dammit, I had so many photos of Lily and Zach on that I am never going to get back-especially the ones of Zach.
Ryan surprised us with a pit-stop at Pisa afterwwards. We had to pay to park the bus and as soon as we got off we were surrounded by these guys trying to sell us fake sunglasses and bags with high end names on them. I find it disturbing that it’s illegal for them to sell this stuff to us but they’re not the ones who are arrested and fined; it’s us if we’re caught purchasing anything from them. Yeah, I might have been a little snappy towards them. We walked a couple of km’s to the tower where it was absolutely packed but we all managed to get our photos taken, even the obligatory “look, I’m holding up the tower with one hand!” photo. We didn’t get to spend too long there though as we still had to get to Florence before dark. Once again we were harrassed by the men all the way back to the bus. I had to bite my tongue more than once.
We finally made it to Florence with no more dramas and checked into a very nice little hotel on the outskirts of Florence. All the hotels we’re staying in are on the outskirts of any city (with the exception of Lucerne) so as to save money and make the trip cheaper. I don’t mind so much; it’s only a hassle if you want to do something at night and you’ve got nothing around you. It’s a bit hard to catch taxi’s etc over here!
My first impression of Italy? Hmmm. I wasn’t very impressed to be honest. It’s not how I remembered it. Let’s hope my mind is changed later on down the track when we visit Rome and Venice.
We were bussed over to a restaurant where the bread was very garlicky and the spaghetti was awful. It did not taste like real Italian food and I swear I can make better spag bog out of a jar. In any case it was nice to sit with some new people that we haven’t spent much time with and get to know them. After dinner Ryan took us to a kareoke bar that sold 2 litre pitchers of cocktails for 27 Euro. Score, we downed those abies quickly! I also tried the red wine and yuck yuck yuck. Ryan got up to sing kareoke (Blink 182’s All The Small Things) but the rest of us were too chicken to give it a go. Just as we were getting rowdy and psyching ourselves up to just get up and do it (JFDI), it was unfortunately time to go. It was a good night-lots of laughing, taking more photos (yes, I have taken sooo many photos up to this point... I’ve already filled up my memory card and had to upload the photos to my harddrive already!) and having a good time. Yep, good night.
P.S. You guessed it! Pink and white icecream made another appearance tonight!
There was so much traffic in Nice as we tried to leave this morning, it was freakin’ crazy. They had the end of their Carnivale so the streets were gridblocked and closed off. What a nightmare that was. Oh yeah, some bitch stole my phone too. I’m so incredibly unhappy about it because I lost so much stuff on there that was sentimental and I am never going to get it back now. I can’t believe people take other peoples things from the hotel room. Ugh.
We left reasonably earlyish as Ryan had booked us in to go see a perfumerie out of Nice on the way to Florence. It was actually really interesting-although all the different smells was definitely overwhelming. We got to see how they test smells and make soaps etc, it was very cool. We were also allowed time to buy perfumes and stuff if we wanted, but I couldn’t find anthing I liked. It was way too flowery for my liking actually, although they had nice lip balms and hand creams though. It was a cute little place too-almost Tuscan style.
We jumped back on the bus afterwards to make our way to Florence, where we will be spending 2 days. It is a short bus ride and as we stopped at a rest stop I realised I didn’t have my phone on me. A quick call to the hotel confirmed it wasn’t in my room anymore and yeah... I proceeded to chuck an internal tantrum and got on the phone to Mum straight away so I could have the number blocked. It actually didn’t start off as a good morning as I was in quite a rush so that only made me more grumpier and upset. I know it’s only a phone but dammit, I had so many photos of Lily and Zach on that I am never going to get back-especially the ones of Zach.
Ryan surprised us with a pit-stop at Pisa afterwwards. We had to pay to park the bus and as soon as we got off we were surrounded by these guys trying to sell us fake sunglasses and bags with high end names on them. I find it disturbing that it’s illegal for them to sell this stuff to us but they’re not the ones who are arrested and fined; it’s us if we’re caught purchasing anything from them. Yeah, I might have been a little snappy towards them. We walked a couple of km’s to the tower where it was absolutely packed but we all managed to get our photos taken, even the obligatory “look, I’m holding up the tower with one hand!” photo. We didn’t get to spend too long there though as we still had to get to Florence before dark. Once again we were harrassed by the men all the way back to the bus. I had to bite my tongue more than once.
We finally made it to Florence with no more dramas and checked into a very nice little hotel on the outskirts of Florence. All the hotels we’re staying in are on the outskirts of any city (with the exception of Lucerne) so as to save money and make the trip cheaper. I don’t mind so much; it’s only a hassle if you want to do something at night and you’ve got nothing around you. It’s a bit hard to catch taxi’s etc over here!
My first impression of Italy? Hmmm. I wasn’t very impressed to be honest. It’s not how I remembered it. Let’s hope my mind is changed later on down the track when we visit Rome and Venice.
We were bussed over to a restaurant where the bread was very garlicky and the spaghetti was awful. It did not taste like real Italian food and I swear I can make better spag bog out of a jar. In any case it was nice to sit with some new people that we haven’t spent much time with and get to know them. After dinner Ryan took us to a kareoke bar that sold 2 litre pitchers of cocktails for 27 Euro. Score, we downed those abies quickly! I also tried the red wine and yuck yuck yuck. Ryan got up to sing kareoke (Blink 182’s All The Small Things) but the rest of us were too chicken to give it a go. Just as we were getting rowdy and psyching ourselves up to just get up and do it (JFDI), it was unfortunately time to go. It was a good night-lots of laughing, taking more photos (yes, I have taken sooo many photos up to this point... I’ve already filled up my memory card and had to upload the photos to my harddrive already!) and having a good time. Yep, good night.
P.S. You guessed it! Pink and white icecream made another appearance tonight!