Firenze

I just got back from my weekend in Florence and I had soooo much fun! There is tons of stuff to see there but we spent most of our time shopping in the outdoor market, bargaining our way to cheaper prices.

We left Friday afternoon and when we got to our hostel, some people swam and some went downtown to shop....I was in the shopping group! I really wanted to swim because I was covered in sweat but my money was burning a hole in my pocket so I had to spend some! The San Lorenzo market is this huge outdoor market with tons of booths with items like jewelry, leather bags, wallets, belts, tshirts and random stuff. It is really overwhelming at first because there are SO many booths and each vendor is talking to you to try and make you come to their booth. We mostly just walked through the market this day to see what they had and then met up with the rest of our group and had dinner at our hostel. We made last minute plans to stay at this hostel so we were all separated for the first night but I was with the girls I went to London with so that was fine. We just drank on the rooftop terrace bar for a little bit and slept early since we were exhausted and were getting up early.

Saturday we woke up early and stood in line to see the David sculpture by Michelangelo. The wait was about an hour long which was about the time amount we expected. Annie gets nose bleeds pretty often and she got one while we were in line and a few girls went with her to get some tissues at McDonalds down the street. We were getting close to the entrance so 2 girls went looking for them and they ended up not coming in with us cause they took her to the hospital! I guess her nose wouldnt stop bleeding so they had to put this little tube in her nose and inject it with some medicine (I assume something to make it clot.) We were all really nervous since we were in a foreign country, but she paid nothing and went back in the evening to remove the tube and they carterized (spelling?) her capillary. I dont know the details but hopefully she will be nose bleed free for a while!

We climbed the bell tower, all 414 steps, and had an amazing view of Florence! This is what I imagined Italy to look like! It was a little scary on the way down cause it was dark and people were coming up as we were trying to come down so it was a bit slower on the way down. Afterwards...more shopping!!! I bought two leather bags, some presents, two dresses, a tshirt, 4 little bracelets and I think thats it. Later we ate dinner at the hostel again and got ready for a night out on the town! We got flyers for this bar where you get 5 shots with £5..so that was our first stop! The shots were basically mini versions of mixed drinks (sex on the beach, kamikazees) so that was a pretty fun way to start the night. Some people in our program went to Florence last weekend and told us about this amazing club we had to go to...basically "free" entrance with a free drink and they give you this card that you cant lose, so then when you want to leave you give the guy your card and pay £10 (which is basically your entrance and drink fee) and then he gives you a receipt...if you lose this receipt on the way to the door...you have to pay £50!! Im not sure how that even works but we held on to our tickets so tightly that night! The club was called Central Park and it was this outdoor, enclosed bar with two dance floors, waterfall thingy and two bars. The guys at this place were not only ugly as heck, but disgusting! So forward and after about 10 minutes of it I just started pushing them once they got anywhere near me haha. We werent in the mood to deal with annoying Italian men so we just told everyone we only like girls so that kept them away for a little while. Later in the night we found some trannies and Jen danced with them...pretty hilarious. We took a taxi home and passed out around 3am...overall it was a really fun Saturday!

Today we had to check out by 10am..so we stored our stuff in the luggage room and went to find breakfast...which means pastries. We got some gelato afterwards and I think we all went to heaven...the best gelato in Florence! I love oatmeal cookies and this gelato tasted like Oatmeal Cookie Crunch from Ben and Jerrys! We then took the train to Pisa, walked all the way to the other side of town to see the leaning tower, took some really funny pictures for 15 minutes, and then had to taxi back to the train station to catch our train to Florence! Luckily our train to Florence was 4 hours long so we got to sleep a little! Overall it was a great weekend away and I cant believe I only have 5 days left in Italia!