We got a later start than we wanted to this morning. Last night before we went
to bed we had put our clothes in the dryer. And our darks came out fine, but
the whites had blue detergent spots all over them! Ugh... so they will have to
be rewashed today. Luckily they said that they would not charge us to rewash
them.

We also ate breakfast at the hostel, which was fantastic! They had coffee, like
REAL coffee pot coffee. Fruit! And granola cereal. Couldn't have asked for
anything better. And then we headed to the Accedemia to see Michaelangelo's real
david statue. The museum opened at 8:15am so we wanted to be in line by 8;00am.
But that definitely didn't happen. We got to the museum around 8:30am and
because we had not made reservations waited in line till about 9:30am.

When we got up there we saw that it was 10 euros to enter. And because I had
already seen the David, and that is honestly all the museum has on display I
told Meredith I would just meet her at the exit. Which worked out okay. She
was only in the museum for a half hour or so.

Our next plan for the day was going to the train station to see if we could make
a reservation for the sleeper train from Venice to Budapest. We took the long
way to the train station, and went in a lot of different stores. Meredith found
some new cute shoes and sunglasses :)

We made it to the train station and MADE OUR RESERVATIOnS :) So Budapest for
the weekend it is, which I am really excited about because everyone says that
you can do Venice in 24 hours easily. On our way home from the train station
Meredith had to buy a second bag :) Haha, she not only packed a lot, but has a
lot of people to buy souvenirs for as well!

It was about lunch time, and we loved the eatery that we went to yesterday so we
decided to eat there again. This time I got a ricotta & spinach stuffed pita
bread type sandwich. It was absolutely delicious. Meredith and I have realized
that Florence is pretty cheap! But instead of saving money that just makes us
want to buy more things and eat our versus making our own lunch.

After lunch we decided to head up to the Michaelangelo Piazza. This is the best
view of Florence hands down. We knew how to get there thanks to our bike tour
yesterday, plus Florence isn't that huge. And besides the bike tour, we have
only walked!

We made it to the Piazza in good time. It probably only took us 20 minutes
walking. There were two asian couples getting wedding pictures taken together,
and yes together... they did a joint wedding. I think that is so strange. I
also bought a new scarf on top of the Piazza because I was getting so sun burnt.
In case my blogs haven't included the weather enough... IT IS HOT HERE. And I
am not talking shorts and t-shirt hot. I am talking about sweating 24-7, 900
percent humidity and a culture that doesn't have ice. This type of heat also
guarantees that my hair will fro-out. So be excited for the pictures :)

We didn't stay up on the Piazza very long. We took some pictures and what not
and just admired the view. Then we made our journey back to the hostel. We
definitely had time before the meet & greet so I actually took a nap. The sun
just takes so much energy out of you!

I think I was first in line for pasta and wine :) And we met a lot of really
awesome people tonight. There were three girls from Australia all traveling
together, two guys from Colorado, a girl from Canada, two French-Canadians and
two people from California, oh and another guy from England. We all just hung up
on the balcony and enjoyed free wine :) Romina, one of the workers of the
hostel, came outside and sat with us for a while. She invited us to go to the
Jazz Club to watch her sing! She didn't get off work until after 9pm. So
Meredith, the girls from Australia and I all went to a nearby cocktail bar.
This was the first time that Meredith and I had gone out this trip and it was a
lot of fun. The girls were traveling together at the moment, but each were all
staying for different time periods. One of the girls was doing 6 months! And
had gotten a working Cisa for London. She was planning on using that as a base
and getting a little job to just save up money and travel. All of the
Australians that we have met have been traveling for long periods of time. They
say because it is such a long flight and soe expensive that it is common to
travel 3-5 months at a time!

And Meredith and I thought our trip was a big deal :)

After the cocktail bar we made out way to the Jazz Club where everyone else from
our hostel met us there. Romina sang a few good numbers and then Meredith and I
called it a night.

We have a big day tomorrow! We are headed to Pisa, to see the leaning tower :)
-brooke.