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Today's Tunes:
Passion Pit - Moths Wings
Madreblu - Certamente
Dominic Chianese - Core n'grato
After an OK nights sleep in which the bed was comfy & the pillows weren't so much, I woke up before my 8:45 a.m. alarm by about an hour so I laid there & listened to the new Angels & Airwaves album; Love pt 2, until it did go off.
Check out was at 10 so a quick shower was needed only that proved quite tricky as neither me or Catherine, even with instructions, could get it hot enough. In the end it took about 10 minutes for us to get it going but it was definitely worth it, the nicest shower I'd had in ages and 10 times better than the piss weak shower we have at home that feels like it just dribbles on you.
We checked out & went to get something to eat but there wasn't much on offer besides a £14 each buffet so we decided to wait til we got to the airport!
Our shuttle bus turned up early at the hotel by about 5 minutes & 15 minutes later we were at the airport & checked in. We got to security & Catherine was nervous about asking if the X-ray machines would harm the baby, mostly because the lady instructing people on what to do with their belongings seemed quite rude. Luckily another lady took her place, I asked if it was ok, it was and we got through security fairly quickly aswell.
To kill some time we went & grabbed a bite to eat at The Flying Horse, a Weatherspoon's pub in the terminal. We weren't sat down long & Catherine started to cry & she didn't know why. Obviously her hormones are all over the place but I was still worried about her & hoped that her having something to eat may make her feel better, which I think it did, even if it was just a little bit. After that we went into WH Smith to buy a travel guide for Florence & Tuscany & a few things for the plane/hotel and waited for our gate to open!
Our gate opened around 13:45 and we headed there straightaway. There was an Italian man at the gate lounge who was involved in a stand-off with a Coca-Cola machine. A stand-off that ended with him punching it, sitting down & trying again successfully a few moments later. We boarded the plane quite quickly & felt sorry for a guy who had clearly lost something & walked back to lounge to find it. Getting a seat on an easyjet flight can sometimes be a bit stressful but not on this plane, there seemed to be quite a lot of room left and as me & Catherine were enjoying the space that an extra seat was giving us we weren't going to let anyone take that seat easily. To combat this potential problem, I started to act, for want of a better word, a bit simple. It bloody worked though & gave Catherine a good laugh so it was worth it. During this time, the guy who lost something got it handed back to him by a stewardess, I was pleased for him.
The flight was nice & smooth & I killed time by reading Jon Richardson's "It's not me, it's you" book. It's a good book & a funny read but you can't help but feel sorry for the poor guy in his quest to find love. I got to around the 90th page before I realised we were about to land, it was a nice, quick flight and the smoothest landing I've ever experienced.
We got through passport control and baggage claim quickly and straight into a taxi outside. At the front of the airport was a lovely looking Italian restaurant or what they'd probably call here; restaurant. I couldn't imagine Gatwick or Heathrow doing something similar. During the taxi ride we tried to make sure we made out that we'd been to Pisa & the hotel we were staying in, Hotel Bologna, before to avoid the possibility of getting ripped off by the taxi driver. €7 later & we arrived at the hotel. Upon entering the hotel I was immediately impressed. It was beautifully laid out with a nice peachy decor & free baked snacks & water in the foyer. The receptionist was incredibly helpful and handed us a map on which he circled the best things to see & do and the best places to eat & drink. He then gave us our room key & directed us towards the lift that had a toolbox next to it, good job we were only on the 2nd floor.
Room 216 was a very nice surprise. A big room with a high ceiling, a bath with little jets in the sides of it, a nice big window & many other handy bits & pieces especially in the bathroom. The minibar was pretty cheap too compared with others we've known.
We went for a walk to find somewhere to eat and got a brief look at Pisa at night. It looks nice, especially along the river and we settled for a tiny Pizzeria. Not the best slice (3) of pizza ever but it was cheap & did the job. After a little more of a stroll we got back to the hotel and wanted to plan our day in Pisa for tomorrow. I wanted to play some music while we did it so I tried to open the plastic casing that surrounded the new speakers I bought from Dixons in Gatwick airport. This proved difficult so I popped down to reception to see if they had some scissors. The receptionist pulled out the biggest pair of scissors I've ever seen, seriously huge! He cut the top part off & handed it back to me but that still left me & Catherine a lot of work to do. We managed it eventually & listened to some Ricky Gervais audiobooks while we planned our first full holiday day before going to sleep.
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