Day 21 - Florence
I forgot to take blog pics on my iPod today, so today's cover picture is just a tired looking me about to Skype Emma Jane.
This hostel is just something else. We have our own room (thank god) but the showers are mixed. Whilst showering last night I heard a man come in and do an evil comic book-style laugh. I've never washed so quick in my life. They also have themed nights... Every night. Last nights theme was 'Sun and Sex' which we can only assume was some kind of dating night. We didn't attend. We heard Barry Manilow's 'Copacabana' numerous times tho. Tonights theme is 'Toga Party' but when we walked through the garden before, we saw no togas. There's a strange kind of feel to this place. There are lots of people on their own, but also a few families with young children. No idea who the 'Sun and Sex' nights are aimed at there then.
Today began gloriously. Something happened for the first time in 6 years. My hair fitted into a ponytail. I am so happy, this is a big occasion for me. I skipped down to breakfast with my new ponytail swinging happily behind me and proceeded to sneak some fruit and breakfast cake into my bag for my dinner. This is another traveller thing we have picked up. Paying for a hostel breakfast and sneaking bits into our bags to have for our lunch. Once we got into the centre of Prague tho, karma smacked me in the face and my bag broke. Luckily enough we came across a giant street market that stretched for 6 streets and I bought a new bag :D I also bought some bracelets and some little presents.
We carried on down to the Duomo but decided not to go in as according to the sign we were not appropriately dressed cos we had our legs out. After passing some beautiful looking gelateria's we decided to have a rest by the Offizi and we got ice cream. Real, proper, Italian gelato. It was at that moment I decided I could live here. The lady at the counter was so lovey and kept giving me tasters of all the mountains of ice creams to help me decide. I settled on mint choc chip and was not disappointed.
Onwards we trekked and we came upon the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge over the river that's lined with jewellery shops. I could have spent the whole day there. Mum and Dad, I'm going back on Friday so if you want to chuck a couple of hundred euro in my account, I've got my eye on a beautiful opal ring. We were now beginning to wilt so we went back and sat on the steps of the Offizi again. Here we saw the most hysterical street performer in the world. He was a 'street clown' and was sneaking up behind people an mimicking their walks or holding their hands. He lifted a mans shirt up and left the imprint of his painted face on his belly. This was highly amusing. We sat and watched him for about 20mins then got a picture with him. He gave us his card to find him on Facebook, so we are going to search.
Back to the market and as we turned down a little street an Italian man leant over his scooter and whispered 'ciao' in my ear and blew a kiss. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It took all my strength not to turn around and shove his kiss back down his throat. I do not like creepiness. The men on the market stalls have creepiness down to a tee. All we could hear was 'ciao bella' or 'pretty lady I like your scarf'' whilst they tried to lure tourists to their stalls. One man grabbed my hand whilst I was looking at rings and started trying to shove a ring on my sausage fingers that was about 10 sizes too small. He did not understand that I didn't want it and thought I was just trying to get the price down. By the time I managed to get away from him the price had gone from €13 down to €5 and he was waving it at me as I was running away.
We then found a little restaurant called 'La Pinnochio' (cos this is where he lived when he was a real boy - according to some stupid American lady) and here we had pizza and wine. Damn good pizza and wine. The waitress was so lovely too, she was helping us decipher the menu and telling us to buy a bottle instead of glasses to save out euros. She also gave us free lemon sorbet. We liked her.
Back to the hostel and through the garden where the worst toga party in the world is taking place. Tomorrow we go to Rome for the day and I am so excited. We are doing a day round the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, etc tomorrow and on Wednesday we are going back to do the Vatican City. So far, Italy has been everything I wanted it to be. It looks beautiful, the food is beautiful, the sun is gorgeous, and the Italian men are rather easy on the eye. Oh, and we discovered Twinning's English Breakfast tea in the supermarket before. Perfect end to a perfect day.
Ps, mother, I didn't waste my money on silly things today. I needed a new bag cos my other one broke and I just also needed a fan cos i was hot and some bracelets cos my arm felt bare and some pants cos my legs have to be covered up to go to St Peters in the Vatican. They are essentials. Promise.
PPs, MISS YOU LOTS EMMJAY