Viva Italia!

I am now typing to you from our hostel in Florence, Italy! Day 1 of Italy - Eastern Europe trip complete!

We spent last night in the Days Hotel near Stansted airport because our plane left at 630 am today. WE includes myself, Lisa and Kristin (two girls I knew from McMaster) and their two friends, Kim and Sally. I took an airport shuttle bus from London to Stansted and even though it should have only taken me an hour to get there, it took TWO due to an accident on the M25. Bloody hell. Anyways, I met Kim and Sally and we hung out in the hotel room until LIsa and Kristin came a few hours later. In order to save afew bucks, we said there were 4 ppl insted of 5 in our room, so three of us ended up having to sleep sideways in a double bed! Needlesstosay, it was not a good nights sleep.

We woke up at4am and I had my first Ryan Air experince. Ryan AIr is a budget airline with very shitty customer service, but cheap prices. Our flight was about two hours and i dozed the whole time. We arrived in Pisa and had our first bus adventure. We tried to take public transit to the leaning tower, but ended up super far away and had to walk (lugging our backpacks) for like 20 minutes til we found our way to the tower. Tonnnnnnns of pictures were taken (trying to hold it up, leaning against it, trick photography, etc) and then we stopped for lunch at a pizzaria in view of the tower. I had an olive pizza that was delicious, except for the fact that there were very few olives. pizza in Pisa is very thin and very yummy.

We made our way to the train station and caught a train to Florence (Florinza). Our hostel, Plus Florence Hostel, was reccomended by Ve and seems more like a HOTEL!!! We are in an 8 bed mixed dorm that had three sleeping boys in it when we arrived at 3 pm. Havent talked or met them yet... Gorgeous beds, great lockers, and guess what.... A POOL AND SAUNA! Not to mention a rooftop terrace! Unfortuently, its a bit rainy so that terrace wasnt very busy.

After we settled in and explored the hotel, we decided to find some gelato. MMMMM. I had dark chocolate and mixed fruits. Super yummy. We saw the Duomo, but will look at it more tomorrow. We then went through a market. Italy, maybe Florence especially, is known for its leather so I bought two little braclets and..... A LEATHER JACKET! Real leather! I saw one I loved, but it was 180 euros and i couldnt afford it. After talking to the merchant, he found me one that was in my budget and I bought it for 60 euros!! I get so excited when I remember that I bought it. Lisa also purchased a stylish purple leather jacket. The merchant was awesome and kissed us on our cheeks when we left.

After shopping, we went to dinner (off the beaten path... I told them we had to walk for 5 minutes away from the market and do two zig zags before we settled on a restaurant so we weould get something more authentic). I had yummy but filling 4 cheese Gnocchi and white wine. We then came back to the hostel and chilled a bit before heading to the FREEZING cold pool (indoors). Luckily, they had a sauana too. I met some Americans and a Spaniard when the other girls left to go back to the room. The ppl I met arent gonna be FB friends, but we did havea great convo!

Now my minutes are almost up and its super expensive to use the internet at this hostel. Spending the rest of the day tomorrow in Florence and Ill post as soon as I can! Ciao!