"12 Days of Christmas," would be how I would describe my 10 days of fall break. Only I would call it "10 Days of Public Transportation." The plan was to go to Florence for a day, go to Pisa for an hour to take a few cheesy but necessary tourist pictures with the Leaning Tower, and then head to Barcelona for 3 days and then Valencia for 3, home on Friday so we would have the weekend to re-cooperate and attend the world famous Euro Chocolate Festival which is held in Perugia and is our claim to fame. The best plans, however....
We discover early in the week that on Friday, the day we were planning to leave for Florence, the entire country of Italy plans to go on strike. Why? I don't know. I don't think they know. Because they also went on strike last week. No doubt they just strike so they can close up shop for a few hours and have a gelato. Anyway, we leave Thursday night instead and spend one more night in the hostel. We take a train to Florence and of course travel in style: our wet laundry hanging from empty seats in our train car. Yes, the washer broke again and so our clothes sat in water for too many hours. Maybe it went on strike?
Spent a few nice days in Florence, saw the Bapistry which was really interesting because I'm taking an Art History class and we had our midterm before we left for break, so all of the information was fresh in my mind. Funny how actually knowing about the statues and paintings makes them more interesting. I'm sure my roommates felt the same way when I led an impromptu tour of all the paintings. Right....
Saturday we went to Pisa in the afternoon, carrying our suitcases and handbags to walk to the tower. We snapped the pictures, which made me much happier than it should have, but I always wanted one of those. Our flight to Barcelona was on RyanAir, a very inexpensive airline that flies students like us. After inquiring we found out that the airport was very close to the tower and that it was possible to walk. While it may have been possible to walk, it was not probable.
We headed down the path the man (or, as I now suspect, the devil disguised as a man) pointed to, only to keep going and going and going. Turns out the walk to the airport is just over 5 miles!!!! Those of you who know me must know just how overjoyed I was at carrying my luggage (and you also know that I had a lot of it) 5 dusty, dirty and oh yes sweaty (thanks for the over active sweat gland, dad!) miles to the airport.
When we finally did make it the airport, much more pungent than we were before, we discover why RyanAir is so inexpensive: they charge you for boarding, for processing fees, for checking a bag, and if they could maybe even breathing. After being practically mugged by a RyanAir flight attendant for anything that resembled something shiny and money like, we board the plane hoping to sleep off the 5 mile walk and hectic day. Not so lucky, as RyanAir apparently thinks techno music is appropriate for a midnight flight. "Untz Untz Untz," which is my poor rendition of a techno music beat, must have caused not only a partying mood in me but also a hallucinatory mood, because for some reason, at the end of the flight, I flagged down a flight attendant and asked "Are we in France now?" Or so my roommates tell me, as I have no recollection. I suspect I had a techno induced seizure....
ps: check out the reflection in my sunglasses!
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