catching up

Ok ok

we are at lucca at 6 am, dead tired, and we call our hotel dude, he comes and tells us till 9 he cant get us a room, so we have 3 hours to kill in this city and we are walking around like zombies, dead tired, and all sleepy, so we go up to the city walls and there are some benches there, and like the bums we are, we lie down and knockout. However dani and me cant sleep (well we did for 30 mins) mainly becuase the bench is stone and its FREEEZING cold, as the sun has yet to warm it, so we go and do the only thing we know how to do, we go wake up luna who is sleeping peacfully and slowly walk aroudn the city. Dani complains about starvation and buys herslef a nice looking sandwich (yet it was deceptive as it had egg) and got me a slice of pizza, she then proceeds to take a big bite of my pizza and offers me her sandwich knowing i wont take any cause of the egg factor. I told u all that dani is evil, pure evil, but she is adorable so i forgive her.

We then make our way across town, to a nice lil area where we see internet acces, however its closed, but we do use their bathrooms to 'freshen up' as they say. having killed some time we search for a bank with a nice exchange rate, and we find one, and luna exchanges some good old greenbacks (WHICH ARE WORTH NOTHING SO WE HATE THEM) for some euros, then dani decides that we should sit outside our hostel with puppy faces and hope the guy gets us a room sooner, and it works, or so we think, instead the guy goes all out, he gets us a bigger room with A KITCHEN (not having to eat sandwiches for one night is a feeling i cant convey well enough), instantly we KNOCK OUT, and wake up at around 3 PM, we decide to go around Lucca but we get to a market, buy pasta, and tomato pesto, and some tomatoes and garlic, when it starts raining, so we go back, make our dinner which was AMAZING!!!!! and go right back to bed, as its pouring and we are the walking dead.

we wake up at 7 am and take our rounds of showers and by 8 we are out and go around to see Lucca, which to me is the most beautiful city we have seen yet, its picturesque and there is no cars in the city, as it has old walls encircling it, and danis favorite, lil old grandmas on bicycles. We climb up this tower thats about a million steps, and we come to the top and there is trees there and the most amazing views of the city and the coutry side, breathtaking, when i get to croatia i will upload pics on some server or something so u people can see how amazing this all is.

at midday we take the train to florence, and now im feeling sick, i knew before the trip dani was sick and she would get me sick, and like any self fulfiling prophecy this one was no exception, i am sneezing, and have a bad throat and feel like shit.

when we arrive in florence we went to find a phone so dani can use her phone card to call her mom, which is something i should also do, and then we walk around to a supermarket, we buy a ton of fruit and bread, cheese and toscan salami, and for luna we buy a big nutella which she has already half finished and managed to dip all 10 of her greasy fingers into, im just waiting for her to put those nasty ass toes in there and eat it with them.

we come back to our hostel, btw the owners speak serbo-croatian, and i think they are serbian so i have fun talking to them as they tell me the best places to see and all that, and draw it all on a map for me. eat a lil lunch, and by 3 pm we are walking around the city getting a feel for it, and im feeling even worse now, and i buy some medicine at the pharmacy, and after walking around for 2-3 hours we go back as im feeling like shit and dani is tired.

it then starts POURING rain, i mean lighthing and everything, we take showers and draw up a plan of action for seeing musems and all that tommorow......when it stops around 9 pm (raining that is) dani says i will feel better if i have some wonton soup, so she takes me to this chinese place, luna doesnt wanna go so we go solo and dnai buys me chinese which helped (the soup) but wasnt to tasty (the soup)

as we come abck it starts thundering again, and we make frends with the people in our room who tells us what to see and how to go about reserving it so we dont stand in lines for hours.

during the night it rains so hard and wind is so harsh that it blows open a window that was being held closed by a closet and KNOCKS OVER THE CLOSET!!!! crazy....

i dont get any sleep in the night as im constantly freezing while everyone else says it was hot as hell.

we woke up at 6 am today and were out by 7 30 to go and stand in line at the uffice musem, where the line is about 3-4 hours, but having learned from our roommates that its better to stand in a diff line and reserve tickets for tommorow we do that and thus have an date with that museum tommorow. it is the biggest museum in europe.

then we go across town and go see the 'galleria dell academica' where michelangelo's famous david is, and wow, its amazing, its bloody huge about 15 feet, and it was carved from one piece of marble, the work on it is magnificent....the whole museum is really intresting and full of paintings (mostly of christ, mary magdelen, and other christian characters)

we walk around town some more, and by 12 we are back in hostel for a siesta, which lasts too long and we wake up at 2 and head out to the 'gardens of boboli' which are in the back of this gigantic palace, and the gardens are huge, u can walk around for 3 hours and not see it all, it was amazing, and its not flowers but tons of statues and shurbbery and trees, and amazing views of the city as u climb up on a slope and down....it was really terrific...

we then made our way across the town for a while and looked around shops and the city, and then came back to hotel about 6ish, so we can do laudry and go eat. :)

florence is preety but nothing like people said it was, there is too many cars everywhere and the city is a bit rundown if u move a lil out of the centre.

so far milan was great, esp the centre (way better then anything else) and lucca was like a fairlytale...

tomm is last day in florence and then we spend about 8 hrs in siena, and head to rome.

arriva a firenza

well heres what u guys missed

we took the train to rapallo....and it was full we barely got a place to sit down, but that was nothing compared to later on, people packed on as all the italians were heading to the coast for some sun, rapallo is on the coast.

we got there and suprise suprise there is nowehere to leave our baggage, which sucks....so we walk around for a hour looking for a place to leave it (a nice hotel that will do it for us), finally this dude takes us to the tourist office and we talk to the lady there and she is nice enough to call a bunch of hotels and then she find this one and gives us directions to it. the lady there is nice and takes our luggage and charges us nothing for having it in a room there all day....we walk down the promenade and all....then dani talks about her lil village and we get on the train to another city and then from there take a bus, we had to wait 4 hrs for the bus but we walked around the city and it was refreshingly nice, where mediteranean with high arches and nice buildings. the bus ride takes us to the country side and its a nice site, i slept most the ride ;) we get off as luna screams across the bus 'BACIGALUPO' we had found danis old house....they have some sort of pottery or metal buisness...we take pictures and bug dani to go there and introduce herself as a cousin, she wants none of it, so we walk up the street (its one street) and see a fruit grocer also called bacigalupo....we laugh at danis fmailys vast empire of buisness :)
then we wait for the bus to come and take us back as the place is BUFU with nothing there, one road going thorugh and the town streching along the road.

we eat our sandwiches in rapallo, btw thats all we eat we are budgeting to about 5€ a day and we eat sandwiches and fruits.

so then we sit on promenade and wait for time to go by as night sets and we have time to waste before our midnight train to lucca, which really gets to Pisa, with the leaning tower (yes eddie its pisa not pizza), at 2 am and have 3 hours to kill before going to lucca, we come outside and its clear the tower is a ways away, luna claims she sees it from the station, and wants to walk luggage and all to it. i suggest a taxi, which takes about 5 minutes to get there and it wasnt anywhere near where luna claimed it was, opposite direction and all, we get there and its a nice sight, with a church of sorts by it, but he drove us to the side at which its leaning to so in the pics u cant tell as well.

then its a long long three hour wait at the station but we make it go by....we are dead tired and come to lucca at the crack of dawn, we are freezing and sleepless and miserable....

the rest is coming alter as the lil two pests wont give me time to finish

Mama mia...its italia

Ok ok here it all goes


so i am about to go on a nite with the padre...and im on my way to grand parents house to pick up cash and stuff to exchange before i go at 3 30 am to airport to milano.....and on the way up to thier house...in the elevator grandpa calls...change of plans...leaving in a two hours.....


all hell broke lose but i made it there no problem...forgot other shoes so we had to go back and re do that....and i got em


i arrive in milano bergamo before luna....and i wate for her lazy ass for 30 mins...

luna comes and i suprise her from the back....we chat...i get a brilliant idea to go right to milano (its 11 40 at night)...so we come to milan at around (45 mins past midnight)....and we look for a hotel....we walk for what felt an eternity between about 6 hotels where we ask prices and shit aint cheap...so we get one for €60.....we wake up in morning...and are pissed at the fee...whcih was 30€ each....we decide we cant afford to do that again...so at 11 am that day we head to the stazione centrale and sit there for a hour in the park...then we decide that hell lets go to milan malpensa..this huge airport and stay there the day and night since its free and we have no cash....and we had bags aplenty so it looked like we were travellers....

the day went by quick...luna used her anemia to sleep most of it off....i read this book she took from joanna....at nite i got 2 hrs sleep .... nd at 7 am we are back in milan get a hotel for 50€ and go to bed immediately....i wake us at 1 pm we take showers and go get some food (mayo and water)....back to hotel to eat and chill.....by 4 pm we go out again...and we walk a lil...go net cafe and all that...then we decide to venutre furhter but we dont wanna see too much so not to leave dani feeling left out when she comes...we take a tram but never see where to get off and we end up ini bufu....luna said to get off at every stop but i waited about 5 too many....luckily il mio bene italiano saved the day....mama mia...

we come home at 8 and go to bed....we dont sleep but talk shit and watch mtv and a concert by that band that sings about the girl with the broken smile....by 11ish luna is KO and im falling asleep...

we get up at 6 30 am and go to malpensa to pick up lil curly who is flying in at 9 am and from our previous day at the airport we saw that flights landed about 30 mins early...we get there at around 8 15 ish and danis plane is set to land at 8 37....by 9 07 am the lil curly is with us...only she aint curly...straight hair....

we tlak on the bus back....get into a lil tiff....go to hotel...where the manager tells us to be abck at 2pm to get room which aint ready....we where there at 11 am and so we drop stuff in a lil storage room and go explore...

we take a tram to il doumo, a gothic style cathedral that is amazingly huge and lavish...the pics are stunning....u guys will see when i come back...im taking about a memory card a day of pics and putting them onto this portable storage drive my dad gave me that holds 20 GB...we walk down the galleria...see the huge stores and expensive cafes....the statue of leonardo...

sadly we could not see the last supper as u need to call ahead days in advance and book it....

we walk back to hotel and get into room...we shower and all that good stuff...and take off again this time to la scala di calcio....IL SAN SIRO!......amazing stadium...we took a long tram to get there...and then walked about 1.5-2 miles to the stadium...but we got there like 5 mins after it closed...meaning no musem tour...we walk back...and we cheat the underground tram by using our old ticket...hahhaha evil...but hey saved a euro :)

then we go back to hotel room slowly...since there is a gay pride parade that made us walk all the way to doumo to actually get a tram....about 2 miles....meanwhile its 7pm and we have walked about 8 miles and eaten nothing....so we go to the stazione centrale...i know a fruit stand there and me and dani get food while luna goes write emails to 'smussshy' who will remain anonymous...

we woke at 6 am and toook a train to rapallo so we could see danis peruvian italian origins....more on today tommorow as my net cafe bill is running high...

tonite we take a train to lucca :)

ciao tutti! mio italiano e molto bene....imoproving every day where as dani and luna are scared to talk at all

:)