Ask and you shall receive

Not a whole lot has been happening in the last week, that's why I haven't updated my blog. 

Mostly just been working, and then relaxing and wondering around the town. Been doing things on my own the last little while, seeing the town taking some great photos. Although there isn't a whole lot to take photos of in the town were living. Mostly just the harbour is the only site to see in the city, along with the big castle which is right on the harbour. We've walked a round it a few times now but have not gone in. 

Everyone in cyprus is so incredibly nice and friendly, and the guys have the confidence to actually talk to you! The staff at the hotel are very nice, although when I come into the staff entrance with my normal clothes on I always get stopped, they think I'm just a random person trying to creep on the hotel, but I come in my farm clothes and they say nothing. I guess they don't expect Raychels volunteers to dress ok when their not working hahaha. As soon as you explain to them they have no problem and usually ask you how you are and let you continue on your way. Yesterday every person I passed going into the hotel said hi to me, I mean it was in Turkish but I still new what they ment. (Merhaba) is the word for hello, that is all I know in Turkish because thank you is probably the most complicated word to say, how are you and I'm fine isn't to bad but thank you is a whole another story. 

One thing I've noticed since being here is the ratio to male and female, there are so many more men then women here it's incredible, it's so starkly noticeable, I'm not sure in why there is such a difference in the ratio but its very prominent. I think that has a lot to do with why most guys are not afraid to talk to you. 

Another thing that is kind of different is the fact that we walk through construction zones all the time, like its not big deal, everyone does it and the workers don't even care. If you tired to do that in Canada you would be arrested or at the very least screamed at and escorted out. The workers don't even wear construction gear, no protective anything. Most of them are actually just in normal clothes. It's so bad that scooters actually drive through the construction zones! They just drive up on the sidewalk if they can't get by a truck or machine. The other day I actually seen a car drive through the construction zone, and then drive up onto the sidewalk to get around. I'm telling ya the amount of people who drive on the sidewalks over here is rediclous! 

The other night we went out as a group for dinner, it was a little later at night around 8 and when we got there the waiter gave us blankets to use, because we were sitting outside! It was prob the coolest thing I've ever seen at a resturant. I only had a light sweater on so I worked out to my favour. It kept me nice and warm. We decided to keep with out tradition and if there's not chocolate on the menu we usually order it, we like to try it in each place we go. It was not the best here in Cyprus. It was more like hot milk with a little tiny bit of coca powder in it. It wasn't the best thing but it also wasn't to bad. 

The other day at the market we asked RayChel if we could get some more milk and cereal meaning like one of each...apperently she felt we asked a few times so we needed 5 boxes of cereal and 12 boxes of milk hahaha I have no sweet clue how were going to eat it all before we leave next Sunday. Should be a challenge! 

We worked at the market the other day, and we belly danced! It was so much fun! At first I was a little hesitant but it turned our to be a blast. We were all a little worried that people at the market might have a problem with so mucus kin showing seeing as the turkey side is mostly Muslim. But we didn't have any problems, no o e said anything and everyone seemed to really enjoy watching it. We got our pictures taken many times and we even got filmed by a camera crew for a news channel. They interview RayChel and filmed up dancing. The people who worked at the market really enjoyed having music on and being able to listen to it even if they couldn't see us. But word got around the market fast and soon everyone was coming to watch. I hope we get to do it next week! 

Hot water!

Sorry I've been slacking on my blog everyone...so much to do so little time!

The reason I haven't been updating as much is because either I've been to tired or have been to busy. Also we don't have wifi at our apartment and I have to walk down to the hotel to use it...that's alot work when your tired lol

Were on week two for the farm, I have no idea how time keeps going by so fast! We only have two more weeks until we're done on the farm and then were off to Portugal to surf! Cannot wait for that! I don't particularly love working on the farm but the people I work and love with are awesome so that make up for it. Mostly all we do at the farm is water, plant and weed. I don't mind watering but weeding is so hard on the back. Although the farm is pretty big so it takes a full five hours to water everything which is usually the length of a workday so time goes by petty fast. The other day we decided to name the chickens that live on the farm, names are rodger, Lucile, Phyllis, Gladis, snookie, Howard, and fancy feet. And yes we actually can tell them all apart. Most of the chicken look pretty different so it's not hard. This is what happens when were killing time while we wait for lunch we name the chickens! 

We had our first two days of this weekend, we finally got to check out the town were living in. Usually everyday were don't at the farm we go eat, use the Internet in the hotel, and then go to bed. We've been to tired to explore,but Saturday we went out and walked around and seen the harbour, which is pretty and then that night as a group we went out for dinner, to try some authentic Turkish food...which is so good! Sunday we went on a group excursion to a huge castle way up in the mountains. Working on the farm we can see part of the castle and it looks really neat but you can only get to it by car because the mountian is a huge military base so they allow cars t drive through but you cannot hike up. So Raychel our boss had her driver take us up to explore, it was amazing! We spent two hours up there and it is so much bigger then it looks from afar, even when you get to the top of the mountian you can't see it all because its built into the mountain. Alot of it was actually still there which was cool to see. After this the driver took us to a look off that looks over Nicosia which is all flat land, it's very strange to see because here we are standing on a mountain and everything in front of us it flat land. Sunday night we went out as a group to the onyx which is a resturant which is part of the hotel, Raychel took us we had dinner, dessert and wine and she paided for it all. It was absolutely amazing and to top the night off she has her driver take us back to the apartment! Man were getting spoiled on this trip, not only do our apartments we stay in have maids, but now we get free excursions, Free food, and a driver to take us around... Who wants to go back to real life...not me!

Cyprus...the Turkish side

Made it to cyprus! 

We arrived on the greek side but are staying in the Turkish side, we had some pick us up at the airport. We finally got a stamp! Let me tell you even though we've Ben traveling around Europe sine January we have only gotten one stamp and that was the one we got when we first landed. Since we've been staying within the EU we haven't been going through customs which means no stamps on our passports. I'm not gonna lie I've been seriously ticked off by not getting stamps! But since we were flying out of the EU we got a stamp! Since we flew into the Greek side we had to pass over the boarder into the Turkish side, which apperently requires a visa, however this was quite the interesting experience for us. Since we had someone pick us up he told us to give him our passports so he could get them checked, you would normally assume that them people checking the passports would need to see the holder of the passport...I guess not. We didn't even need to get out of the car, he got us our "visas" and everything, and when I say visa I'm really not sure what the point of it is, honestly it's a piece of paper with a stamp on it, saying its your visa. So it's all very official...

We arrive at the apartment not quite knowing what to expect since we were volunteering, we weren't sure if it would be nice or not. The apartment itself isn't to bad, there's three other people staying in it with us, two guys and one girl. Kristy and I have our own bedroom, and our own beds! Score! The two guys work on the farm with us, and the girl works at the hotel. It's a pretty sweet set up, we get free accommodation and food, to volunteer on the farm. A few downsides to the apartment, there's no hot water! Which means not warm showers :( the water isn't even like room temp it's freezing! This sucks because we're gonna be working out in the hot sun everyday on a farm which means were gonna need to shower often. Already had to have one shower worst experience of my life. Oh yeah and the shower doesn't drain...

We started our first day of work today, wasn't so bad not as hard as I was expecting which is good. We planted lots of things, dug holes to plant more things, water the plants, walked the dogs, mixed soil, and weeded. It was so nice out today too, which was good warm but not hot so we didn't sweat to death although it will probably be pretty warm if not hot most of the time. Yay! The people who run the farm are just doing it as a hobbie, he owns a few hotels in Cyprus which are very swanky, and she's a model. 

Since we're not in the EU anymore we've come across some cool things; they drive on the opposite side of the road, and car, they have their own currency. The driving really creeps me out, it's so weird! It's not so bad on the highway but turning and driving in the city is intense. It's also alot harder to cross the street because usually when doing so you look left then right...not here you have to look right then left. And it's confusing with the cars on the other side of the street. I know it doesn't sound hard but trust me it is. I'm so excited another perk of the volunteering is they take you on excursions every week! Which means were going to get to see lots of the island without having to pay transportation fees! Really we won't have to spend much money at all here because we can go to the hotel and have breakfast lunch and dinner, and we also get free groceries. We make a list and they go and buy everything for us, incase we want to cook our own food at the apartment or what not. 

Minus the shower I think this will be a fun three weeks, def a experience that's for sure! 

Venice fish

Made it to Venice! Got here yesterday around 3:00, and...we found the hostel no problem! Although if we wouldn't have had directions there is no way we would have found it. It's another weird one that has no sign outside so unless you know where it is you wouldn't find it. The hostel isn't to bad, however it doesn't ha e a kitchen which kind of sucks, seeing as Venice is kind of expensive. 

On our first day here we went on a gondola ride! It was one of the best moments so far. It was so sunny and beautiful we just had to take a ride, it was saposed to rain today but it ended up being super sunny and warm. We got a good discount in our gondola ride too! He gave us a deal...I guess we were looking good, bahahah. After the ride we wondered around the city because Venice is a city you need to get lost in. The streets make no sense and you have to cross so many bridges you never know which side of the main canal your on. So easy to get lost but honestl that's part of the fun and beauty of the city, you see the best things when your not looking for anything in particular. We decided last night tha we didn't want pizza or pasta because that's getting little old, that's all the restaurants serve in all of Italy. So last night we found a Chinese food resturant so we decided to give it a try. It was so good, the spring rolls were def top two for me. 

Today we went out donned in our rain gear and were all set for a riany crappy day but... It didn't rain! It got sunny and hot! Finally a break from all the rain. We went to San Marco square, went into the huge church that is complety covered in gold mosaics inside, wondered around the square and window shopped because no way we could afford the stuff in that place. We found a few neat looking cafes so we decided to stop and check them out and see the menu prices, hahaha yeah right who are they kidding charging 9€ for a cappuccino and 10€ for a hot chocolate that's absolutely rediclious! And the more rediclous thing is that they cafes were packed with people. Although I guess if you can afford to stay in Venice you can afford the stuff in the city. It's impossible,to find cheap accomidations even then hostels are expensive compared to every other city in Italy, and the stupid tourist tax is way more then everywhere else. Yup that's right they have a tourist tax, usually it's 1pr 2€ a night but here IRS 3€ a night! On top of your accomidations price I might add, cuz it's not included. We basically did the same thing today as yesterday just wondered around and seen the city, spend most of our time sitting in the sun enjoying the views. It's such a neat city, having to walk over bridges all the time and there's no cars it's all walking streets. Which means everyone has a boat, so the boat traffic is rediclous! They even have police boats, I don't mean coastguard I mean literally a boat that looks like a police car, with lights and sirens and everything. And if you want a bus, there water buses! We also went into a bunch of churches today. 

Castle and a two hour ferry ride

Our last in in como we went to visit our friend Emma, who lives in lecco which is a town on lake como. It was so great seeing her again, we had coffee and chated with the lake in our view, it was beautiful! It turned out to be sunny which is good, finally were able to see all the mountains around the lake, such a stunning place.

After we visited Emma for a bit we hoped back on the train and hiked a mountian...in flats...to see a castle. It seems is always have the most impractical foot wear when I go on adventures. We knew there was a castle in the area and I figured we could walk up the road to get to it, but as it turns out the path is a mule trail, so it was a bit tricky to do in flats. But I made it, the view was incredible however when I got to the top my freaking camera died! I had my iPod with me but that was almost dead too! I managed to get a few pics but my iPod isn't great quality for photos. The castle was really cool, it even had a falconry in it, that they still use today. We got to see all the birds they keep there,which was neat, apperently they do shows with them, but there wasn't one going in when we were there, it would have been cool to see.

Once done the castle, we hoped on the ferry and took it around to all the towns that are on the middle part of the lake. The ferry ride itself was around two hours, we were going to get of in belliggio but we didn't end up having time, because the last ferry was at 7:40. It was really nice to see more of the lake areas, it's such a beautiful place to visit. It was so quite and low key, no annoying peddlers bugging the crap out of you all the time.

Snow...in April?

Had a pretty fun night, hung out with some people from the hostel had some wine and played cards. 

Woke up this morning and there was snow on all the mountains around the lake...I guess it snowed over night. I believe it, it was so cold out last night, well cold for Italy. 

It actually didn't end up raining today, like it said it was going to. But it's still cloudy and a little foggy so we can't quite see much around the lake. Today we ventured out into the town, walked the water front, stopped at a cafe and had hot chocolate to same us up, because it is not warm out today, only around 6 degrees. 

After this we wondered some more then found a place to have lunch, once we were done eating this older couple leaned over to our table and asked us where we were from, we got chatting with them for a while about everything, traveling and what not. They asked us if we wanted to go grab a coffee since we were done eating. Kristy got up to pay when the older women jean did and came back because the waiter was going to get the check...or so we thought...we didn't get our check so we asked the waitress and she pointed to jean and Peter the couple and they piped up and said lunch is on us! They ended up paying for our lunch! How incredibly nice of them! We did not expect that at all. We headed out to get coffee after this and we offered to pay for the coffee to treat them since they bought out lunch, but they refused and paided for our coffee too! Then proceeded to tell us if we were ever in NYC that we could stay at their place! They were probably the most kind and interesting people we've met. We shared so many stories and and a great time getting to know them. We got her email just incase as she said we ever find ourselves in New York we could stay with them. They were he cutest couple I've ever seen, they were still so in love and you could tell. She would gaze at him and smile when ever he talked and vice versa. She was so cute she called her husband the judge because he used to be a judge, and as it turns out he studied history! I would say they were probably in their late 60's and jean went back to school after she retired so she could learn Italian because she loves Italy so much! How incredible is that! Kudos to her. They have been traveling their whole life, and go somewhere every year. They love lake como so much that they have been coming here for the last six years. I hope one day I have that kind of money to be able to travel all my life. They were such an inspiration, I want to pick his brain because he was a uni professor and history major. 

Such a great day, I can honestly say I will be sad to not see them again. 

Switzerland for the day nbd...

For those of you who don't know what nbd means it means no big deal

Yesterday we arrived in lake como which is a huge lake in Italy, a girl we met in a hostel in Florence is living here and told us it was beautiful so we figured we would check it out. We haven't had a chance to met up with her though, although im hoping we can. We're going to extend our stay here a bit because today we went to Switzerland, and didn't den up seeing any of lake como, expect through a bus ride to the border. Surprise, surprise it's raining today...it better stop raining soon because I'm getting awfully tired of it.

We went to a town called lagano in Switzerland, which is near the border of Italy, the drive there was beautiful and intense. The roads are through all these huge mountains and in some parts the street us only wide enough for one car to pass through. So while we were on the bus the bus driver just kept honking his horn before we would get to a part of the street that only fit one car. It was such a thight fit that I honestly have no idea how the mirrors on the bus weren't scraping on the mountian side. It was such a beautiful drive, mountains on one side and a huge lake on the other. When we got to the Switzerland I actually didn't realize that they had their own currency, that it wasn't part of the EU, which means they don't use euros. They use Swiss franks, another thing that perplexed me was I had absolutely no idea what language they spoke beucase it was so close to the Italian border. They seem to have spoken Italian for the most part. But some store names were in German, and the movies in the chocolate factory were in French. Switerzland actually has four national languages! Went didn't know what we should do once we got to lagano because we reall didn't know much about it, so we went to the tourism booth and asked what was good on a rainy day. He told us there was a chocolate factory, so we thought hey great! Perfect for a rainy day, all we had to do was find the train to take us to this other town...and hour and a half later...we found the stupid trian. We asked a ton of people how to get to the fanacuilar to get to the top of the mountian to catch the train, every single person pointed us in different directions. So I'm only assuming they didn't really know and felt compeld to help anyway. Finally we found someone who walked us pretty much to it which as very nice of them. The sad thing   Is, is that we walked by it accidently like three times! Of course leave it to us! We made it to the little town that the chocolate factory was in and found it no problem. I absolutely love Swiss chocolate, between the three of us I would say we bought around 3kilos! I think we're set for chocolate for a bit.

After the chocolate factory we went for some lunch at a little cafe and hooped on the bus back to lake como. We just stuck around the hostel for the night, hung out with some people, drank some wine and had a good time.

Milan

It was a short visit but it was fun!

I'm starting to get confused as to where we are, we've only been staying in places for a few days its hard to keep track!

This was def the biggest hostel we've stayed at so far, it had five floors, a club, a bar, a cafe, pool table, fooseball table, huge common area. It was pretty intense but I think they need to send less time making the common areas awesome and spend more time cleaning the dorms. The bathrooms were not very clean. I watched the cleaner this morning she walked in wiped the sink with a dirty rag and left. There's also a sign in the bathroom on the back of the door that instructs you on how to clean the toilet. It says if it's dirty pleas follow these instructions, wtf! I'm not cleaning some public toilet! Besides that the hostel wasn't to bad, it was very noisy, these people got up the first morning at like 7:00am and started screaming and siging, come on man be respectful. I mean I know it's a hostel and you can't be quite forever but that's really freaking early especially since I didn't get to bed until 6am. This morning it was just as bad, people got up and blasted music and started yelling across the halls to each other.

The first night we were in Milan we got invited out by these two guys, one of was from Chicago, and the other Melbourne. We also met some more Canadians who were from Quebec, they also came out with us. Originally it was going to be Kristy and I with these two guys going to some club they had heard about, but we went to get dressed and that changed we came back and were now going to a university party at a club. The guy who worked at the hostel invited us, what a sick job he had hanging out talking to people and drinking while you work. We ended up taking the tram, the Italian guy gave us directions on how to get here because he was driving. The two other Canadians went with him. We got there before they did and the bouncers were going to let Kristy and I in but not the guys we were with. We said they were with us so the let them in too, the other people showed up and they wouldn't let them in without paying cover. We didn't even pay to get in! Score one for us! It was def a good night out, the guy from Chicago is a photographer and it's so funny how much people love them selves, they would walk up to him and be like take our picture! Even guys were asking to get their picture taken. We also learned that apperently Italians don't dance like Canadians, we were quite the show. We got videotaped and photographed, we kept getting pestered by theses Italian guys who wouldn't take no for an answer,not even the figure deterred them.

There isn't much to see in Milan other then their huge ass church called the duomo, yes it has the same name as the church in Florence. It was quite the amazing church actually, very beautiful. I swear the amount of dead bodies we see in these church's we go to are rediclious! There's either whole bodies or bones of people on display. There's also a lot of people buried in the floors and you walk on their graves which I don't partially enjoy, I think it's a little disrespectful. Although some of the churches it's impossible to avoid stepping on the graves because the whole floor is covered with them. I actually ended up seeing the church twice because the night we went out I seen it all lite up which was very pretty. After the church we went to the big castle which was pretty neat, then after that we went to their big park, it had a few monuments, a big arch, a stadium, and a free aquarium. The aquarium actually turned out to be pretty decent especially for bing free. The tanks along we're very neat to see. They took alot of time creating the habitats which is cool to see. While we were in the park there was this big group of teenagers getting loaded, they had open liquor everywhere and were literally partying in the middle of  public park...only in Europe. Only in Europe do u see teenagers getting drunk at a park, or getting drunk on the subway. Gotta love the police force here.

Off to hogwarts!

Today we were going to cinque terre, which is outside of genoa but as it turns out its quite the train ride and most of the walking path is apperently blocked off. I'm kind of disappointed because its saposed to be very beautiful. But we ended up going to a town called Nervi, which is also outside genoa. It's a lot like cinque terre in the fact that its on the cost and the houses are built up on hills and mountains. It ended up raining today but that didn't stop us from going, it's been raining so much since we've gotten to Italy, I think we've had two days without rain so far. While we were walking on the boardwalk we noticed all these steps going down to the ocean everywhere, apperently people swim there, but if u ask me it doesn't seem very safe unless u knew how to swim well in an ocean and understood its tides. But things are different in Italy and in Europe in general when it comes to laws and safety.

Only in Europe can you;
Pull a u turn in front of a cop
Drink beer and liquor while your walking down the street
Swim in unsafe areas
Park on the sidewalks
Park on the  sidewalks in front of a stop sign
Park in a cross walk
Back up your car the length of the sidewalk
J walk in front of cops
Drive like lunatics...

Those are just the things I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are many other things that they do that would never fly with the police in Canada.

Also only in Europe;
Do you have to pay 40 cents for ketchup
Ask for ketchup everytime u get French fries
Can you buy beer with your meal at macdonals
Can you order your meal from a machine at MacDonalds instead of at a cash
Not pay for the bus

Today we took the train to Milan, it was totally a Harry potter moment! We were in a train car that was exectly like the train in Harry potter, it had a door u could close and everything! It was pretty epic, I'm not gonna lie it was prob the best train ride ever. Off to hogwarts I go!

Genoa

Our next stop was Genoa! We heard it was very beautiful from a few people, so we figured why not?

We got to the train station and read the directions to get to our hostel, we started off and did retry good finding the streets we needed and then we got into a bit of trouble, we came to a roundabout and tired to find the street off it that we needed but couldn't find it anywhere! The streets in this place out a whole new meaning to cmfussing and tiny. Finally after walking around for a while we asked someone on the street, she didn't speak English but was very friendly and we ended up being able to understand where to go. After that we had no problems actually finding the hostel. It is yet another hostel that you need to buzz into and looks like an apartment building however this one actually has a sign outside!

We didn't get into the hostel until around 7 so we decided just to go out for a bit to eat and head back, we found this little resturant off the main streets and figured we would give it a try, since we didn't know anything about a good place to eat or where anything was. We both ended up accidently ordering the main dish that genoa is famous for, which is pesto pasta...so, so good! Once we got back to the hotel everyone was sitting around drinking wine, so we figured we would partake in the festivities. There actually ended up being two other Canadians here at this hostel but one...holy crap I wanted to smack him. Before he started talking I seen him and thought humm he's kind if hot...then he opened his mouth and it went downhill from there. He was what I like to call mr. I love me. Meaning loves to hear himself talk and thinks he knows everything about everything. It was so funny everyone was getting so annoyed with him and he didn't even notice. It's like take your head out of your ass buddy! He also tried to argue with Kristy about animal nutrition, hahaha that was hilarious to say the least.

Our first day of adventures was yesterday...we didn't really know or have anything in mind to do so we just wondered. We walked down to the pier which is very famous, it's a very old port which is cool. We got to see tons and tons of rediclously huge yhatz, it actually kind of reminded me of Monaco a little. While we were waking around we could see a huge lighthouse off in the distance so we figured we would try and walk there....yeah that didn't work out to well, we couldn't quite figure it out. But no loss because apperently the part of town it's in is very industrial and dirty so I guess we didn't miss much. After this attempt we got out the map and tired to figure out what else we should do. While we were sitting there these two guys walked up and asked us if we were lost, they were from the states but live in genoa. They gave us some tips of what to see while we were there and we took their advice. We walked around for a while seeing the sights, I swear the streets here are crazy small! Most of them don't even look like streets, most are just for walking but there still super tiny. On our travels we found this very ordinarily, small looking church but it was open so following our rule if its open we go on, so we walked in and it was one if the most impressive churches we have seen so far, def top five! There is no way you would have known it was that big or beautiful by just looking at the outside. We found a few more churches and checked them out, we found one that is a copy of the one the one we seen in Florence called the duomo. After this we decided to head back to the hostel because we were wondering most of the day, we ended up finding the red light district in our area and we def walked through it, we had to just to see what it was like. The prostitues we seen were men dressed as women, we didn't venture to far into the red light district so we didn't see much else.

Today we it rained so we headed to the aquarium, which is one of the largest in the world. It was pretty neat but they didn't have my favoriate fish...which is the cow fish, google it, it's so cute! They also didn't have any blow fish which is another one if my favs but oh we'll it was still cool. We gotto watch the dolphins play and stuff with the trainers which was pretty neat. It wasn't a show they were just feeding them but they made them do tricks and stuff. The tank they were in was cool because you could be at the bottom and see them swimming and you could see them from above but you could also still see them under the water too!

Bologna

Most random unplanned part of the trip so far...

When we were staying at the hostel in Florence someone has told us that bologna was beautiful, a s since we didn't have any concrete plans we figured hey why not? We arrived a bit earlier then our check in time but we figured we would just go anyways to see if they would let us out our bags in the hostel at least. We got to the train station and had walking directions so we figured we would be all set and be able to find it no problem, because that is what we have done in the past. I pulled out my iPad and read the directions, yeah we couldn't find the street that we needed so we figured we would just take the bus because there were directions to do so. We hoped on the bus and actually managed to get off at the right stop! We showed up at the hostel which was another weird one that didn't have a sign outside to tell you it was there. It was located in an apartment so it was very non descript. We buzzed in and no one answered so we tired again, and again no one. Since we were super early we figured we would just wonder around for a bit and then go back. During our wondering we found a really nice church that we checked out. Gotta love finding things accidently, although its not that hard to do in Europe. We went back to the hostel about an hour later to try and buzz in again, again no luck. At this point were a little worried because we have no means of finding another place unless we walk around until we find one. Another person that was staying in the hostel showed up and asked us how come we couldn't get in, we told him that no one answered the buzzer. He tired and finally a guy answered but all he said was hello, the door didn't open so we tried again, again someone said hello but nothing happend. We waited for a bit thinking maybe they would come down and let us in but nope. So we were just standing there talking about what to do and someone opend the door and asked if we were staying at the hostel, we said yes and she let us in and took us upstairs. She was just another fellow hostel guest, but apperently the women who runs the place is never there because she also has two other bed and breakfasts she runs. We sat around in the common room for a while and waited to see if she would show up, an hour later she finally rolled in. Seeing us all sitting there she was like ohh your all here already, great! Might I add at this point we found out Alex the other hostel guest that arrived the same time we did told her his check in time was 5 she didn't show up until 7...as it turns out the owner was really nice, and she upgraded us to a private room with two beds because she didn't have any left in the shared rooms. One weird thing about the place was that there was another separate apartment where the private rooms were on a another floor.

During our waiting around we met most of the people staying in the hostel which wasn't very many,
but it instantly felt like a big group of people that would get along, that night we all went out to dinner, not many hostels have that vibe go them, you make a few friends but not everyone usually everyone goes out together. We went to a recommend pasta place and it was pretty good but nothing to die for. But it was nice going out and getting to know everyone in the hostel.

The next day Kristy and I ventured out by ourselves so see the sights, of course it was raining surprise, surprise. It's been raining since we got to Italy...blah! I found out the hard way in Pisa that my rain jacket is no longer water proof. We went to the big bell tower which was one of the only ones actually still standing. This whole town used to be filled with bell towers but only a few remain today. We climbed the bell tower which had 500 stairs, and they weren't big enough for people to go up and down even though people tried. It took us a bit to get too the top because of that, but that was ok. The view from the top was nice but it was a little caged in compared to the one we went up in, in Florence, but the view was still really nice. The city of bologna is interesting because there is a medieval part and a moderne part, when we were up in the bell tower you could see where it divided, it was weird. After we did this we decided to go to the seven churches, which is a complex with exectly what the name suggests...seven churches which are very old. However once we got there they were just about to close, so we left and wondered around for a bit. Once they were open again we went back and they were really neat. The main church is still used but the other ones are not, there is actually still a monastery there that's used. There was this monuement inside the church that has this little door that you could crawl in, so of course we did. It didn't  have any signs to say what it was so we got inside and it was very tiny, it only held two people at a time. As it turns out it was a crypt, the bodies were not in there anymore though, so they were just empty tombs. Once we were done exploring we got to hear organ practice, because of the monastery they were practicing on the organ, it was amazing to hear in a church of that size, so hauntingly beautiful. We ended up staying to listen to that for a good half hour.

Next stop...another church, this one was saposed to be bigger then saint peters in Vatican City, however there is a law that no church is allowed to be bigger then it, the construction of this church was shut down. It was really cool to see, we got to go up on the terrace and see another view of the city and then we went inside, it was beautiful even though it was never properly built. There were actually a few weird aspects of this particular church, there was a lot of skulls, and bones in jars on display, i can only assume they were from saints for previous people of that particular church, it was very strange and a little creepy to see random bones. There was also some scientific aspects to this church which is odd, there was a pendulum which rocks back and forth due to the rotation of the earth which was really neat to see, and there was also a huge sundial in the floor of the church. Although it wasn't sunny out the day we went so we couldn't see it in action, but it would have been really cool.

By this time we needed lunch, so we looked at our map because we had no idea where to eat, we found this little place that served appatizers and desserts, we thought how perfect! It was a little tricky to find because the street it was on, on th map didn't have a name. It was quite a walk from where we had just been but we ventured out anyway. It was down this street that had nothing on it execpt apartments. There was no sign for the resturant outside so we just happend to find it by accident, there is no way we would have found it if we didn't have a map. It was very busy when we got there so we waited for a table. We were seated and the waitress came but there were no menus, so she proceeded to tell us and we ordered pasta, which was one of the best pasta dishes I have had thus far. We got dessert afterwards, but again no menu...as it turns out they have a 10 course dessert thing they do. They literally bring you 10 things and you eat wha you want. This included; strawberries, marscapone, brownies, chocolate fondue, dark chocolate chucks, creme caramel, this other Italian chocolate thing I can't remember the name of, cream puffs, amaretto cake, and a rice cake thing...and all of this was all you could eat for 10€! It was amazing.

Our next day in bologna wasn't very long because we had to catch our train at 2, so we were told that there was European longest covered walkway that leads to a church and a very good view of the city because its all up hill. As it turns out its quite the hike, like I said all up hill with steps and ramps, we ended up going under 682 arches, this does not include how many steps there were. It took us about a half hour to get to the top. And it was raining and foggy at the top so we didn't have any view, but we still could go into the church...so we thought. We went in and as soon as we did this women walked up and said they were closing! Of course this sort of thing would happen to us...all that work and we couldn't even stay and admire the church. Oh well god excerise at least. We got back to the hostel with just enough time to go to the train station. It was our longest train ride so far, about 4 hours cause there is not train that goes direct to Genoa, we had to take the train to Milan and then switch trains and back track to genoa. It was a nice train ride because this time we opted do the cheaper train which is slower and doesn't go through tunnels the whole time like the fast train...hence why it's slow.  

Easter in Florence

We got to spend Easter weekend in Florence which was amazing, it's one of the most important holidays in that city/in Italy. 

On easter we went to mass at the duomo, which is the big ass church in the city centre. After mass there was a big parade for Easter outside in the square, where we got to watch me blow up and ox cart. That was a pretty cool sight to see, they brought the cart in with big white ox. They "blew" up the cart with fire works, which lasted about ten solid minutes, which was pretty awesome. However it was raining the whole time, which made having eyeballs dangerous because everyone used umbrellas, imagen a crowd with umbrellas not such a good idea when ur standing around trying to see a parade. 

After the parade we went to a restaurant for lunch which we ended up having to stay for two hours...worst service ever! The food was alright but we waited so long for our courses. Everyone at the resturant was ticked about how long they had to wait for stuff. 

After that we went back to the hostel and packed our stuff to go, however we had our laundry done by the hostel because they offered that service and they lots some of our stuff. Kristy had a sweater that went missing and my pj shirt went missing. We went to the front desk to ask about it but the women there didn't speak any English and told us that she thought our friend Courtney stole it because she was the only other person to get laundry done that day. When we went back the women was going to let us search Courtney's luggage without her there! I am so not happy about that, if someone searched our luggage I would be pissed! 

Pisa

Florence was amazing, we got to see the statue I'd David, which was very impressive. It's so huge that any pictures don't do it justice, you need to see it in person. I really wish would have had my sketching stuff because it would have been the prefect opportunity. There was so many people sitting around sketching him. It's such a famous statue that they have seismic activity detectors around it and on it because they don't want it to fall. They have quite in intense system. The detail in the statue is amazing, I don't know now someone could crave such a thing out of marble.

After we went to see David we hoped on a train and headed to Pisa for the rest of the day. We got to see the leaning tower of Pisa! So exciting! I'm going to sound like such a dumbass but I had no idea that the leaning tower of Pisa was so close to Florence. I am so glade that we got the chance to see it, it is so much cooler in person the pictures or tv. We were going to go to the top of the tower but it was way to expensive, not worth the money. However the huge basilica near the tower was free, it was beautiful, no matter how many churches we go into it never seizes to amaze me. It almost seems like they just keep getting more and more impressive. And of course we took our cheesy tourist photos of us "pushing" the tower over and thr other tipical jumping in front of it. The only downside to our visit was that it poured rain most of the time we were there. Was got so wet even though I was wearing a rain jacket which someone randomly stopped being water proof, I'm not quite sure how that works. I have never gotten wet wearing it before but I got drowned. While we were there we got some lunch and of course I had pasta, im telling you once I'm done in Italy I'm never going to want t eat pizza or pasta again.

While we were in Florence we needed up going to the Hard Rock Cafe, omg it dad so good! And we had no problems finding it! We've only tried to find three different hard rock cafes since we've been in Europe and have had no luck...but at last we finally found one, although I'm not sure it can be counted as much of an accomplishment because Florence the city really isn't that big.

More the come...hang tight!