Italy - for real this time!

Entry 6:

I'm in Italy! Where did I leave you? A nights sleep on very loud la rambla- thank god for ear plugs. We had a warm but relatively crummy dinner on La Rambla and after more fighting with a pay phone, eventually called the hostel only to have the man yell at me and then hang up on me. Boy was I glad for that day to be done.

At 6 am we got up and left for the ferry. As we walked down La Rambla, people were just beginning to wind down their night and head home. 1am till 6am seems to be the party schedule in Barcelona. We boarded the ferry and left (though 2.5 hours late) and i must admit I was relieved to be on my way. We had booked a hotel in Livorna for our arrival as we were given some wrong info and had been expecting to arrive at midnight. Nope, mid way thru the ferry ride we were informed by another passanger I had made friends with that we would be arriving closer to 6 am. With no internet, phone or reception we had no way to cancel our reservation and so there went another night's accomodation. Technically i actually paid three different places for a place to sleep last night- Cinque Terre, Livorno, and the ferry. The ferry was probably the cheapest though I did not have a bed. For 30Euro i slept on a banquet bench, got a free dinner, and was transported to Italy- not a bad deal if you ask me especially since the train cost around 120 euro to get me to the same place. And to add another silver lining, the ferry actually gave me the gift of sleep. I pretty much spent the entire day hanging out and reading and periodically sleeping. It caught me up on a lot of missed sleep which I think is exactly what I needed. And my book is great if anyone is interested- the title is The Birth of Venus.

So 20 hours later after a decent sleep thanks to my brother Ramm and Sister-in-love Carolyn's gifts of the sleeping bag liner and stuff sack/pillow (Thanks!) we arrived in Livorno Italy. After getting off the ferry a group of us travelers found our way to each other and shared a cab to the train station (a whopping 3 euro once split among eight people). In this cab I met Jane and Marc from England. I decided to say goodbye to Jeff who was in a rush to get back to florence, and i headed to pisa with my new friends. We got along great and it was very easy to hang out with them. We took an uber cheap train to pisa (1.80) and checked our bags into luggage storage and walked to the infamous tower. First impression- Its way smaller than I expected! Second impression- Wow it really does lean! we took some photos (yes in one of them I am attempting to hold it up), browsed the little touristy shops and chatted away. From there we found a sweet cafe and had some coffee and ice cream as we gazed up at the leaning tower. What a nice way to start the day. Then we headed back to the train station and caught a train into Firenze (florence). We got off the train, had lunch together and then said our goodbyes as we were booked at different hostels.

Off to find my hostel, i discovered it is in a prime location and is probably one of the best I've stayed in. The fact that I got my much neede hot shower shortly after arrival may have soem influence over my opinion but really it does rock! and is booked solid. Glad I got in :)

Upon arriving I met a couple american guys right away and they invited me to come walking with them. We trekked around a bit, saw some sights and stumbled upon a grocery store- perfect! Dinner was bought before due the on agian-off again rain we decided to head back to the hostel, which brings me to now.

I've now booked a hostel in Venice. I will catch a train earlier on wednesday morning towards Venice- about a 3 hour trip to my understanding. I'll also scope out my day for tomorrow. Soem longer lines at key sights means online resevations are often advised if you don't want to spend all day in a line up- or so I've been advised.

That's all for now. The trip seemse to be back on track for now. The next scheduled flight I have is on the 14th (friday) so hopefully the skies will have cleared by then.

Enjoy the sunshine