i thought someone had stabbed me with a tranquilizer when i arrived at the florence train station. i had had no sleep and the breakfast we were served was quite possibly poisioned it was so gross. i thought plane food was bad !!! hahaha plane food is 5 star compared to trenitalia food. so after finally making my way to the main station in florence santa maria novella i had the fun task of finding my hotel!! NOT TO WORRY megan is prepared and she has printed a map, the hotels directions and i had even bought a ticket for the buses!! just to be on the safe side though i asked a bus person what platform to go to and he pointed me to a little tiny bus that looked like a family van and says "that one"!! so as i stare at the bus i thought i was meant to catch, i board the bus and end up on a tour of florence through sleepy eyes. the bus driver finally turns to me and says "ponte alle grande". now after this trip i realise that ponte in italian means bridge and i should have crossed the bridge but no i head down the river in search for my hotel.. plaza hotel luchessi.... yes i finally find it after 20 minutes dragging my massive suitcase down the cobbled stone street. hahaha on the other side on the arno river... i can see it over the glistening water and the nearest 'ponte' is 20 minutes back in the other direction!!! aghhh so by this time it is 9am i feel lik
e i am going to pass out from exhaustion and i want to stab the bus guy because he put me on the wrong bus. after forever i am at my hotel and it is all worth it. the hotel is 4 stars and beautiful, luckily my room is ready (95 euros worth) and i am allowed up there. so a smart person probably would have collapsed and slept for the next 5 days but no i quickly change clothes, pack my stuff away and head back to the train station on the right bus that is a 3 minute walk from the hotel. i jump on a train to pisa and enjoy the scenery from the train for about 1.5 hours. after walking the streets of pisa i end up at the leaning tower. its so TINY!!! but well worth the trip. it was amzing to be somewhere that you have seen pictures of. none of the places i have been so far have been worldwide famous sites (not that i can recall anyway) so to be here at this tower that i know of and have seen pictures of was great and to stand in front of it and have a photo really made the trip worthwhile!! i attempted to hold up the tower with my tripod as my only friend but it got a bit embarrasing so i gave up and just had a wander. there was lots of little stalls that were selling souveniers and it was nice to have a look around. luckily also the weather was perfect so all up the day was fantastic. after lunch at a really nice cafe and buying some cute stockings i then went to maccas and got a baci mcflurry.... perhaps the yummest thing in the world. content and full i then headed back to florence.
i wandered around a little bit once i got back to my hotels vacinity and found an internet cafe where i got some credit. i then had dinner at a restaurant (by myself - which i am never going to get used to or like) and headed home. after a long day... and night... it was time to rest!!
saturday: i had to wake up early to enjoy my included buffet breakfast which was really yum!! not as good as the breakkie in munich but still good. not sure of what to do for the day i decided to go on the double decker red bus that take you around the city. it was about 20 euros and valid for 24
hours so you can hop on and off and sightsee. the tour was good but i probably could have planned it better and not got off at certain places and maybe got off at other places like the bilbolba gardens (so not sure if thats how you say it) i for some reason thought florence was bigger than it actually was and was scared that i wouldnt get to see everything but its not big at all and a weekend is sufficient to see this city. so i saw and went to the ponte vecchio a famous bridge that is the only bridge that survived the bombing from the germans in the 1940's and is lined with expensive jewellery shops. i got a great coffee on the other side of this bridge. i also went to the piazza michealangelo, which has a great view over the whole of florence, the acadamia: the famous museum which holds the marble statue of david, the uffiza museum which has many great paintings and sculptures. outside of this museum are also statues of michealangelo, da vinci, donatello, etc. an amazing experience to be surrounded by all this art and history. mmm what else. i went to the famous firenze duomo. i was told this is the 4th largest church in the world!! i must say its huge!! also it will be remembered forever as this is the place my trusty tripod went **kaput** it was a sad sad day in megan land but i will now probably invest in a better one as it was such a great asset on all my little trips. especially the loner ones where i have no friends.
luckily 5pm saturday night i headed back to the hotel and the buckinghams were just arriving. by this stage of my trip i was getting sick of being by myself and really loved to see the buckinghams. it was so good to see familiar faces and all the kids are so grown up now. we walked around the city for a bit on saturday night and had dinner at a little PASTA restaurant (when in italy!!!)
sunday i kind of did a repeat of what i did on saturday and showed the buckinghams around florence which was so much better looking at things with people. we also went to the markets and i bought kim and katie some things and little leather bracelts which everyone was selling!! then a nice surprise on sunday night ... reception called me down to the lobby and jai jai was there. she had walked through florence to find my hotel and so we went out for a hot chocolate which no joke i think was just a whole bar of chocolate melted it was so thick! it was so good to see jai jai another familiar face over the christmas break and we excitedly chatted about our upcoming paris trip together!! once i walked back to the hotel kim and i went downstairs and had a few drinks in the bar which was really nice!
monday: CHRISTMAS DAY!! so not the same as the chrissie i would have back in frenchs forest where katie would come into my room and say "megan get up i want to open presents" but it was so ni
ce being with the kids. we all piled into bob and kims room and opened our presents. kim had gotten me heaps of little presents like amalfi coast soap, a harrods key ring, a milano glass pendant, etc even celeste got me a ring from wales so i was really spoilt. mum had also sent me some presents across with bob and kim so it was so nice. thankyou mummy xoxox after our delicious breakfast again we set off for more exploring and we actually walked across the river up to the piazza michealangelo which has ANOTHER statue of david and is up a hill so it looks out on the whole of florence. it was probably one of the nicest views i have ever seen and it was a beautiful christmas day so we took lots of piccies. there was even 3 japanese weddings taking place at the piazza. i spoke to mum and dad and kim briefly to wish them a merry christmas but my phone credit ran out before i got to speak to katie which was bad. i later found out my credit gets deducted as well in countries other than switzerland, so no more calling me when i am travelling!! christmas lunch was really fancy, maybe a bit tooooo fancy for me. it was 5 courses and one course was pigeon meat tortellini in broth. everyone but celeste and i ate it. mitch kept saying he was chewing on feathers and josh said he found a beak in his. it was actually quite gross!! my favourite course was the pumpkin and rosemary risotto! YUM!! so after getting quite full we all went upstairs for a bit of a nap or quiet read which was just what we needed!! in the afternoon we all hopped in the car and drove to the chianti region (in tuscany) i have no idea which bit of chianti which i am yet to find out!! but the drive there was beautiful and we tasted lots of wine at little market place stalls! we had some pizza for dinner and the drive back was amazing as the sun was setting.
tuesday was the day to go back to my switzerland home to my swiss family but it made me really sad to leave. it was so hard to leave the familiar aussie faces and return so we all cried and i spent the train ride home miserable. at milan i got off to change trains to zurich and i couldnt find my train so nearly missed the ride home and then while passing through lugano catherine phoned me and told me we were going to st moritz tonight!! i was already sad about going there and not being near my friends so i think she could tell my unwillingness to go so she just asked me to meet them there wednesday lunch time. it gave me a chance once i got home at 8 to unwind, wash and pack my clothes and speak to my family.
so my christmas break was happy and sad. so good to be with people that i love and they love me but so hard to say goodbye. at one stage i just wanted to go home. where it was easy and things werent so foreign to me. sometimes i get so lost over here. i cant communicate with people, i cant tak to my mum whenever i need to and i get so exasperated with the kids. but then kim reminded me that after a week of being home i would wish i was back, nothing will have changed at home and this was my moment to experience the world. what she said was true and i believe her but just when i wanted to be with my family it was really hard to want to go back to zurich.
e ski boots on a two year olds foot but we finally made it and then we got to walk them over to the class. during this time i would have my break and then in the afternoons we would have heaps of fun playing lego for hours and hours on end. thankfully the weekend rolled around and i went back to zurich on saturday. jenny had just gotten back from england so i met up with her and we went out for fondue with her parents which was really nice. sunday being the last day of the year was spent at home relaxing and figuring out with my friends what to do for the evening. i got to speak to mum while the clock struck 12.00 in australia and wish her a happy new year. sounds like kim and kate had a fun night even though kate was sick she spent it at luna park which would have been awesome!
vodka and coke and bopping in the rain. the fireworks were really cool when they werent going off at our feet and i was really happy to be there with my swiss friends for the night. of course i missed not being with moo who i am usually with on the 31st of december but this year is going to special spending it in europe and travelling to all these great places with my new friends. sara and lacey stayed over after our big night out and we slept for the majority of the 1st of january but we had fun and that was whats important.
also mention this but after we went to a brocken haus which is a second hand store. svetlana wanted to buy iceskates so we all went for a look..... then you will never believe but i found MOON BOOTS yes they are second hand but they were 15 francs usually 300 dollars at the shops!! i had to buy them so i got them and spent saturday night planted in front of the tv with charlies angels and some hotwater and soap!! they now look brand spanking new and i love them! its like walking on pillows. after our day of shopping we then went to moven pick gallery a famous swiss icecreamery and got a cone each - this is going to be a new treat for me, it had to be the best ice cream ever.... even if it was 4 francs for a scoop (a tiny scoop too)
