The start of a three day weekend and the four of us held in our posession tickets to a Young Joc/Lloyd concert. Don't knock it, it was awesome. Pretty sure half of the people there were from africa and the rest were really cool italian people. Minus the fact that Valerie's purse broke and the contents were taken, it was a beautiful night. We were showered with champagne, danced the night away to amazing rap music, and did not leave until the club shut down and the staff scooted us out of the door.
Friday:
We woke up and obviously after a long night had to eat at big momma's house. For those of you who dont know, that is code for McDonalds. DONT JUDGE. We literally have had pizza and pasta and wine for every meal and once in a blue moon you have to go for an order of fries and a diet coke. Here are two facts that we recite to ourselves to soothe our guilt. ONE: there are only locals eating there. Thus, rendering it a local hangout, hergo, we are eating where the locals go. TWO: we eat curly fries, unique to Italian McDonalds. Can you get that in America? NO. We made our way to Termini Station and bought the cheapest train ticket out of town. PISA. We knew there was a tower there so off we went. After a four hour train ride that smelled a little bit like overflown toilet and hobos we had no idea what we were in for.
We got to Pisa with only a change of clothes and our toiletries shoved into backpacks. We glanced at a map posted at the bus stop and ventured into town. As we walked down the street we saw the lights to every eatery shut off as the clock struck eleven. We saw blinking lights down an alley and ventured to the source. We found ourselves in a kebab place run by a man from Turkey, and it was then and there we decided that Turkey is our spring break destination. Somewhat full, and very tired we threw our bags over our shoulders and went to look for a hostile.
Of course we stumbled onto the club scene. It was awkward, everyone was staring at us and we had no idea where we were. All we knew was that the river leads to the ocean and if we followed that we would eventually find the mediterrain sea. We discovered the following things in our wondering: Pisa is tiny, and we walked the length in about 10 min, life is more peaceful without traffic sounds, and we were living the dream.
We found ourselves in a hotel that suffered from a classic case of over decoration. A man with jet black hair and about 2 inches of grey roots convinced us to stay for twenty-five euros each including breakfast. We resolved that if we got breakfast we were going to "pack that shit" and stash food for lunch and snack time later.
We said goodnight and fell asleep to the dragon-like growl of a barely functioning heater.
Saturday:
We woke up to Pisa. A town that between the rustic houses and quiet streets looked like it was out of a cheesy movie, it was almost to perfect. We crossed the river and walked to the leaning tower. We watched and made fun of all the people who took pictures to make it look like they were holding up the tower; after a few laughs we figured how to do it, and we did. We went inside to buy tickets to get into the tower and decided that we would rather keep our life savings than go in. Whatever, we already got pictures holding it up. Then, we started what we like to call our "decent into hoboism". So the readers can follow along, I will number the steps as they happen. 1. We followed a tourist group for a short while to get into the baptistry for free and to learn about it without paying for a tour guide. Shaina led the way, and the rest of followed as we strolled past the ticket woman and into the baptistry. (amount of money saved: 8 euro).
We were done with all of the touristy things and had walked across town twice and it was barely passed noon. We saw a sign that read "mara," and decided the beach was perfect. We followed the river and walked along it for a while. We stomped through mud puddles, sat and watched the river, kept walking, kept walking, and kept walking. 2. We were walking on the entrance ramp of a highway. We were smart enough to realize that it was probably not a good idea to stroll along the highway, so we decided to buy some wine and ask for directions. 3. We resolved that when in doubt get a bottle of wine and take in your surroundings.
We went to a bus stop, divvied up some chardonnay and waited for the bus in the rain. A little while after we ad set up camp, we saw the bus crest the hill and come twords us, then we saw the bus drive past us. So we marched a few hundred meters down the road and waited in the pouring rain for half an hour in hopes that another would come (keep in mind that we had no clue where we were, we were just following the river.) Another bus came and we rode it until we spotted the ocean and then we hopped off. We strolled into a pizza place in hopes of finding a bathroom, and ended up sitting down to an overpriced pizza as we watched the afternoon rain slowly fall unto the streets of the small streets.
We spent the later afternoon sprawled out the cold marble rocks on the beach watching the agitated waves splash over the white marble (we think) that created the barrier between land and sea. After a few hours, we found a beachside hotel and powernapped as the sun sunk over the somewhat-abandoned-because-it-was-out-of-season ocean village. We capped off our night standing on the white rocks in the moonlight. We each grabbed a pebble, made a wish, and launched it into the sea. We looked at the stars that were peeking out from behind the clouds, sang at the top of our lungs (it was a very "Garden State" moment), and had a night that words cannot do justice, so I won't even try.
Sunday:
Our trip was coming to an end, so we hopped on a bus to get back to the Pisa train station. NOTE: Pisa is a state in addition to a city, so the bus we thought was going to Pisa the city was going around Pisa the state. Our 2 hours we had allotted for travel had dwindeled to 45 minutes and we were in a place unfimilar, so we hopped off to ask for directions. We were on the correct bus. So, we 4. stuck out our thumbs, put smiles on our face, told Shaina to get out the mace. People acted like they didn't see us, some laughed, one turned around, and another slowed down then sped up. We stuck our thumbs in our pockets an began to walk, we didn't know what else to do.
An old man pulled up and opened his door. "I saw you earlier and I was on my bike, so I peddled home as fast as I could, sorry if I smell bad." 5. We hopped in and told him that we were going to the train station.
"I speak English because I thought you were from Ireland, well not her." He obviously pointed to Shaina. We told him we were from America, and then he thought it was necessary to point out everything between where we were and the train station that the Americans bombed during the war.....oooppsss......
We made it onto the train with five minutes to spare, dirty, exausted, hungry, and never more happy with a trip. 6. We snuck onto first class and plopped into seats laughing and in shock of what had happened over the previous span of 72 hours. It was perfect. And we resolved that next time we get into a car with a strange man we are saying we are from Australia......
