Vienna & Florence

I had a great time in Vienna, it's such a beautiful city! if you remember, I had met a guy on the train from Nice, France to Barcelona who is studying in Vienna, (a couple months ago) and he invited me to stay with him while I was there. I spent the first day just walking around and taking in the city. I found a Starbucks and drank coffee while people watching outside :) Once my friend heard about this he immediately took me to a proper Viennese coffee house, but don't worry I won him back with a Starbuck's peppermint mocha at the end of my visit. 

Some of the things I loved about Vienna: the city is super clean, people were relatively nice to me, and the opera house shows the operas live on a huge screen outside the building every night for free. They have tons of chairs outside and anyone can come sit and watch a fabulous opera for free! We stopped by one night to watch a little bit of one, and it is such a cool thing that they do that! 

I took the night bus (night bus!!) from Vienna to Florence, Italy, my next stop. I arrived in Florence at 3:30 in the morning, and had already booked a room at a hostel for that night. The bus had been so crowded I was definitely ready to sleep....I roll up the hostel, buzz reception, and wait. After a baffling conversation with who I assumed was the night receptionist (I just kept repeating my name and "I have a reservation") I stood at the gate in silence for a couple minutes waiting for her to buzz me in when an old man in a robe and slippers comes busting out of the door to my left. He starts shouting at me that it better be an emergency because it's 3 o'clock in the morning. (Keep in mind that all of this is in broken English with extreme hand motions) I tried to tell him that not only does it say online that they have 24 hour reception (one of the reasons I even booked them) but I sent a follow up email letting them know that I would be arriving after 3am so they didn't give away my bed. He shouted some more, led me into a room, took my passport, and told me to pay in the morning (again reminding me of the hour) the next miring i paid, got my passport back, and tried (in my nice voice) to tell a different receptionist that they need to change the "24 hr reception" part of their website and perhaps check their business email more than once a week. Strange concept, I know. 

Luckily my trip only got better. :) I went to Pisa, hung out with the leaning tower. I ate bunch of gelato. I got to see Craigy and all his friends who are studying abroad. They made me feel like I was in college again :) I also got the chance to see another travel friend who was studying abroad in Florence. We reminisced about Greece while enjoying the restaurant's all you can drink wine policy for students. Heyy ooooh! Overall it was a great little visit to Firenze that reminded me how great it is to hang out with true friends. 

One 1.5 hour train ride and 55 euros later and I'm here in Rome!! This is my last stop in Italy and I'm going to enjoy it! I just arrived this afternoon and haven't really done much. The hostel is really a camp ground, and my "bungalow" looks like a trailer. But hey there's a bathroom ensuite so I'm not complaining. Also, there is an alarming number of cats hanging out here. We had our bungalow door open to get some air in here when I first arrived, and a black cat jumped up onto my bed and joined in on my nap. (the photo is on Facebook) I swear I don't mean to be such a cat lady but sometimes it just happens. The worst part was that Im coincidentally wearing my cat shirt today, so my roommate must think I'm a 40 year old spinster. Greeeat. 

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be taking a 20 minute bus ride followed by a 15 minute metro ride to get down to Rome's city center to start exploring! I plan on taking tons of photos :)