My Incredible Tuscan Birthday

Night 1

We arrived in beautiful Florence around 6pm having really enjoyed the Tuscan views on our train ride....vineyards, lush, green fields, beautiful cottages and villas.  We met a really nice couple from Dallas on the train and talked the entire time.

We found Ciao Hostel pretty close to the train station and got settled in.  We stayed in a 4 bed room, but only had one roommate, a really nice guy from South Africa.  We headed out to explore and found the best little cafe on a street full of Tuscan restaurants.  I ordered the best lasagna I've ever eaten in my life and even the house wine was amazing, contrary to what we found in Rome.  After dinner we wandered a bit and found some seats at a beautiful lawn in front of Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.  There were lots of other couples sitting around enjoying the lovely night with a majestic view. 

We headed back to our hostel and struck up a conversation with our hostelmate.  He very excitedly pulled out a bottle of cherry cordial he bought in Poland and wanted us to share.  It was so strong, but pretty tasty.  I only had a couple of sips, but our roommate drank like 2/3 of the bottle!  I don't know how he was standing!  We had some really interesting conversations about politics, travel, cultures, etc.  Then our neighbors knocked on the door and we thought we were being too loud, but instead they were inviting us to their "party" in the kitchen.  We ended up staying up until 2am!

Day 2

I was happily awakened to a sweet "Happy Birthday" from D.  We quickly got ready and headed to Mercato Centrale, the coolest market we'd been to.  It was rows and rows of leather, scarves, ceramics, jewelry.  I, of course, loved it and bought an amazing leather jacket for my birthday.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

We had a delicious lunch at this tiny little shop near the market.  We each ordered paninis which were made behind the counter for us by the 2 workers at the shop.  I ordered the gorgonzola, pear and nut and D ordered the spicy salami with pecorino cheese.  While we waited we each ordered a crostini.  I'm going to try to make the one I got because it was incredible, ricotta and pumpkin cream.  Yum!

After some souvenir shopping we headed to Il Duomo.  It wasn't as extravagant on the inside as the outside.  The architectural design, patterns of color, and stained glass windows were amazing from the outside.  We did 2 laps around...not actually on purpose.  I was trying to get us to the bell tower and misread the signs.  We climbed up the hundreds of steps of Giotto's Bell Tower for an amazing view of Florence and beyond.  It was so cool to see the Tuscan villas on the mountains in the background.  What a great birthday experience!

We made the long way down from the tower, much easier than going up, and headed to the Galleria dell' Academia to see Michelangelo's David.  Wow!  It was so much larger than I expected, and the detail was amazing.  I don't know how you can carve stone into a piece so huge, making everything proportional and so anatomically correct down to the veins in his hands and the curves of his ears.  Worth the 30 minute line, for sure.

We stopped in the Basilica Santa Maria Novella on the way back to the hostel.  It's a beautiful church inside and out.  We both took a short nap when we got back to the hostel and took our time getting ready for the birthday celebrations to come, drinking some wine while we got ready. 

First, we headed towards Ponte Vecchino, the Old Bridge.  I was expecting a regular bridge across the water, but this bridge was full of shops from one side of the bank to the other with some arches in between showing off the beautiful view mid-bridge.  The sunset created the most beautiful sky, the musicians were playing romantic music, I was with my fiancé and it was my birthday.  I just couldn't help but tear up!  Incredible!

We headed to the Piazzale Michaelangelo next.  Such a cool walk up the hill, then wow!  Another beautiful view of the city.  We picked a seat on the steps overlooking the city and drank our wine along with everyone else on the steps.  We ate our delicious snack we found at a grocery store, bits of cheese topped with spices and bell pepper.  It even came with little toothpicks!  We sat relaxed and happy for a long time, then realized it was getting late and we needed to head to get dinner.

Our receptionist had recommended a restaurant but didn't remember the name of it.  She showed us where on the map and said it had a small door and pictures of famous people on the walls.  She was so passionate about the amazing atmosphere and food, I wanted to try to find it.  After winding the road down from Piazzale Michaelangelo we actually found the restaurant!  We found out we had to have a reservation, so we scheduled ours for 30 minutes later at 10:30.  While we waited we went to have wine and bruschetta at another cafe.

At 10:30 we headed under the arch out of the neighboring plaza back to our restaurant.  Wow!  The best meal and dining experience I've ever had!  The restaurant was candle and twinkle lights lit, narrow and intimate.  I expected the pictures of famous people to be of famous Italians; however they were all of famous Americans...Brad Pitt, Chevy Chase, John Travolta, and so many more.  Apparently this was THE place in Florence to eat.  In all of the pictures there was a man who we had also seen walking around the restaurant.  He was very eclectic with bracelets all the way up his arms and a crazy outfit.  We found out from our waiter he was the current owner, son of the original owner. 

Our waiter brought us champagne on the house and an antipasto platter.  He recommended the pear ravioli which I fell in love with.  D ordered the recommended truffle angel hair pasta, buttery deliciousness.  Oh so good!  We had a bottle of the house white wine and were just finishing it off when our waiter and the owner came over with a huge chocolate cake with birthday candles!  I was so surprised!  They didn't know the birthday song, so D sang it from start to finish all by himself with the owner pitching in a word here and there.  What an amazing night!  I don't imagine I could ever have a better birthday!

 

Day 3

Sadly, it was time to leave Florence and head to the last city on our trip, Dublin.  Since we had to fly, we had to take a train back to Rome to get to Ciampino airport.  From the Termini bus station we had to find a way to Ciampino.  We stopped a police officer to ask where to buy a bus ticket.  He told us the newspaper stand.  The newspaper stand told us the tobacco shop next door.  The tobacco shop told us the newspaper stand.  Ok, thanks for the help!

At another newspaper stand we were told to go to platform 1.  At the platform we walked into an office along the end of the building.  They told us to go next door.  Next door was a cafe, so we skipped that door and went to the next where we overheard someone telling a group of guys also to go next door.  So back to the cafe.  The lady behind the counter pointed us to a desk where we finally found the help we needed!  We bought tickets for the shuttle, and sat down for the 40 minute wait, so happy to put our bags down!  Everything is so much more difficult when you don't speak the language!

D went out to get a doner kebab and I ordered some pasta...we were back in Rome, so it wasn't the best.  While D was gone a little Italian nun took his seat.  How can you say no to a nun?!  She also cut to the front of the line once the bus got there.  Funny little lady.

We made it to Ciampino airport about 2 hours before our flight.  We got in the check-in line and waited for 30 minutes only to find out, along with half of the line, that we were in the wrong room/line for Dublin or London check-in.  So we all rushed to the other room to find we had an even longer line to wait in there.  At this point we had about 45 minutes to check-in and get to the gate.  We started to get nervous.  "We cannot miss another flight!"

The boarding time got closer and closer and people kept cutting in line.  Finally we made it to the desk about 5 minutes before boarding time slightly relieved.  Then we saw the security line!  Oh no!  I asked if there was any way to bypass the line since we were about to board.  Apparently there was a fast lane, but you could only use it once your flight actually started boarding...so that then you could run to your gate.  Geez!  So much disorganization.  We made it to the gate, waited in another line, got on a bus to get to our plane, then finally relaxed once we got in our seats. 

I highly recommend only taking trains between countries.  It is so difficult to fly.  They make you check in online to print your own boarding pass but also require you to check in at the desk at the airport.  It may be cheaper to fly, but definitely not worth the stress. 

Anyway, we made it to Dublin! 

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Hot, Stinky, Sketchy, Ancient Rome

Night 1

Our first stop in Rome was the train station McDs.  Why hang out at McDs instead of going to get authentic Italian food in Italy?  Well in all of our excitement in Interlaken we forgot to book a hostel for Rome.  So, we needed wifi and couldn't find it anywhere in the station except for McDs.  We got all set up with Rome's finest McDonald's offer...a free Mozzarillo burger promotion, a burger with mozzarella cheese, lettuce and special sauce, Sure! 

Then we found out that you have to have an Italian SIM card to register for the free wifi, so we had to quickly eat then head out to find an internet cafe. Well, I believe we headed out to the ghetto side of the Termini train station, so my first impression of Rome was at 10pm with sketchy people trying to "help" us find hostels, tours, whatever they could possibly scam Americans with, the strong smell of urine, and dirty sidewalks along graffitied buildings.  We asked a shop where we could find an internet cafe and the guy recommended his friend's laundry/internet shop.  Since we had no other leads, we headed in that direction.  When we got there we saw the sign saying that the internet was down, of course.  What next? 

 

You know its harder to think fast and make decisions when you're nervous and tired.  We stopped in a hotel and asked for a suggestion.  Finally we found the internet cafe and set down our ever growing, heavy packs.  Ugh!  Then we couldn't find any hostels available for the next 2 nights.  We got frustrated and D called one of the hostels, Friendly hostel.  Turns out they did have one room available, and the owner said he would meet us there in a few minutes.  So we rushed to where the website indicated we would find the hostel.  After 3 calls back to the owner, we found out we were on the wrong street, one block away. 

It was such a relief to get to the Friendly hostel.  The owner was so nice and helpful.  He went through the map showing us where we were and how to get to the sights we'd want to see.  Our room ended up being a nice, private room.  It was actually a B&B, not a hostel, so it was basically an apartment with the bedrooms rented out for travelers.  This room was only available for the one night, but we didn't care.  We crashed!

Day 2

The next morning we were awakened with a knock on the door.  A girl that cleaned the B&B was told by the owner that we would need a recommendation for another hostel for our 2nd night.  So once we got ready we met her downstairs and she took us to meet up with another B&B owner.  They walked us the couple of blocks to her B&B which was even nicer, Nuovo Principe.  She gave us the same price for her room, but I would imagine she normally would charge more.  And she was the nicest little Italian lady that barely spoke English but tried all she could to be accommodating.

 

After leaving the hostel we headed to an internet cafe to find out what time the pope comes out to St. Peter's Square on Wednesdays.  We found out he comes out at 10:30 and it was 10:15, so we rushed to the metro to the Vatican.  We got there at about 10:45, but he was gone.  We later found out he's on vacation in the mountains.  Oh well!  We walked around the square (actually a keyhole shape, not a square), which was a neat experience.  There was an incredibly long line for St. Peter's Basilica, so I didn't think we would go to see it.  We turned down several tour offers (people are all over the square offering), but finally I said yes to one because I knew there was so much history in Rome and the Vatican that I would miss out on if someone wasn't walking us through the details.

The tour lasted about 4 hours, which was a bit longer than we would have liked, but was really well worth the time and money.  We started learning about the history of St. Peter's Square.  The obelisk there and those around Rome were apparently all taken from the Egyptians when Rome conquered Egypt. 

Next we walked over to the Vatican Museum.  It was great to have a guide explaining what works were important and why.  The Sistine Chapel was beautiful!  I would highly recommend having a tour guide, especially for the chapel.  It went on and on but really made it more meaningful because he explained the paintings piece by piece and their significance. 

After the chapel we walked over to St. Peter's Basilica and toured on our own from that point on.  I couldn't believe how big it was!  St. Peter's tomb is in the center and beautifully adorned.  Being able to bypass the line by being on the tour was yet another benefit.  Remember when you go to the Vatican you have to wear pants or a skirt past your knees and something to cover your shoulders.  I had on a strapless shirt, so I used my scarf to wrap around my shoulders..

After the Vatican we wandered to the other various sights we wanted to see...the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Novana, and Campo de Fiori.  It started sprinkling when we got to Campo de Fiori, so we stepped under the awning at a cafe, grabbed a table, and ordered a glass of wine.  As soon as we sat down it started pouring.  It was so relaxing listening to the rain, drinking a glass of wine.  We finished our wine the same time the sun came back out and slowly made our way back to the hostel to get cleaned up and rested for our night out.

For dinner we headed back to the Trevi Fountain for pasta at a sidewalk cafe.  Pretty good, but not as great as I expected from Italian food in Italy.  We were sitting at our table around the corner from the fountain enjoying the people watching and all of the sudden hear loud cheering and clapping.  I walked over to see what was going on.  Apparently there had just been a proposal.  Pretty cool, but I wouldn't have changed ours a bit!

Day 3

The next morning we headed to the Colosseum.  We didn't get a tour guide, but instead just walked around inside and out then headed over to the Roman Forum.  It's so amazing to think how ancient everything is and that you are walking on grounds that have been walked along for thousands of years.  We needed a map or a guide to fully understand the grounds, so I don't think we got as much out of it as we could have, but we had a train to catch and not much time to devote there.

All in all Rome was very interesting and worth the visit to see the sights you've always heard about.  There is so much religious history there which I really appreciated being able to visit.  However, D and I discussed we probably wouldn't want to go back because beyond the sights, the city itself doesn't have the vibe we like.  It was dirt

y, the food wasn't that great, and the sketchy people made me feel unsafe.  We would however, highly recommend and love to revist Florence...Next...

Beautiful, Fairy Tale Interlaken

Already we are in Florence and this is the first time I’ve had a chance to write about Interlaken, beautiful, fairy tale Interlaken. We had an amazing time. Daniel told me it would be beautiful, but I had no idea how true that was.

We started off to a rocky start first, though. Remember our train ride from Prague wasn’t full of splendor. Then when we were almost to Interlaken, we had to transfer to a bus because the trains were having some kind of maintenance. Finally we made it a little after 11pm, after the town was already shut down for the night. The streets were completely dark, no lights, but we found our hostel with the help of a local guy who walked us for a distance than pointed us in the right direction.

I’ve found the most helpful people are the random people you meet, not the people in service jobs here, although you have to be careful and not naïve giving too much information to strangers, I guess. Anyway, when we got to the hostel, the front desk was nowhere to be found. We wandered around up and down the stairs trying to figure out how to check in. Then we saw a note to us stuck on the wall with our key…high tech security at this place!

We found our room on the 3rd floor and four other people already checked in to our 6 bed tiny room. We were stuck with the last 2 top bunks, not next to each other. After knocking things over and hitting people with our big backpacks because the room was so small, I immediately went to take a shower in the bathroom in our room. It was a tiny bathroom, kind of dirty, and the shower didn’t drain so your shower shoes did no good and the floor was wet in the whole room. Yuck!

Right after I got dressed I went to find D who had escaped our tiny room. We decided to splurge on an actual hotel room. D was a major proponent of getting a nice, clean, private room, so I went along of course! I could not spend another night at the Lazy Falken…even though their signs say “Easy to find….hard to leave.” I read reviews before choosing it. I’m not sure who the crazy people are that rated it so highly. So, we settled on a hotel after searching for about an hour and a half, Hotel Weisses Kreuz.

After a short, uncomfortable sleep on a stained mattress (thank goodness I brought my own bedding!), we quickly packed up, had our free Nutella toast breakfast, and set out for a day of hiking leaving our packs at the hostel since check in time at the hotel wasn’t until the afternoon (apparently everything shuts down from around 11-3 daily).

Regardless of how terrible the hostel was, waking up in the Swiss Alps and walking out into the fresh mountain air was amazing. Clouds still hung wispily around the mountains and the water flowed a beautiful turquoise under the bridge we crossed on the way to the train station. We took deep breaths to clear out the big city air we have been breathing.

We caught the train up to Grindelwald after stopping at the market for our picnic lunch. It was a picturesque train ride up the mountain. From Grindelwald, we took a gondola ride up to First so that we could hike the Flower Trail. The gondola ride was full of camera flashes trying to capture the beauty of the snow covered mountains on one side, the rolling, green, cow sprinkled mountains on the other, and the quaint town in the valley below us. It was a bit warmer in Interlaken than it had been in previous cities. We had a few sprinkles on the way up but when we arrived at the top (7,100 feet up) it was clearing to blue skies that stayed for the rest of the day.

We started the hike with steep uphill climbs pausing to take pictures of the scenery along the way. It was incredible! As I described from the gondola ride, the mountains and valley were beautiful. There were waterfalls that had cut out paths meandering down the hillside. The sounds were just as memorable as the views. All of the cows had varying sizes of bells hanging on their necks. These bells made a beautiful concert of varying tones for our entire time on the mountain with the sound of water flowing in the background.

We stopped for a picnic- salami, bread, Swiss cheese and pinot grigio- and met a couple from North Carolina. We took turns taking pictures of each other with the mountains as the backdrop. Then we continued on to the lake at Buchalpsee. It was a lot smaller than we expected, but a beautiful turquoise color, unlike anything I’ve seen before.

We sat there to finish our bottle of wine then decided to continue down the path. D found another spot off the trail and said this is really pretty. I followed him, but I didn’t know if he just wanted to sit some more or take a picture. Then I saw him fidgeting with something, and I assumed it was his camera, so I turned to start taking pictures myself.

I turned around to see him down on one knee! I just stared dumbstruck for a second not sure if this was really happening or what I should say. I asked him if he was serious and if the ring was real. Haha! Let me explain…in Amsterdam I had been teasing D every where we went when we would see a store advertising diamonds and in one window we had seen some really pretty rings, but they were all CZ. He never let on that he already had a ring! Obviously, he wasn’t joking and I said, “yes!” We are engaged! It doesn’t seem real! So wonderful!

We continued on down the mountain, and it felt like we had the Swiss Alps to ourselves. Before the proposal there had been so many people around, after there were none. It was amazing…then I started to get worried because the gondolas shut down in just a bit and we needed to catch it to get back to Grindelwald. I went with my worst case scenario tendencies and thought we were on the wrong path and would be stuck there all night. We finally came across a meeting point where a bus was picking up our North Carolina friends. They were so excited for us and wished us much luck.

Once we made it to the bottom, we trained back to Interlaken. On the way to check in to our new hotel I went into a Swiss chocolate shop. It was a tiny shop and the guy that was checking out, who I assume was a regular, was trying to help me pick out a flavor. He gave me a taste of the kind he just bought, then the owner of the shop told him he was a client not a salesman and he left. Then the owner pulled out a special sample box from under the counter and gave me a champagne truffle. I said, “Oh perfect! My boyfriend just proposed today.” I had to explain what proposed meant (not a well know term internationally even though they do the same thing here) and then he was so excited for us. After I paid he threw in a whole bag of champagne truffles for our celebration. So nice!

Next we stopped to get a bottle of champagne. They didn’t have cold bottles, so when we got to the hotel we asked if they had a refrigerator we could use because we just got engaged and needed to chill our celebration champagne. “Of course!” When D went back down to get the champagne the concierge had put it on a silver tray with champagne flutes. Everyone is so excited and we don’t even know them!

Our engagement celebration dinner was at a traditional Swiss restaurant, Chalet. We ordered Swiss fondue which was so tasty. D kept calling me fiancé, bride and future wife and reminding me that we are getting married. Every time I couldn’t help but giggle with joy. I can’t believe it!

We thoroughly enjoyed a night in our hotel room not being awakened by strangers, not climbing up a bunk-bed, and not locking up all of our things. However, I woke up at 3:30am too excited to sleep. I read for a while then slept until 8am. Laundry time! Oh how exciting to have clean clothes. D packed up our bags at the hotel while I did laundry. I made friends with a couple in their late 70s that had been married for 54 years. They were incredibly excited about our engagement. The husband asked if anyone had taken my picture to capture how happy I look. I assured him we have taken thousands of pictures!!!

After laundry we grabbed our things and enjoyed a snack by the water with the mountains in the background, savoring our last few minutes in Switzerland, a place I’ll never forget!

Next…Rome…

Prague Continued

Day 2

We started our full day in Prague with a free tour that was recommended by several people. We stayed on it for about an hour of the 3. It was really interesting and did help us get a better understanding of the layout of the city. It started at Old Town Square which was a sight on my list. We saw the astronomical clock, learned about a couple of the churches there, the history of the WWII accidental bomb, and a special event happening in the center that included a beautiful flower carpet. We followed the tour to Wenceslas Square, but after an hour of history we were ready to bounce and explore on our own.

I wanted to see the Jewish Quarter, so we headed in that direction. I managed to get us lost for about an hour, something I’m getting very good at! I’m not sure why D lets me be in charge of how we get places. I think I’m about to lose that privilege. But, to my defense, Prague is an extremely difficult city to navigate. The streets wind around in no order whatsoever and change names whenever they please. Thanks to 2 maps and street signs we found our way stopping in a pharmacy to restock on cold medicine and cough drops.

 The Jewish Quarter was interesting. It used to be walled in when Christians and Jews weren’t allowed to live together, but since then the walls have come down. We didn’t go into any of the synagogues, but did get to see the cemetery. At the time when Jews were walled in, they only had this one cemetery to be buried in. After a while they ran out of room, so they had to start burying one on top of the other. They tombstones are now crooked and overlapping because of the uneven ground. When we were heading back to Old Town square we came across a street that was blocked off for a fashion show. There was a huge runway with lights and loud music. I’m not sure who the designer was, but it was so cool to come across!

For dinner we stopped at a sidewalk café near our hotel for beef goulash. Yum! Then we went to the Charles Bridge to see the sunset. It was extremely crowded, but we found a spot against the wall of the bridge for a good view. Down below us on a boat there was an Open Arm Wrestling contest going on. Random! The bridge view was beautiful around sunset, but since it was crowded and a little cloudy we decided to wander around instead of staying in that spot.

We meandered down to the original plaza we stopped at on the first day, and found yet another happy accident! We heard live music and found that it was a pottery market with a long line of vendors set up. There were food vendors making a delicious smelling feast. Even though we had already eaten we had to try the grilled sausage and some beers. Totally worth the expanding stomach! Yes, I’ve gained a bit of weight over here. Oh well!

After dark we headed to Prague Castle, and took a walk around the grounds.  I haven't seen it in the day time, but I don't know how it could have been any more beautiful.  Pretty romantic.

Day 3

We woke up at 3:45am to catch our 5:04am train to Interlaken. We found the metro pretty easily and connected at Muzeum to get to the station. I have no idea how we ended up running late getting to the station but we made it to the platform just in time to see the train pulling out of the station. Can you believe it?! We missed another one! We had to wait in the train station for 4 hours, then were able to get on the next train.

We were waiting for our train's platform to be announced on the screen and noticed there was a large group forming around the screen. D realized that they must all be waiting on the same train announcement as us since it was so close to time to leave and it hadn’t been announced yet. So we decided to load up and get at the front of the group so we could run to the train first. Since reservations aren’t required, we skipped the extra expense it would have created to make the reservation. However, reservations could be made and that would mean that only a few un reserved seats would be left. We wanted to get good ones together. Our plan worked! As soon as the platform number popped up we scurried off ahead of the crowd. The trip ahead was 13 hours so we knew we had plenty of time to sleep.

We fell asleep immediately in a cabin with 3 seats each to lay out in. We were awakened by the lady asking for our ticket (we just show our rail pass). I sat up fast and poured my entire cup of tea on the ground! There was nothing I could do but leave it there. We fell asleep again and were awakened by 2 loud male German voices, “German police. Your passports.” It kind of freaked me out a little. D says I’m reading too much Anne Frank. After falling asleep again, we were awakened by another female voice speaking in German. I assumed she was wanting to see the ticket, but when I got it out she yelled at me to keep my feet off the seat! Yipes! Rude awakenings and the worst WC yet! Not the best train ride. We finally got off that train in Munich for our next connection to Zurich. While waiting we sat at the Coke Lounge and D brought me some lunch from Subway…nice comfort food from home. The train to Zurich was full of beautiful scenery! Next…Interlaken…