Europe Day 7: Florence – Pisa

We woke up this morning to a not so friendly welcome from the owners of the hotel because we had miscommunication of the check out time. Regardless, we went to another cafe for some pastries and coffee/tea again and chatted for another 2 hours. Next, we explored the perfumery, where Romo almost died from sneezing, but we also sampled some really good perfume. I especially liked this rose soap bar thing. Next, off to the train station to catch a train to Pisa to fulfill Romo’s life goal #1b. Lucky for us the train company employees were on strike which means minimal personel to ask questions and delayed and cancelled trains. Despite that and with patience, we were able to get on a train (albeit AC-less) to Pisa! Hoping to transfer to directly arrive at the famous leaning tower, we found out our transfer train was canceled. Instead, “our friend” Rick helped us to a bus which took us there. After taking some leaning/pushing/flicking of the tower pictures, trying to get some cheapo sunhats and some refreshments and a much delayed lunch, we’re on the road again making it just in time for the (thankfully not canceled) train to Florence – again amazing race-style since they decided to change platforms on us last minute! We then had our first meal at McDonald’s in Europe and Aimes’ first time eating McDonald’s with us. We rushed to buy some water and crackers for our overnight train then quickly grabbed our stuff from the hotel to the train station once again to wait for yet another train. On the train, we realized we bought the first class tickets so it was nice to see a personal sink with personal items for us. It was also very sketchy when the a train employee man asked for our passports and tickets and just left with them with no explanation. Then Romo and I just had another heart to heart since our 3rd roommate never showed up!