Week Two

Sunday

We decided to have a pretty chill day today. Initially we wanted to go to the coast, but we didn’t wake up until noon, so that was out of the question. We opted to take blankets and lay in the sun and read at the Fortezza Medicea. Nothing too exciting but the weather was nice.

Since I am already tired of Italian food we decided to go out to eat anything that wasn’t. Our choices were limited to a couple of Chinese restaurants, kebobs or a Mexican food place that we have been warned against. Chinese was the best possibly option in this situation so off we went. Of the two choices we picked our venue and unfortunately we chose poorly. The only dominant flavor was salt. On the upside the meal was cheap and we ended up sitting by and talking to some British boys. They were on a Cricket tour and were in Siena for a couple of days. We had a very surface level conversation with them, but it was extremely satisfying to even have meaningless banter with a stranger. It reminded me of how social I am and how normal it is for me to chat with strangers.

Monday

Today I decided on no make up and work out clothes all day. I love to have these days every once in awhile and I was due for one. It was also prep day for our trip to Siena so we were just running errands and packing for the most part anyway. The only thing of substance I did was take a walk to a place I had never been. Rachel and I set out to walk to the train station to see how long it took so we could decide when we had to leave in the morning. Along the way we found a random escalator on a street corner and decided to take a ride. It took us underground and then to the exit of the walls of the city. We walked on discovering a very nice more rural area with beautiful trees and quaint restaurants and gellaterias. It turned into an aimless walk to see what we could see. It was nice to experience a different part of Siena that you never would go for a purpose unless you lived there. We then had to refocus and start over to take the walk to the train station. By the end of the entire journey both Rachel and I were sporting some serious farmer tans on our legs after walking for about two hours in the afternoon sun.

Tuesday

I am not the most fond of travel days and this was to be just that. Our flight was out of Pisa so that meant two trains before the plane and then a bus on the other side. We thought it would be smart to break the day up by playing tourist in Pisa before our flight. Sounded like a good idea in theory but it ended up being a tragic waste of time. Let me start by saying the day was an extremely hot one and add that we had to take our backpacks around Pisa with us. We got in, located a map and discovered we had to walk all the way to the other side of the city. No big. Or that’s what we thought until we were sweaty tired and over it. We took signature pushing the tower and holding it up and then we were done with Pisa. We realized that Pisa doesn’t have much more to offer than the tower and an airport. We gave ourselves about 4 hours too long in the city and opted to sit in the airport rather than the hot sun.

Upon arriving in Ibiza we were smelly and hungry. Checked in and rinsed and then we decided it was time to conquer hunger. This ended up being another greater task than expected. Everything around where we were staying was super touristy and low quality. We walked and walked until finally we were about to settle. Then Rachel spotted a quaint place in the corner with a blackboard menu and a cute outdoor seating area (not sure that it even had a name). The options were given to us verbally and we chose a few tapas items and a pitcher of sangria. Our server was a one man show who also went in the back and cooked our food. I know this because I could see into the window to the kitchen from my seat. Great success!

Wednesday

One of my great loves in life it the beach so this day was perfect. If you want to make me happy take me to the ocean and give me some sun block and I will be content for hours! We went to the main beach in San Antoni, the area where we were staying, only breaking for lunch. We spent hours lazy in the sun reading, drinking delicious San Miguel’s and taking occasional dips in the water.

Wednesday evening we tried the Asian thing again. This time we went to a combination Chinese and Thai restaurant with no expectation for greatness. It was mediocre and the price was right. After dinner we retired to a beach front bar for drinks and to watch the sun set. The place was really cute and very chill. A little later we decided it was time to pump it up so we went to crowded west end bar district. It’s the kind of place where people are on the corner trying to compete for your business with the best drink special. We settled on Hush because we could get two crappy vodka drinks and three shots for 6 Euro. The atmosphere was good but it wasn’t crowded enough, so post drinks we headed to a club called Eden with some new found British friends. We got our fill of dancing about the time when I felt like one of the boys was getting a little too comfortable. Comfortable enough to make a move. I may not have a bf but I have someone and on top of that I am not that kind of girl. It was time to put our escape plan into action. We excused ourselves to the bathroom, found the exit and disappeared, heading in for the night.

Thursday/Friday

This day started out fairly well we took a bus across the island to Eivissa, which is the main city. On the way there I thought I had the travel experience of the day when an older local woman was ranting in spanish non stop at too dads that did not have their kids in their lap when people (not even her) had to stand. She went so far as to make one of the gentlemen show her he had bought a ticket for his son, therefore he was entitled to a seat, before she would shut her mouth. We made it to Platja des Figuerettes, one of the main beaches there, for another day in the sun. Another nice day at the beach. Before an evening of travel.

Ok so I would say I have traveled a relatively great amount in my life. I have conquered many cities train, tube and bus systems with ease. This night was proof that I can still screw myself in a bad way when it comes to public transportation. When we got in from the airport we had to take a shuttle to the main station in Pisa. When we bought our train ticket the machine said we had only two minutes to departure. Now this is where me being deliriously tired messed up our entire night. I thought that the board said platform 8 to Firenze at 32 past the hour, which I still believe to be true. We literally ran to the platform but the train was already gone from 8 (that’s the theory). Then I realized there was one leaving at that time to Livorno at platform 9 right next to us. I know the time was right so I figured I could have had the final station and platform wrong. I had a quick second to make a decision before it would pull out and leave us. Knowing that train service gets spotty around the eleven o’clock hour I knew if we missed it and it was it that we would be waiting some time. So split second decision we got on knowing that Livorno was in the same general direction as our connecting station and that maybe I just was tired enough to get it wrong on the board. BAD choice. As soon as we got on I had a feeling that we were wrong, but we could do nothing but assess the situation after the short 15 minute ride to Livorno. Upon asking at arrival my fear was confirmed, we had just missed the proper train, this was not it. We were told to go to platform three or we would have to take a bus. We ran to 3 as the train pulled out leaving us behind. It was one of those moments where you think you made it and then you realize the doors are closed and no matter how important you think you are they are pulling out and not stopping for you. We then discovered the station was closed, no buses were running and that we were stuck in a sketchy place late at night. We had just over an hour to wait for the next train to back track to Pisa and fix everything. The place was deserted except for a few homeless looking men here and there. Not the best feeling. Even though I knew everything would turn out fine I felt the responsible thing to do would be to let someone know...just in case. We waited, hungry and tired, for an hour and then successfully made it back to Pisa only to discover that missing the train in Livorno put us onto a bus to our connection in Empoli instead of a train. We met some Turkish engineering students who were taking their one opportunity in life to travel and passed the next hour of waiting for the bus learning a little bit about Turkish culture. The chain reaction continued. When we got to Empoli at 2:30 only to find that the next train would not be until 6:30. The bus driver suggested we continue to Florence with a better chance for a train. By the time we arrived there around 3AM the train station was closed until after 4 AM so we couldn’t even be certain when the next train to Siena would depart. This was when we had to make a choice hang out at the train station all night or get a room. The part of me that was still sandy and un-showered wanted a room, but my practical side took over and we decided to tough it out with our new Turkish friends who had a train departing at 4:30. The time passed relatively fast until we were finally able to board our train at 5:30AM and start our final journey to our Siena home. We finally got in around 7:30AM and after our lengthy walk home we showered, wound down and crashed. Needless to say the rest of our Friday was uneventful and not worth mentioning.