Spring Break: The Tale of Seven (Eight?) Cities

After a long ten days on the road (and the train tracks, and in planes), we have finally returned to the comfort and familiarity of our flat in London. Why were we gone for 10 days, you ask? Well, last week was spring break, a time when students at the ICLC run all around Europe then come home exhausted. On the list of cities were Pisa, Perugia, Florence, Rome, Vatican City, Valencia, Barcelona, and Paris. My feet are more tired than they have ever been, and although I loved break I am super glad to be home.

Basically, it's going to take between 3 and 10 posts to describe all of break well enough. Eventually I will get all of the stuff up, including pictures (Although the majority of those may come a little later). As the beginning is the best place to start, here is what went down during break.

PISA:

After my Thursday classes I met Andrea and Casey to head to Stansted to catch our flight. We ate some weird but yummy noodles for dinner, followed by some frappucino's for dessert, and our flight went well. A few hours later we landed in Pisa. We got through immigration  fine, and decided to take the twenty minute walk to our hostel. About five minutes into our trek, we came to a roundabout. The sidewalks ended, it was dark, and our directions had led us astray!!! So, we took a cab to our hostel, where Andrea (who had made the reservation) was asked to provide her passport for ID.

She opened her travel folder, and it wasn't there. Then she dug through her backpack, and couldn't find it. Frantic, we headed back to the airport to search for her passport. The airport was closed, though, and we stood outside for a few minutes, waiting for a taxi, until we realized that 1) there were no more taxis, and 2)our phones refused to call any phone within Italy. Megafail? I think so. I decided to pace near the doors in case I could get the attention of a security guard to call a taxi.

This was pretty much fruitless until a man walked out of the door, and I slipped inside. Then I was trapped between two sets of doors. Trapped might actually be a little drastic. I could get outside, but not in. So, I knocked and waved until the cleaning lady came over. Funny thing about Italy is that the people speak Italian. Luckily, the last lesson I did on Rosetta Stone was about needing things. I blurted out "Noi abbiamo bisogno di un taxi!" and then continued to say our mobiles (i nostri telefonini) weren't working. Despite the fact that the last bit was actually Spanish, she understood and called over security.

We talked to the security guy, got a taxi back to the hostel, and went to bed. When we got up in the morning we walked back to the airport to file a report about Andrea's passport with the police. Once that was done, we walked across (seriously all the way across) Pisa to the tower. When we got the the area where the tower is located and took  off our cardigans (we wore dresses underneath because it was so sunny and beautiful) Andrea's phone rang. It was the US consulate in Florence, calling to say her passport had been turned in and was at the Pisa airport!

Since we were already across town we climbed the tower first. Although being up so high really freaked me out, it was gorgeous. You could see all of Pisa, as well as the surrounding area. It. Was. Beautiful. After, we trekked back to the airport to retrieve Andrea's passport, and found the hostel we would be staying in that night.

We ate dinner at a real Italian restaurant (I liked it, Andrea didn't) and searched for canolli all over the city, then returned to the hostel for bed.

More later...