Ciao friends!

Hello there! This blog is going to be a doozie of a blog because there is just so much to write about. So that could be a great thing for those of you who enjoy my blogs or a terrible thing for those of you who hate to see them pop into your inbox. But if you are one of the latter, than I don’t respect your opinion anyway. Anyway, just gonna jump right into the good stuff.

Sapna Squared

For those of you who are like me and can’t get enough of the awesomeness that is Sapna, imagine having someone who looks just like her, talks just like her, dresses just like her, and even has the same last name. Yes, you guessed it…Sapna’s sister is in town. And then last week she invited me to meet up with her, her sister, and her sister’s husband. So off I went, out to meet the Sisters Sapna. Her sister and brother-in-law were extremely nice, asking me all sorts of questions and putting me at ease. But the parts that weren’t at ease, I decided to assist with a few glasses of rosé wine.

Anyway, I was trying to play it responsibly, so they know that I am not a bad influence on their sister. Even Sapna wasn’t her usual get-up-and-dance self. I was itching to dance, especially after my third glass of wine, but I took all my strength to restrain myself. Then, all of a sudden, the owner of the bar, who also is in the band that happened to be playing that night, took the spotlight and started shining it on people, and he shines it on me and says ‘What is the matter with you? You are always the first one dancing! Are you on antibiotics?!’ So much for playing it cool, huh?

By the next bar, I was dancing like a crazy person, because even I couldn’t stop the wine from having its effects, and Sapna’s sister later told me that I told her that ‘It’s so cool that she’s old and still drinks.’ She’s only 27. I don’t know why I make these wild claims.

XYZ

This is just a little story to relay. Again, I went out with Sapna, her sister, and Sapna’s roommate, Elena. So we were getting our dance on in this French bar, and we were the only ones dancing, as per usual. Because we were the only ones dancing, we had a lot of people looking at us, and laughing. Or so I thought they were laughing at our dancing. It wasn’t long before I was in the bathroom and went to pull down my fly to go tinkle, when lo and behold. My fly was very down. And my superman underoos were very exposed. That’s probably what the French were snickering about. “Oh look at zat stooped American wiz her underpantalons showeeng.”

The Xray Shown ‘Round the World.

So, last Thursday my friend Matt came to visit. He had never been to Europe, so he opted to kill two birds with one stone. Anyway, once he arrived, I wanted to show him downtown and I wanted to get some dinner with him. We were waiting at the bus station to go downtown, when this woman sits down next to us. She doesn’t talk to either of us, but instead motions everything. So I assumed she knew we were American and thought we didn’t know French. But as time progressed, it was obvious that she couldn’t really talk for whatever reason. But that didn’t stop her from trying. So props to her.

Then it all took a turn for the weird. She took out a letter and gave it to Matt who gave it to me, since it was in French. It was basically a letter stating the results of some lab tests she had received. So I had no idea what she wanted from us. So I said, ‘oh that’s too bad. Sorry.’ And she just looks at me. So I just keep saying different things in regard to what it says, but eventually we both just give up.

But then, she reaches in her purse and pulls out this manila envelope. Then opens it, and Voilà…it’s a hand Xray. She takes it out and holds it to the light so that we could look at it, and then she shows us a swollen spot on her hand. And then she lifts up her skirt to show us more swollen parts on her leg. Matt and I are just stupefied. So we just sort of sit there in silence and wait for the bus to come while intermittently glancing back at the exposed leg and Xray. So much for convincing Matt that Nice is quite normal.

Driving on a Full Tank of Funny

So after going out all night on Thursday night, Matt and I woke up really early to head to Florence. The night before, one of my friends, Didier, that plays in Merla here decided he wanted to go to Florence, too, and offered to drive. Which was pretty exciting, because how often do you get to drive from Nice to Florence. Anyway, I was feeling quite horrible from the night before and lack of sleep in the beginning. But as the car ride progressed, so did my spirits and brilliant sense of humor.

I was Didier’s subpar navigator in the front seat, along with the dog he is dog sitting, and Matt was keeping us entertained from the backseat. We were rocking out to some music, and I just kept the zinger’s coming. My moment of glory (or shame) came when we had to pay toll in Italy. They charged 25 euros for a span of road that was less than 100 miles, so I go (and I am cracking up still just typing this) “25 euros! That’s highway robbery…literally!” Nobody laughed. So, I thought it was because they didn’t hear it. So I repeated it announcing the forthcoming joke. This time everyone came around, but I am pretty sure they weren’t laughing with me. More like an at me situation. But that still became the joke of the trip. Even if only for me.

Florence, Day 1

We arrived at about 4ish in Florence. Actually, we arrived at about 3 but because my navigational skills aren’t where they should be, we ended up doing circles around Florence. And Didier’s window wouldn’t work, so he would ask all these people on motorbikes for directions, but he would have to roll up next to them and then open his car door to ask them for directions. It was so National Lampoon’s European Vacation, that it became hilarious by the third time he had to stop and ask for directions.

Anyway, we finally made it to our hostel, which was pretty nice, except we had a room on the first floor which connected to room where all the worker’s stay so we couldn’t close our door, and so that was just a little weird. But they were cool about letting the dog stay with us, and they even watched the dog while we did sightseeing, so we were liking the place even more.

The first stop was the Museo dell’Academia, where the statue of the David stands. That was probably the most amazing thing I saw in all of Florence. I had no idea how huge it really was. And it is just so impressive. Nothing at all that a picture or a textbook can capture. The museum also had an exhibit on musical instruments, and I think it’s fair to say I saw my first ever hurdy-gurdy. Matt thought it was funny cause without realizing I would make up the sounds that each instrument would make if it were up to me and my ideal world.

After the museum, we went to dinner at this place that took us about 30 minutes to walk to (which we later learned was only 5 minutes away if we took the direct route). So we had one bitch of a waitress, but I had my Italian pizza, and it was really so delicious. The crust was so doughy and heavenly. Well worth the mistaken extra 25 minutes to get there!

After Pizza Heaven, we went back to the hostel where I got dolled up to go out on the town. I actually had a friend from Nice who moved to Florence, so we made plans to meet up with him so he could take us to the good bars. It was a little strange at first with the four of us, because each of us were so different. So we were all a little quiet at the start. But then we hit up this bar which was pretty fun, and once the boys started on their beers and shots, all of a sudden I was standing at the bar looking over at them all playing foosball and chatting to each other. It was a relief that they all got along. We stayed there for awhile, where I got to talk to a few Italians (wink, wink), and then we headed out in search of a place to go dancing. We made a pit stop at a place where they sell sandwiches and pizza all night long, and after stuffing our faces, we decided going back was the best way to go. It was Alex’s last night, so we him farewell, and thanked him, and off we went to bed. I think I fell asleep in 2.5 seconds.

OH! I almost left out the best story of the first day!! So Didier had to go into the hostel to get the dog before dinner, so we met up with him, but decided to wait downstairs (the hostel is on the third floor), for him to come down. So we were waiting on the sidewalk next to a window of the first floor of the building where the hostel was. All of a sudden this woman comes to apartment building, and she starts talking to us in Italian, so we have no idea what she was saying. Then she goes in English “Away from my window. I don’t like people under my window.” Then she goes inside and so Matt and I move a little bit away from the window, just thinking how unfriendly the lady was. But nothing had us prepared for the next thing she was about to do. Matt goes ‘I bet she is going to look out the window to see if we are still there.’ Not only does she look out the window, but she opens the window, bucket in hand, and next thing we know, there is water being thrown at us. So my jean’s leg is soaked, so I move a little further from her window, but then she comes around a second time, and throws more water at us. Like projectile water shooting. Not nice. Those little Italian ladies can be crazy! But like protective of the window crazy. Not Xray showing crazy.

Florence, Day 2

I think it’s fair to say that this day was one of the most exhausting days of my existence. I wasn’t feeling too well, I think mostly from lack of sleep, but nevertheless, we headed out into the streets of Florence. Didier was going to be leaving that day, so we did the smaller sights first, so we could all do them before he left.

We headed to the Duomo and another Cathedral where we just walked around and did the picture bit. All the art was pretty much the same in the Churches at that point, so we did them pretty quickly.

Then we saw Didier off, and Matt and I went to the train station to buy our tickets back to Nice for the next morning. So after walking all the way there for the tickets we went back to the Museo dell’Ufizzi, where we had previously bought our reserved tickets (which is a super good idea if you ever go, because it saves you at least an hour’s waiting time to get in). So there we got to see Boticelli’s The Birth of Venus, and his Springtime, and I got to see my first ever in person DaVinci, which was pretty awesome for me, since he is my favorite artist. There were also a lot of statues to be seen, tons of paitings, and just lots of walking. At that point I was getting extremely exhausted, and the paintings were all starting to look the same. So we hurriedly did the rest of the rooms, and then a couple hours later were out of the museum.

On the way to the train station we serendipitously found a Serial Killer Museum, so of course, I had to go see that, too. In theory it was pretty cool. There were wax renderings of a chosen 11 serial killers, and then we got these recording devices were we were offered the stories behind each one. It would have been much more exciting if we weren’t so tired at that point, but it was still pretty cool. I learned that America is home to 60% of all serial killers. And Italy and England tie for second with like 6% or something vastly smaller than the U.S. So we are the mass producers of McDonald’s, Pop Stars, and Serial Killers. Bravo.

After a little rest back at the hostel, Matt and I headed back to the bar area and went to this place the guy in the hostel recommended, called Astoria. It was like a swanky bar upstairs, and a dance floor downstairs. So we traded off dancing and sitting for a few hours, and were already feeling it by about 1 AM, so we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.

Florence, Day 3

The third day started at the buttcrack of dawn, with our train leaving at 7:50. So we got some food and beverages for the ride, and headed to our train, cutting it pretty close. We boarded on the 1^st class section though, and we couldn’t change over to 2^nd class without getting off the train and getting back on the 2^nd class traincar. However, as soon as we got off the train we hear the whistle blow, and then this person starts motioning us to hurry up, so there we were running to second class. Haha. That sounds like the story of my life. We made it just in time, and then finally slumped in our seats and didn’t do much for the next four hours while the train took us to our first stop in Genova.

Genova was absolutely gorgeous, though. Going past in the train, and seeing the Italian landscape with the Mediterranean behind it was so beautiful! The train stopped in the more industrialized part of the city, but it was still quite beautiful. So we just chilled there for about an hour, and then got on our next train back to Nice. Nothing really exciting happened on the train to speak of.

Back to Nice

At about 4 pm, we were back in Nice. We ate and then headed downtown, because it was the last day of Carnival, where they actually burn an effigy of the king in a boat in the Mediterranean. They then had a fireworks show, which was really awesome. It put the Jersey Fourth of July fireworks to shame. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was beautiful, and the fireworks were beautiful. All the makings for a spectacular show.

We hit the bars up in Vieux Nice after that and then headed back where we would finally be able to sleep until whenever we saw fit. (I saw 2 pm the next day as fit).

Matt’s last day was pretty chill. We went back downtown where we got Gelatos and did a little shopping. We also did the ferriswheel, and then dinner at a Hibachi restaurant. Together we did a whole lot of eating. Which was delicious in its own right. Then we went out to meet up with Sapna and her sister for a little while, and then headed home, because Matt’s taxi was to come at 4:30 in the morning.

And so that brings me to today. Matt left this morning, and since then I have done nothing but sleep, eat, and watch movies. It’s my vacation from my vacation, and I love it.

Blah blah blah.

Anyway, That was the mega-uberlong-stupendous blog I had to offer to you. I hope this finds you all well, and I will now start my official birthday countdown…

Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it….

14 Days till this girl’s birthday!

Miss you all!!

XOXOX

Dina