Adventures in Firenze Land and Halloween Spain-Style!

So there are literally too many pictures to share... so please feel free to click the following links to see some picture albums of Florence. The first is mine, the second is Katherines. She sortof has a lot better pictures, and much more that her nd I are actually in. So enjoy!

* http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2239310097389.2109459.1087110167&type=1&l=fb0a5be663

* http://www.flickr.com/photos/69342369@N08/

So this past weekend was spent in the most romantic way. Alone with Katherine Davis in Florence, Italy, seeing the sights, eating Italian food, and shopping! We took an early early early morning flight, per usual, so we would have the whole day in Florence to explore. Within seconds of walking out of the hostel post checking in, we stumbled upon this awesome wall made of local art, graffiti, newspaper clippings, etc. Feli was right... you can't go ten feet in Florence without seeing art. We walked through the tiny winding streets, past all the big name shops any city in Italy would have (Gucci, etc), through the Piazza della Signoria with the giant arch as an entrance, and to the Duomo, a gorgeous cathedral made of white and green marble. It was truly stunning. We stopped to have lunch and coffee at a small pizza shop on a side street, where we become friends with the waiter (of course) and asked for some good bars to go to later that night. After wards we found the leather market! That was unbelievable. It was a big market that stretched through multiple streets, packed full of people admiring and haggling for fine leather goods. Florence is big into leather. I mean big. Even the wild market has genuine hand-made leather goods. I got the Gabrees some good gifts :) Oh, and Papa Bear if you're reading this... I wore that bead necklace you got for Grandma in Italy when you studied abroad in college, and they were selling the SAME necklace in the market! It looked like I had just bought it, haha.

  
After the leather market, we toured the Santa Croce Church, which is apparently considered "the Westminister Abbey of Florence" because it hold the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo, and Rossini. Connected to the church is a famous leather school where students learn to make leather goods the right way. We got to see some of the work being done too! One of the younger guys working let us take a bunch of pictures of his work station, including the fires they use to heat their tools. Fun! By this time we were pretty beat, so we toured the streets a bit more then headed home to the hostel (of course stopping at a store to pick up some beer). We moved our bags from the luggage room to our room, got cleaned up, and headed downstairs to the common area to see if we could meet some fellow travelers. As we passed the front desk we heard an Aussie girl trying to explain how to spell her last name to the clueless front desk clerk, we laughed at how awful that must be, and commented on how she seemed like a really nice girl. As luck would have it, this girl Tegan and her boyfriend Dan were the people we met later on! We all sat in the common room, sipping drinks, and getting to know each other while another couple from Australia joined in while eating their dinner. They were traveling after school pretty much blindly. They had already been all over Europe, and intended on seeing more, plus the States, and Mexico with no time constraints or set flights/hostels in mind. How lucky. When it became too much to bear to watch the other couple eating their delicious food, we all decided to join forces to find a restaurant. We managed to find a pretty rustic looking place and had a delicious dinner, complimented with wine that I later (upon return from the bathroom) would dump an entire glass of into my lap. Classy, Grace. By the end of dinner it was clear we were just too tired to go out to the bars, so we all called it a night and got some good sleep for the next day ahead. Unfortunately, due to poor planning, Dan and Tegan didn't get the hostel the next night because there were no vacant beds :(

Saturday was the day we basically saw the whole city. Literally. First order of business, running/cabbing it to see Michelangelo's statue of David. We were very late for our tour, and very far from the museum, so we had to take a cab to ensure we'd actually get in for our time slot (they're pretty serious about it). Let me tell you though, it was worth it. The museum of Academia itself is beautiful, and has a lot to offer, but the statue of David really is just amazing. Apparently it was made from a stone that was declared "unworkable" and left to waste away in a courtyard, but Michelangelo, in his infinite genius, made it work. The intricacy of the statue is flawless, David's carefree pose and intense gaze actually makes you develop a little bit of a crush on him. not saying I did. It's just a marvelous piece of art. We weren't supposed to take pictures but Katherine and I of course did... so creep those for sure.

After David, we got breakfast and continued to wander the streets with no real goal in mind. We ended up getting back to the Duomo, and we decided to climb the bell tower next to it. It was like climbing a mountain to get to the top... and those of you who have ever had the pleasure of hiking with me (the names Ben Hyde and Cesar Osuba come to mind) know I am just a TREAT when asked to physically exert myself. I did the math... we climbed the equivalent amount of stairs as it would take to get to the 17th or 18th floor of a building. I have almost no muscles... so by the time we got to the top I was dead, but it was worth it. The view was incredible... you could see the whole city and the surrounding mountains. Amazing.

The rest of the day was spent meandering around, seeing some sights, we toured a small cathedral, hit up the leather market again to snag some more gifts for our American loves, and eventually made it back to the hostel. We made friends with a guy in our hostel dorm, who introduced us to his large group of friends he was traveling with, and ended up getting dinner with them. the group was split 50/50... half of them loved us, hung out with us at dinner, shared common interest, the works. The other half did not feel the same. I think we were intruding a little on their vacation. That's fine. After dinner we again decided to be a lame and tired, so we just went right to bed. Granted it was like 1am. Our last day we spent having a long lunch and being reeeaall relaxed. We spent an hour sitting in one of the plazas, eating gelato and people watching. Actually, it was more like dog watching. We found one little baby nugget pup that was just so excited to meet new people, new dogs, and see new things. Soooo cute. I wanted to cuddle him.


LAST NIGHT was Halloween! Barcelona has recently been getting very into Halloween because of all the tourism it gets, so there was a lot to do. Katherine and I had bought mascarade masks in Florence for the occasion, so we paired them with cute dresses and called it a costume.We spent half the night at our friend Lila's apartment just hanging out with friends, and ended up going to a club called "Opera", which was hosting a big party for Halloween, free entry. Of course though, this means every American and his/her mother was there. It was so packed and out of hand, they had to call a cop in to control the crowds. At that point, we decided to bounce. Overall though it was a good night. Good weekend.

 
Next week is Ireland! And then the week after that Vick Nish comes to visit! So so so so soooo excited!