So, in Florence there is this Gelato shop that has this chocolate flavor with 70% cocoa concentration. Delicious.
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Here's a recap from everything since day two in Dubrovnik:
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The bus to Montenegro didn't work out. I didn't mind paying the 180 kunas (30 bucks) and traveling round trip in the bus for 4 hours to see Kotor, Montenegro, but the ticket office at the bus station in Dubrovnik discouraged it, as I would only get an hour and a half in Kotor before having to take the bus home. Looking back, I still wish I would have gone. The plan B spent in Dubrovnik was okay, but not very fun. I tried to push for something fun anyways, but it didn't go so well.
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I first took a short boat ride to the nearest Island to Dubrovnik, Lokrum. I thought it would be interesting as it had a once-monestary-turned-Hapsburg Palace on the island, but that turned out to be a disappointment. This turned out to be a bad sign for the other islands that I would go to the next day, as they all turned out to be more or less tourist traps. I hate toursit traps.
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I returned to Dubrovnik, ate lunch, and then went to a beach near my hostel. Again a disappointment, as this beach happened to be rocky and dirty. I really wished I had gone to Kotor anyway.
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But, the day wasn't a complete failure, as I decided to return late to the old town, not knowing what I would do. I ended up taking some really cool b/w photos after dark, which in a city such as Dubrovnik, turned out these really cool old fashioned photos. The Dubrovnik old town is not at all modern, so any picture you take, as long as tourists are out of the way, looks very much like it would have a century ago.
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I went home and went to bed, and got up early to take my bags to a locker at the bus station and get aboard a ferry to go on a mini-cruise of the adriatic. For the most part this resulted in another tourist trap, as the islands we went to were really lacking any uniqueness to them. The boat was full of old Frenchies and Brits, who got drunk and listened to their Euro awful euro music. I listened to my Ipod the entire time, and I guess that my disgust over the music was obvious as I made these two German kids laugh and ask me whether I hated their music. yes.
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But, the last island did include the first nice beach I had been to thus far, so I didn't have to worry about cutting myself on any rocks while swimming again. But all in all, I was anxious and happy when we headed back to Dubrovnik.
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I then had a stroke of fortune, as the boat ran out of gas. We had to make an emergency stop in Dubrovnik's new port, which played well for me because I was able to escape and go next door to my destination--the bus station. I picked up my bags and made it to my bus in just enough time to go to the airport. It was on to the fatherland. I arrived in Stuttgart late and checked into my hostel at about 1 am.
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Mmmm. Stuttgart... Leberkaese and Krapfen... I spent the day taking care of the necessities, as I preped for Italy. I tried to see the doctor, but he was on vacation (go figure-socialism), so I settled for a pharmacy in town that gave me some antibiotics for the cut I got while swimming in Split. It's a few days later now and I'm surprised how quickly that healed up the wound, as It was still open a week after I cut it. No worries about an infection now. I also bought an external hard drive for all of my pictures and did some laundry.
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At the laundromat I must have been in a particularly good mood, as I chose to start up a conversation with a guy who was also doing his laundry. I saw he had a suitcase full of clothes, so I asked him if he was traveling also. oops. bad move. I was really embarassed when he said he was on vacation... 365 days a year. Socialism, remeber?.. High unemployment and homelessness... But he turned out to be really nice and we talked for quite a while.
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I was in Pisa later that night. Beautiful plane ride. It was a short trip so the plane didn't even hit it's max. flying elevation, and you could see the terrain and cities all below. I saw the alps in Switzerland, Lake Como, Milan, and all of Tuscany, and I could even see the leaning tower of Pisa as the plane came in for a landing. That was all of Pisa I would see, however, as I immediately jumped on a train to Florence...
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It was late again trying to find my hostel, but once finding it, I went straight to sleep and got up early to see the city of Michelangelo and the Medici.
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I met Robyn at the Duomo at eleven a.m., and she invited me to follow them on a tour of Renaissance Florence. The tour was honestly boring, probably because Robyn and I couldn't pay attention. Afterwards we went to lunch, had some Gelato, went to the Boboli gardens, had some Gelato, went to dinner, had some Gelato, and then finished the night taking some cool night pics again along the Arno. Very fun indeed.
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So that leads me to today, which was full of walking around Florence. I didn't make any museum reservations like Rick suggests (Rick Steves, that is). So I woke up early and went to the Uffizi an hour before it opened. I was first in line, but for some reason, they opened two hours late, so I stood for three hours! Finally I was let in. The Uffizi was great, and I saw the "birth of Venus", but I admit that a lot of the art there was over my head and I didn't know what to look for in the museum. Just like the Louvre in Paris, I saw what I wanted and skimmed through the rest and was out of the building in no time.
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It was a different story at the Accademia. I waited for an hour in that line, but the marginal benefit of line-waiting at the Accademia is much higher than at the Uffizi, because the David was awesome! I had Irving Stone's book "the Agony and Ecstasy" with me, so I read through the chapters about the David. It was all very fascinating and I loved the emotion and movement that Michelangelo was able to express in David's body and face. I think it is easily the best piece of sculpture that I've seen yet.
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I then hit a number of different sights, including the Medici chapels and Sante Croce. Sante Croce has the tombs of Michelangelo, Rossini, Machiavelli, and Galileo, which was a treat, and I sat down in the Pazzi chapel and fell asleep. I was really tired.
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So, that leads me to now. I only have three minutes left, so I have to end anyway. I'm about to meet Robyn, probably for some more Gelato, then it is the Borgello tomorrow and off to Rome.
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Arrivederci.
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