A Vagabond's Antics: L'ostello di Karaoke!

Hey! I write this from a hostel in Florence, where myself and two other Aussies have hijacked the front desk and are now admitting all the new travelers and showing them to their rooms in place of the girl who actually runs the place. Can't say the other guests are overly happy with our loud music, thumpy dancing and raucous laughter as they try and sleep, but hey... Too bad, because we run this place now!

Roof of the Florentine Duomo

I would have left off right before leaving for Florence, if memory serves. So catching the train down here was intense. Early wake up, got to the station, all good. I got directed to my train bay and patiently waited half an hour for it. The train arrived three minutes after it was meant to, and only then did I realise I had been misdirected. I was standing at the wrong station. The reason I mention that it was running 3 minutes late is because these trains are very prompt, and will usually leave 2-3 minutes after arriving. So, as you can imagine, this train arriving three minutes after my real train was meant to was a big issue, because my train had likely left! I strolled on across to the correct bay and super lucky for me, the train had run 10 minutes late. I literally pulled my bag on to the train as the doors closed behind me. Intense stuff. Got to Florence and it was 3 hours before I could check in to the hostel I had booked whilst on the train (I know right, my organisation is incredible). So I sat in a maccas for 3 hours watching movies on my laptop as I waited for the hostel to open. Dropped my bags off and spent most of the rest of the day touring around a few places in Florence that had been recommended to me. One guy nearly Hakunnah Matata'd me here too, but I had learnt better. I checked out a few open air museums, saw the sun (finally), and spent some time checking out some of the more expensive shops in the world. Anyone keen to spend $14,000 on a watch? Anyone? Not so much? I can't imagine why not. That night I went out to a restaurant (situated right out the front of the Florentine Duomo) with some spanish guys and a mexican girl who were also staying in the hostel. Such an awesome night. These guys were like, crazy spanish. I literally have 101 stories to tell about these guys, they packed that much in to one night, so if you're interested do write this down and ask me about it when I get back. I'm not going to type it all in here because it will take far too long. Long story short though, they knew the owners of the restaurant, so a few snacks and the wine was pretty much free. Winning. Late night with them as we stayed up sharing stories in the attic of the hostel. Very fun.

The sun makes her first, and hopefully not her last, visit!

Today was a bit more touristy on my part. After realising that all I had eaten yesterday was literally only the snacks at the restaurant, I pretty much hightailed it for breakfast. I went for a massive walk through the city in and out of every nook and cranny. I checked out the leather market, which is all up about a kilometre of road spread out between all these side streets totally dedicated to selling leather. Bags, belts, everything, and you can haggle like crazy. 120 pounds down to 50... winning. I continued on to the Accademia Gallery, which is home to a pile of fantastic old paintings, as well as the Statue of David. Crazy how much taller the statue was than what I thought. In my mind he was like 6ft or so... and in reality he was closer to 6. I spent a few hours looking through the gallery before moving on down to Ponte Vecchio, an old bridge spanning the canals in Florence. This was the place with the aforementioned 'more expensive shops in the world'. I picked up a few bits and pieces for the family and spent some time walking up and down along the river, taking in the sights. The river is normally a green/grey this time of year, but this evening it was reflecting the color of the sky and ended up looking a very deep blue/grey. So cool. I wish photos could do it justice! I got a little lost making my way back to the hostel and ended up finding a hidden treasure of a pizza restaurant. More of a bakery I suppose, but it was just over 1 euro for the best pizza I've ever eaten. Problem is I now can't figure out where it is, because I found it whilst I was lost and I forgot to check out the name! Rookie error as. Met another Aussie at the hostel and we went out to get dinner together at some sweet as kebab/chips/drink for 5 euro spot. Winner. That's the most of it for the last 2 days. We are now still owning the check in desk whilst the girl who runs the hostel is off for a well earned sleep. The entrance to the hostel has now become a karaoke bar as we have been rejoined by the two spanish guys from yesterday! I hope to stick a video below. Not sure the other hostel members are able to sleep with all this noise, but then again, I'm not sure they're totally fussed with all this Italian/Spanish/English karaoke loving. Love seeing the faces of the confused guests as they walk through the door expecting a quiet greeting, and are instead greeted by 5 random spanish/italian/australian guys singing karaoke and pretending they know how to work the check in system. Fair to say, this hostel is awesome. Tomorrow I will continue to haggle for leather jackets, check out some of the outlying mountains, and the next day I will be making my way down to Assisi. Shame to say farewell in the next few days to these guys!