Another crap breakfast of a croissant and stale bread, except this time we had to get up early and so we beat the hotel staff and breakfast had not been set up. There was nothing on the table no food or anything we had to ask them for it, we ended up having crap all for breakfast except our stale bread. Kieran had nothing because of how useless it was. Today we are driving to Florence via Pisa. It was another drive day but with the break made it easy. Again no one else was awake it was just me by myself. Occasionally there would be another person who would wakes up but I cant talk to them as I will wake the others. I really wanted to buy a travel board game so I can play with who ever wakes up. We had spoken about this previously with the others and we had devised a way where 2 people play with the whole bus in a game of ‘guess who?’ and we make people bend forward when they are not in the game. Should be good when we come to play it. Real life guess who. Makes me think you could play it even better if you had all identical twins. (Can you see how when the majority of us were sleeping Glen got lost in his own isolation and when a tad MAD!)
We arrived at Pisa and had a briefing on security about pickpockets in Italy and especially in Tourist parts. This started my Paranoia, (well it really started in Paris with the Gypsies. Filthy Gypos) Where the bus dropped us of it was a bit of a walk to actually get to the tower. It was a massive bus lot where we stopped and as soon as we got out we started to get harassed by these guys wanting to sell us stuff. If you just keep saying no and don’t look interested they will soon move away. One thing we were told was that it is illegal to buy fake merchandise in Italy as the police are on the lookout for people selling and buying it. Jaz said if we wanted to get any (eg bags and sunglasses) that we should get it here as there are less police in Pisa.
On the walk up to the Leaning Tower of Pisa you pass all these stalls and dodgy dudes with their sheets unfolded with all the fake stuff on top (the sheets enable them to quickly bundle there goods p if Police are around) trying to get you to buy some of it. Mostly it was aimed at women who wanted handbags. Kieran saw a few she liked but didn’t buy any. One Lady, Amanda bought something like 4 handbags she went mental for them. We also worked out if you walked closer to the real stalls that the dodgy guys would leave you alone. No one asked you to buy a Rolex near the stands.We walked in and there it was the famous tower. Kieran said to say it was not as big as she had
expected. Also in the same part as the tower was a basilica, and something else I cant remember what. As you walked up there were a whole lot of people doing the pose where it looks like you are holding up the tower or pushing it over. The massive grass area was all roped off. We soon found out why, there were a few people, not many sitting on the grass taking photos from a different angle… laying down. Then there was a whistle blown and along came these 2 ‘grass police’ ( also known as the grass nazi) they were there to stop you from walking on the grass and that was it. They didn’t care about the people selling fake merchandise or anything else except walking on their precious grass. Daniel and Tarshi from our group started to hang out on the grass and took heaps of photos from there as they wanted the Nazis to chase after them.
We obviously took a whole bunch of photos of us trying to hold up the tower, why not hey everyone else was. I could imagine how bad it would be in the warmer months. A lot of our photos looked as though we had been photo shopped in, due to standing in the shade and having the flash go off. Still a few turned out alright. We spent about an hour there and got our souvenirs and then headed back to the bus. Jaz had just introduced the rule that if you were late to the buss you had to do a chicken dance in front of the whole group. No one wanted to be the first.As we waited for the group to gather there were the 2 older people of the group who were missing. It ended up being Marina who was the last one. We tried to make her do the chicken dance but some how she got out of it dammit. On our way back to the bus for which we were late we had to cross a train track. Just as we were coming up to it the gates started to go down. Some people ran across, not knowing how far away the train was we decided to wait. Didn’t want to die that day. We had to wait for about 30 seconds before the train did arrive, (30 seconds when running late is a long time) as we are waiting there was still no train we thought we should have just run anyway. As the train approached we realised it was just one engine, no carriages that was it just one lousy engine… it was so pathetic. I kept envisaging that 2 guys on a push cart would come by after it. We quickly ran under the barrier and over to the bus.
On the way to Florence the bus stopped at a supermarket for us to buy some grog. The boys ended up getting something crazy like 2 cases of beer for 20 euros, all the beers came in 4 packs, I think they ended up with about 12 packs, David bought a mini keg as well (see photo that is Yo with the fridge, he is a non drinker so fitting he is with the fridge) At the shop I stopped to get some money out and then realised I want grog too it was so dam cheap. Ended up getting some wodka (that’s No typo it’s a W, its from Poland and 40% 700ml) with a fanta type drink for only 7 euro (that’s right $14 au) bargin!.
In Florence we stayed in these cabin things, It was kinda good but the heating you couldn’t turn on and it only came on and always when you weren’t in the room or at really weird hours. That night Kieran and I were sharing with the 2 oldest people of the group. It was a 4 bed cabin but
Kieran and I had our own room within the cabin which was good. Again it was a 2 single bed room but this time we pushed them 2gether. After we had time for a settle in we headed out to dinner, Dinner was a bus ride and little walk away. We had it in a restaurant where we got to have a drink of either wine or beer and got to choose our own pizza for main. The entrée came it was pasta, but really yummy pasta. So good I decded to have a 2nd helping. Bad mistake such a pasta novice. When the pizza arrived 
it did not come cut, you had to work out how you wanted to eat it. Most of us cut it up into slices. I had the 4 fromage (cheese) and Kieran had the pancetta. I almost finished mine bar one slice just couldn’t do it. (photo attached is me and my cheeseyness, only 1 other person got the cheese)That night back at the camp site I stayed up with the boys and tucked into the beers, I was saving the wodka for another time. Kieran went to bed at about 12 and so did most of the girls I ended up going to bed at 2 am.
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