So, let's begin in Florence. First off, I have to stay that I didn't like Florence as much as Venice. Maybe it was where I was staying (a hotel room that felt like a New York City tenement)..I had a lovely view of...walls and dumpsters!! I was about 15 minutes (by foot) from the main attractions. Florence is gritty and grimy, but once I found my way up into these hills overlooking the city, it was stunning. I even took pictures of a lemon tree. I love lemons! There were already SO many tourists in Florence by the time I arrived that to get into the Uffizi art museum would have meant me standing in line for 4-5 hours just to get in. Sorry, some might call me a fool but I don't like art THAT much. I will go to the Louvre instead!
Many Italian men were trying to get me to chat with them, talk walks with them, go back to their dwelling and drink red wine with them, etc. I just laughed and laughed. Somewhat real (but stereotypical conversation between me and the typical, young Italian men):
HIM: Where you from?
Me: America
HIM: Oh. I like America. Frank Sinatra.
ME: Ok, um, yea..good!
HIM (he is selling reproductions of famous art on fairly cheap paper): Bella, you like this art?
ME: Yea, some of it is nice.
HIM: Which one you want?
ME: Actually, I can't travel around with it..I only have a backpack.
HIM: NO PROBLEM...We wrap up for you.
ME: Um, no..I really can't.
HIM: How long you been here?
ME: In Europe?
HIM: NO, Firenze (Florence)?
ME: OH! This is my 2nd day.
HIM: You want I talk walk with you and show you Michelangelo?
ME: Hmmm...that is a nice offer, but I don't know.
HIM: Or how 'bout we go my place and drink red wine?
ME: Nope
HIM: Oh, but BELLA, I like you TOO MUCH! (moves closer to me)
ME: Thanks, but I don't KNOW YOU!
HIM: I love American girl.
ME: That's sweet but I have a boyfriend in America.
HIM: So what? He your boyfriend there and I be your boyfriend here!
ME: Well, nope. I gotta go!!
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I ate some delicious gelato. In one store it cost 2 Euro. In another it cost 6. That is when I felt like a tourist fool!
The hotel recommended an excellent restaurant just a few blocks from me and I went there two nights in a row for dinner. I had bruschetta (I LOVE it..have I mentioned this before?) and then some Tuscan stew (which they use a lot of stale bread in, which is pretty interesting!) Then I would eat some sort of pasta dish. I would also drink two glasses of red wine and I HAD (despite the protestations of my swelling belly) to always finish it all off with a piece of tiramisu!! Then I would crawl back to the hotel (just kidding!)
One time I got my credit card (not my MAIN credit card) stuck in a cigarette machine (yes, I spoke the occassional cigarette when I drink) and was so flustered. I ran back to the hotel, and took the elevator (it only fit 3 people in it and you had to open and close a door and then a gate..just like in the movies!) upstairs and an old man was working the front desk. I told him about my stuck credit card and he gave me little scissors and tweezers and i ran back to the cigarette machine and whooped a cry of success (ok, maybe I didn't) when I managed to extract my credit card from the crazy machine. I brought the instruments back up to the old guy and I was laughing so hard and smiling and he came shuffling out from beneath the desk and gave me a huge hug (which he also did the morning that I left Florence)....sweet old guy!
In Florence I took some beautiful pictures. A lot of statue pictures again!
Then I decided to get a cheapish flight from Florence to Amsterdam. I needed a long rest from travelling, so I was headed up to Tracy and Hans in Eastermar, once again..making a full circle. I stayed in an ok hostel in Amsterdam and did manage to fall very HARD in the shower there and bruise up my arm and hip (I decided not to sue them!) and I made it to the Sex Museum (which was funny..I felt like I was in an adult bookstore, none of the men would make eye contact with the women)..still, some interesting stuff in there. I also went to the Rijksmuseum and saw some cool Rembrandt and Vermeer (my fave) and on my last day I went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was excellent.
I have been hanging around up here with the Frysan people and the Frysan cows (the milk is simply mind-blowing) and Tracy and Hans for the last couple of weeks. I think I love the Netherlands more than any other place I've been. Maybe it is just because my good friends live here.
Tommorrow, Tracy and I are going to Belgium. We are going to Antwerp for 4 days, and then she is going home and I am going on to Bruges. Then I go to Paris for 5 days and then to Nantes for several days before coming back here on June 28th to meet Larry who arrives up here on June 29th. We will stay through the weekend and experience Dorpsfeest, which is Eastermar's annual village party. It sounds crazy and cool...bands, beer, food, every block is decorated. There is a cigar smoking contest, etc. (I won't enter the cigar smoking contest, don't worry!)
Oh, did I mention that one weekend I walked down to a field here and witnessed a tractor show? I'm not kidding. I have no idea which tractor won. It was a surreal experience!!! I didn't stay too long because I felt so out of place, though in a way I could have been in Ivesdale, Illinois, or something!!
