June 12, Pisa or Pizza?

Pisa or Pizza?

 June 12th was filled with adventures. The day started normal with breakfast, yawns, and coffee. We decided we wanted to tour Pisa by ourselves instead of touring with the boat and go see the famous leaning tower. We left the security of our dock and hopped in a leather seated cab, which made things very sweaty since the air conditioning did not work (his wifi made up for it), and gave him our destination. We were driving through Tuscany and everything was going as planned. I was logging into the wifi, none of us were seatbelted nor paying attention, when we came to a congested area. For some reason there was only one lane open on a busy bridge and everyone in Tuscany was in line for it and willing to fight for an open spot to zoom past. Our taxi driver was kind to us but a very aggressive driver, he was about two inches from the car infront of us at all times. I was logging into the wifi when boom! The car jolted to a sudden stop and I, not sitting upright or wearing my seatbelt, slammed my face into the red leather infront of me. Ow. That hurt. I wasn't really sure what was going on till our driver turned his wheels toward the side of the road and got out of his car. I looked up and saw that the car infront of us had gotten a bit of a "remodeling". The little white Fiat had a huge taxi sized dent in its trunk, not a scratch or a small dent, a real actual dent. A "let me get your insurance" type of dent. Our taxi driver and the owner of the other car weren't fighting, we were concerned this would take hours because we had a tour to catch at the boat later in the day but luckily all they did was exchange cards and get back to driving. We were all a bit shaken, especially since the driver's skills didn't sharpen up any better after ramming into the back of that car. The whole situation was quite humorous, like of course something like this would happen to us. Though, looking back, the whole situation was really scary. If that car had jolted any harder I could've broken my nose or if  we were so unfortunate to be in any other crash we could've lost our lives. (that's something I know I won't get returned back to the hotel) and all because of what?  I was too lazy to wear my seatbelt or I found it uncomfortable?That's no excuse. This little crash was only really a fender bender though it could've been much worse. Wear your seat belts kids, you may get in a car crash while driving through Tuscany while logging into wifi. Happens everyday.

Driving through Tuscany and later in Pisa I noticed that it wasn't as pretty or scenic as the other places in Europe I've been to. It was honestly my least favorite of the trip so far. Everything, was rundown and not very pretty. There were less bright colors  and the brick on their buildings lost their charm, covered in the type of graffiti that's not art but just annoying random words. I'm the type to see the beauty in everything, everywhere I go, and yes Tuscany and Pisa had beautiful qualities but overall it was not my favorite and I wouldn't go out of my way to visit again. 

Shortly we were dropped off at the leaning tower. I could barely believe it. I'd only seen this in pictures and I honestly thought that's as close as I'd ever get to it. It kinda just hit me that I'm actually experiencing all this. Actually seeing these amazing things that I'd only seen on "goals" accounts on twitter. I was baffled. Of course the leaning tower isn't the only attraction in the vicinity, there's also the Pisa cathedral and countless other areas with history. I couldn't leave without snapping a few photos: 

 

  

We hurried back to our ship by train to catch our bus to  Lucca. Lucca is located in the Tuscany region and is often referred as "Lucca, the city of 100 churches". There aren't actually that many churches, but there are so many you couldn't visit all of them in one day if you wanted to. ALRIGHT WAKE UP! No more facts. Anyways we got off our bus and we're greeted by a lady with a black and white dress on and vibrant apple red flats to match her lipstick. Her personality was a fiery and bold as her outfit choices as she excitedly explained the history of the brick abandoned war forts in the distance as well as the walls surrounding. You could tell by the way she spoke that she was local and prouder than a medical student's parents. She gracefully threw us around from statue to building and back again each location slipping in a funny insult on the florentines which tried and failed to invade Lucca. If we would've had any other tour guide I guarantee I would've been snoozing on the steps of one of the 100 churches but her enegery kept me interested and listening. A tour guide can really make or break your whole experience. Tip? Shoot for the locals but not at them, otherwise you won't have a guide. 

Lucca was refreshing and beautiful and looked a bit more familiar to the rest of Italy with the brick and stone architecture. 

 

We got back on the bus and came to the dock where a man and woman came up to my aunt, Edie, and I to make conversation. The older woman explained that she had a grandson named Nelson who hadn't found anyone his age yet and Edie exchanged numbers with her for further contact. The grandmother went on about how she took her grandson on this trip for his 16th birthday and how he goes to boarding school and blah blah blah. Edie and I left giggling on our way up to our cabin. This guy sounded like a total rich nerd. Though we didn't give it too much thought. We washed up for dinner and met our friends at the buffet on the top deck and ate and conversated. After we were done eating we got a bit bored and had the idea of playing ping pong. We couldn't find paddles so we began to play with our hands. Try to imagine that for a second. We can barely play with paddles let alone hands, but the game went on and gave us something to do. While we were dodging and slapping, Edie and I explained the whole Nelson situation and we all decided to invite him to play ping pong with us. In no longer than 5 minutes Nelson walked up to us and, to our surprise, seemed normal. I mean, he was obviously very rich but the way he talked was normal and he had a good sense of humor. He wasn't awkward at first at all and was super outgoing. He fit right in.We decided to put ping pong down and go back to paddle ball. Nelson and I were partners and really hit it off, not in the romantic way but we seemed to have the same sense of humor and common interests which was cool and made for some great conversation. We all got along really well and were acting our complete selves. Yup it's official. Nelson was added to our group chat and became part of our friend group which was rapidly growing. It's nice to have some male energy in the group of girls because we were starting to get bored, we needed a guy to change things up a bit. The night went on and more sports were attempted and around sunset we were running all about the deck and I stopped them for half a second to take this picture. 

   

Nelson, Alexa, Cat, Edie ( missing Patty )

We all said our goodbyes and went to our cabins, Edie, Alexa, and I had to go to bed early because we had to wake up at the crack of dawn for a 10 hour tour of Rome! I founded a spot on the boat to write my blog post and then slumped off to bed. Click, out goes the light to end a great day.