--originally written on March 4, 2010
What a way to start off the break! Peter, Kate, Charlie and I WERE planning to meet at the courtyard of K-M at 1:30 to go to the Victoria Coach station and catch our bus to Stansted. What a flawed, horrible planning job we did, even with my brilliant 7-page itinerary! Kate was running late, Peter and I had to top up our mobiles, and Charlie had to go back to Parliament. Pete, Kate and I decided to meet them there…Turns out we were misinformed and, in reality:
A: the bus to Stansted took 2 hours instead of 45 minutes
B: the bus to Victoria Station from K-M took an hour
C: We had completely not left enough time to get to Stansted (an hour drive away) in time for our 5:00 flight.
Cue meltdown.
We ran out of the coach station, sprinted up to the first cab we found, and started shouting in utter gibberish that we needed to get to Stansted as fast as we humanly possibly could. The cab driver, who I think should be nominated to sainthood, gave us a discounted rate and absolutely HAULED ASS there…Kate looked at his speedometer at one point and he was going 80 miles per hour down the crazy, narrow English roads. We were absolutely panic-stricken and at one point all held hands and said some very unorthodox prayers to Jesus (involving wishing diarrhea on our pilot to delay the flight, praying that we all arrived, and offering to toast to Jesus with chianti if we made it to Pisa). We got to the airport at 4:30 and immediately sprinted to check-in, where we were [thankfully] rushed through…sprinted to security, where ten people were generous enough to let us cut them in line (this might have been because I was literally on the verge of tears!), and sprinted through the airport to our gate…ALL IN UNDER SEVEN MINUTES. That’s 7. Not 8, 7. So proud of us.
Charlie and Coleen, in the meantime, were doing the orthodox route on the bus after their own set of miscommunications…they had caught it at 2:45 and were therefore running even later than we were, due to the slowness of the bus. (At one point, when we found out that we had caught up to them, Kate and I decided that “This is a race now. It’s ON.” and were total champs.) We were at the gate waiting and waiting for them, and had to get on the flight before we saw them get into the gate. Needless to say, I was utterly panicking thinking that half our group was going to miss the flight…we sat in our seats watching everybody board the flight, waiting and waiting…and finally, the LAST two people on the flight were Charles and Coleen. Thank GOD! We may or may not have said a prayer of thanksgiving…
After the eventful lead-up to the flight, I passed out from sheer exhaustion and slept most of the way to Pisa listening to some Ferris and Cedar Avenue (local MN bands I love). We landed, and got off the flight, and I LOST MY YELLOW UMBRELLA. I am, needless to say, devastated…and am going to go back to the EasyJet terminal tomorrow when we go back to the airport to see if they found it or something…cross your fingers for me. We took the bus to central Pisa and walked to our hostel, which is literally about 50 yards from the Leaning Tower Of. We took some touristy night pictures and headed into the beautiful old villa that is our hostel…it’s called Rélais Under The Tower Hostel and is more like a very ritzy, beautiful old palazzo. There are only eight people staying in our part of the hostel…three Australians and the five of us…and we have a gorgeous room with huge windows, a heavy wood-beamed ceiling, and the cushiest beds I’ve slept on this semester. Ahhhh, all the comforts of a home away from home.
We headed out to do some exploring and had some lamb-and-chicken paninis for 3 euro…so good! Then we walked along the river (I don’t know what river it is…) and hit a few bars to explore the night life. Robbie, the young Australian staying in our hostel, joined us and we had a very fun, chill night. Now we’re all tucked in ready for early bedtime so we can get an early start tomorrow…headed to Lucca and our villa, La Casa Di Iva!! :D I love Italy. I’ve only seen it in the dark so far, but it is unbelievably picturesque, scenic, beautiful, old, breathtaking…I can’t even think of adjectives that can describe its amazingness.
Buona sera, buona sera…Ti amo!
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