I promise I'm not just blogging the whole day away, but we're sitting up at the terrace bar enjoying a glass of wine and making plans for tomorrow, so I thought I would take a quick second and tell you about our awesome hostel.
Plus Florence is where it's at. It's a hostel designed for backpackers on a budget, but they have all kinds of perks and accommodations that we just never saw coming. I mentioned already that we're out on their rooftop terrace bar, which is huge and has awesome 360 degree views of Florence, and above us is another area that's even higher up that's used for sun bathing, firework viewing (apparently that happens fairly frequently here), and even star gazing if you so choose.
They also offer all kinds of services for cheap...we're considering doing a 5 hour self-guided bike tour with an audio guide...so you bike to a bunch of different locations in and around the city, stop, and listen to a bit of history about what you're viewing. All of this only costs 8 Euro. Tonight we've got reservations for an open buffet with fish, pasta, bruschetta, and a free glass of wine for 8 Euro/person. After all the money we've spent the last 2 days in Rome, this is exactly what we were looking for.
They also have the "Basement Club" which is local club that is located in the basement of the hostel that is open from 11PM to 3AM every night. They have pool tables, dart boards, and and assortment of other bar-type video games.
If you walk past the club you enter the heated indoor swimming pool they have, yeah--indoor heated swimming pool. If you walk past the pool you can enjoy your choice of sauna or steam room as well. All of this just blew us away, especially considering we're only paying 44 Euro per night to stay here.
Anyway, just thought I would let everybody know how awesome this place was.
As for what we did today--not a whole lot. We walked around for about an hour and stopped for 20 minutes at a local park. It was quite relaxing to just sit down and watch the big fountain they had in the middle of the park for a while.
I'll continue my trend from last night and list some things that you might want to know, or just find interesting...
-Everybody here drinks in public. When we were walking around the streets and in the park today it seemed like every person we passed had a beer or a little plastic cup with wine in it. It's legal to drink in public until 2AM.
-Everybody told me Paris was expensive, but Rome about broke the bank account for us the last 2 days. It was a lot of fun, but super expensive.
-We still celebrate every time we see a street sign or a map in a subway/train station. Speaking of which, we missed one train this morning, and almost missed another one 30 minutes later because there were about 10 trains sitting at the station with absolutely no way of knowing where they were going or when they were leaving.
-Bring comfy shoes if you come to tour Europe. I'd say a conservative estimate is that we've averaged about 8 or 9 miles walking per day. Some are more, we've had at least 2 days where we've probably walked some where around 12. Some are less, today was an "easy day" because we've probably only walked 5 or 6 miles.
-Nike Dry Fit (sorry, still can't support under armour...but it's the same thing, haha) clothing will come in handy. Especially if you sweat as much as I do...cotton just doesn't cut it when you're walking long distances, carrying luggage, and trying not to lose 7 pounds in straight water weight.
Well gang, I'm gonna enjoy this view and continue planning tomorrow with Megan out here on the terrace. Hope you've enjoyed the post!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
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