Crazy but Beautiful

Well, I finally made it to Florence! A plane, bus, plane, plane, night in a kitchen, and a train later and I’m here! I don’t know how to really update this briefly, so excuse me if it’s a little long.
I took my flights/bus from Chicago to London to Dublin to Pisa and just barely made my flight to Dublin from Pisa after having to go through security twice and paying a 40 pound fee to check my bag when in reality I didn’t need to (long story). But I did make all of my flights and got to Pisa around 11pm.
So I got to Pisa, arrived at the B&B and rang the bell. And rang, and rang, and rang. I went to the bar next door and the guy there said (although I could hardly understand him) that he didn’t have a key. I called the number I had for the place but my SIM card in my phone wasn’t activated and calling from my US phone got me no answer. I was prepared to go find a park to sleep in somewhere when two girls walking by helped get me into the building the B&B was in. I made it into the building, but not the apartment for the B&B. Still no answer when I knocked, so I decided to wait out the night on the stairs in the 3rd floor outside of the door, but a family coming back for the night felt bad for me and let me into the B&B. There was just a kitchen, bathroom, and three bedrooms. It turns out that although I had my reservation and showed it to people staying there, they overbooked the place and the three rooms were all occupied. So far no one I had met spoke any English by the way, I had been using my broken Italian to talk. After the people staying there talked about it, they felt bad for me and said to just sleep on the loveseat that was in the tiny kitchen. Went to bed at 2:30 and left 6 before the owner of the B&B came in the morning. Quite a first night!

Took the train to Florence in the morning (Friday) and stayed in a hostel with some cool guys. One of them who was from Montreal went with me to see the Giro d’Italia, which was AMAZING by the way. It was a few kilometers away from town so there were hardly any tourists and it was Italians just loving their sport. The Giro d’Italia is the second biggest cycling race in the world besides the Tour de France for those who didn’t know. I saw Lance Armstrong and everyone else that I watch on TV back in the states.
Another one of the guys in the hostel from Utah had been traveling for 3 months already, and I am actually staying with him in Rome for 2 nights next week so I can be there during the UEFA Champions League championship game, a very big soccer match for all of Europe. Then I’ll come back to Florence and start the search for a job!
I’m in a different hostel now since the other one was full for tonight, but tomorrow I am meeting with 3 different people to see apartments and places to live. Hopefully one of the three works out.
So far I’ve just walked around and taken it all in. Saw the bike race Friday, which was a good 4 hours on my feet, and today I just walked around to different parts of town. The food is fantastic and cheap if you aren’t in the touristy areas, most everyone is very friendly, and my Italian is definitely coming back to me! I’ve got my phone working now, the number is +39 366 3439532 just in case anyone wanted to know.
My next update won’t be nearly as long, but hopefully I’ll have found an apartment by then! Hope everyone at home is well, take care! Ciao!