June 11-15 - Onward to Florence!!

Day 12-17 - To Italia!! (Florence, baby!)

Hey everyone, sorry my post was delayed so much. It was a bit of a crazy trip as I'll describe below and I'm dealing with a bunch of other stuff as well (midterm on Thursday).

So, we decided this time to go to Florence, Italy, as I described in my last post. I waited till the last second for my Eurail pass to come, but they totally screwed it up and it didn't come in time, so i had to buy a regular ticket at the last minute. I had to go on a train to Italy separate from the rest of my group (although on the way back we were together).

Obviously, international train travel when i don't speak the language and by myself on an overnight train was NOT exactly my cup of tea. But oh boy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into...

So, we decided to do overnight trains to save a night on hotel rooms. Right when i was about to leave in the evening, my backpack bottom broke. As I was already running a bit close, I hurriedly put my stuff in my other backpack and ran out the door.

I made it to the train on time (thankfully!). It was a sleeping train, and I found out I had a "ticket" but not a "reservation". Apparently the guy at the travel agent where I reserved my ticket made a terrible mistake. With just a "ticket", I could stand in the train halls, but I had no seat to sleep or sit on.

This was going to be an EIGHT HOUR TRAIN RIDE, OVERNIGHT, so this REALLY didn't appeal to me, especially since that ticket alone cost me 93 euros, and the reservation was only an extra 5 had that stupid guy not forgotten to put it on there.

So, what to do? Stand for 8 hours overnight? **** no!! I played the "helpless American" card with one of the important-looking train people. He thankfully was a very kind man and gave me a seat number. I was in a relatively small compartment with 5 other people, but that was fine.

So I sit down, relieved to have a seat, and drift off to sleep...

A few hours later...

Suddenly I hear a voice coming closer and I go into that half-awake/half-asleep state. Oh, I thought, he was checking passports. We must have crossed the national border from Germany into Switzerland on the way to Italy.

Then, my mind turned totally inward for a second. And a revelation moment that I will remember for the rest of my life occurred... Time itself literally froze... I could see air particles in front of me.

In my mind's eye, I was racing back to my room, inside, into the hidden inside compartment of my busted backpack i had left behind since it broke, and there in my mind's eye... I saw... my passport.

Oh. Shit. (Iim not even going to censor it, it was that bad)

Oh, I was awake. Cappuccino, caffeine, stimulants, they got nothing on the sudden burst of adrenaline racing through my body. I ripped open the new backpack like wildfire, and... as I feared, no passport. To briefly describe my emotional state:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!11

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHAHAHAHHAHAHAH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

*breathes deeply*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH!!! I WAS DOING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL WITHOUT A PASSPORT!! AHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHH!! THEY WERE COMING AROUND TO CHECK THEM THIS INSTANT! AHHHHHHHHH!! **** **** **** **** **** ****!!! ****!!

This all occurred in me head in about a 10 second period. Had my bladder been full...who knows what would have happened. These guys looked like the Swiss Guard and I was scared ****less they were going to either throw me off the train or take me to Swiss authorities.

So they came into our compartment and asked me for my passport. I stumbled, mumbled, and just about everything I could think of short of bowing down and begging forgiveness. I tried to play the "foolish American" card.

They gave me this dirty look and asked for my drivers license. They grunted "American, eh? If we were in your country, wouldn't we need a passport?". "Yes", I mumbled.

Then one of them went on his phone, probably to his superior, and talked for like 10 minutes in Swiss. Quite possibly one of the longest 10 minutes of my life...

They gave me back my drivers license, and to my relief one of them just scolded me. Let me tell you: I. Love. Being. A. U.S. Citizen. Seriously, if I was from any other non-European country without a passport, I think they would have detained me or thrown me off.

Don't think I'm just saying that, either. On the way back through Italy, the Swiss guards checked one person on our entire section. I guess they were running low on time. However, it seemed oddly suspicious that the one person they checked was clearly from North Africa.

Not only did they check her passport, they scanned it in a special machine they brought, put it up to the light, use a special magnifying glass to check it's authenticity, and searched through the pages to see where she had been. They also asked her multiple questions about where she was going and staying and for how long.

So, back to the story: With color slowly returning to my body and the feeling coming back to my legs, I went back to sleep...

And was woken up 10 minutes later. Apparently the Swiss were pretty thorough, this time they sent in a dog to sniff around, apparently for Cocaine. It found none and I tried to go back to sleep...but to no avail.

15 minutes LATER, another dog came in, this time we were told it was a marijuana-sniffing dog. I thought it would just sniff and leave, but then suddenly it started digging in and attacking one of the guy's suitcases in our compartment.

The guard took it, and sure enough, in the front compartment where the dog sniffed there was this tiny piece of a blunt left (really small).

He was unceremoniously taken off the train by two very large guards and taken to the police station to be reported. I learned from his friends that he was released, but had to buy a whole new train ticket and got no refund.

So to recap:

Forgetting passport during International travel: Harsh scolding
Tiny piece of blunt: thrown of train and fingerprinted at police station.

WHEW what an adventure!! I switched trains a few times along the way but nothing else important really happened. When I got to Florence, I was there a few hours later than everyone else in my group so i was on my own to find the Hostel we were staying at, Plus Florence.

Alright, I had wrote earlier I thought Germany had messed up streets, right? Oh no, not even close. They don't even stand a chance. Italy's roads are some of the most screwed up things I've ever seen. Ever. Seriously. They are TINY, cramped, the sidewalks are almost non-existent, and on either sides you have aging buildings that need paint jobs.

Oh, and they LOVE motorcycles. Not like, not enjoy, LOVE motorcycles. I think I saw more motorcycles than cars. Speaking of cars, did you know that single person cars existed? Yea, one person cars. THese things were 3-wheeled tiny machines that no self-respecting American would be caught dead in, but they were there too.

Nevertheless, I managed to find it alright. I was tired (lack of sleep), angry, frustrated, and a whole range of other emotions. I had gotten there at 11AM, and all I wanted was sleep.

But my troubles weren't over yet, oooohhhhh no.... I couldn't get sleep. You know what they asked for at the hostel to check in? MY PASSPORT! Yea, I know, right?

I had my incredibly heavy bag, and at they said that a faxed copy was unacceptable that they needed the real thing in front of them to document. I had a friend back in Freiburg who could have rushed my passport to me with shipping, and I would have recieved it in the next morning. But this wasn't good enough for the hostel people...they REFUSED to check me in without a passport in front of me...

I REALLY didn't want to spend the night sleeping like a homeless person, so then I had a brilliant idea: The US Consulate of Florence!! Their JOB was to help out incredibly stupid Americans like me who get in these situations, right?

I asked for a map and the location of the US Consulate, and I was off. Unfortunately, it was a 30 minute walk away!! I had my giant hiking backpack and tired beyond belief, but I set out...

Needless to say, I got completely lost on Italy's absurd streets (did I mention I REALLY didn't like Italy's streets?). I finally found the general area I was going, but i still couldn't find the US embassy.

The time was 12:15 PM, and I had just found out that Consulate's close at 12:30PM. As for why they close so ****ing early, is anyone's guess. So I'm scrambling as fast as I can to find it before they close, and you know what flag I see? Not the US one, but the next best thing:

The British flag!!! I was saved!! Someone who spoke English who could at least point me in the right direction. Hail the motherland! I was right! They were very friendly to me there, and they told me where to go. In case anyone questions it, oh yea, the Brits got our backs, no doubt about it.

So it's 12:25PM right now and I'm RUNNING flat-out, tired out of my mind, with a giant hiking backpack through Florence to the US Consulate. Just as the guy is about to lock the door, I reach him.

He told me that they'd closed up shop, and I told him my Hostel problem. Let me tell you something: I. LOVE. BEING. A. US. CITIZEN. SO. MUCH. I really have so much love for my country right now.

After checking my driver's license, he called the Hostel for me, informed them of the situation, and said that he had convinced them to allow a faxed or printed copy. YES!!

So I call my Mom a few hours later, and she goes through her own struggles to get me my backup passport copy relatively intact (seriously, it loses a lot of quality when you scan it).

But we did it, and I checked in. WHEW!! What an adventure, and that was just getting to Florence. Florence was pretty fun I have to admit. We saw the "Duomo", and loads of other MASSIVE churches.

I climbed some incredibly tall towers, and got lost on 4 separate occasions wandering the cramped roads of Italy. I must have seen more pasta and pizza stores lined up then anywhere else in my life. Oh, and I saw two homeless guys yelling at each other really loudly. One of them picked up a wine bottle and I got the **** out of there real fast.

But it was pretty fun. I got to see the sun set from this incredible vista overlooking all of Florence, truly a sight to behold. I also bought some excellent gifts for some family and friends back home, hope you like them :)

Apparently, Italy has NO IDEA how to run a decent train service. We were 25 minutes late, which caused us to miss ALL of our connecting trains through Switzerland and Germany so we had to constantly reschedule. We literally had TWELVE HOURS of travel on the way back, not at all pleasant.

Anyway, not much happened on the 15th. We were all really tired. I wrote a note on my door asking "did you remember your passport today". Oh, and my EURAIL PASS FINALLY ARRIVED HOORAY!!

See all of you later!!

Josh