The Best Worst Day Ever

This morning I woke up to my phone ringing. It was Jeff one of the awesome fellow Cyclones I have met here in Florence. He wanted to get a group together to go to the beach for the day. I thought that sounded fabulous so me and the roomies headed out to meet them at the train station. I stopped and got a .80 euro croissant, which was delicious and I wonderful start to what I expected would be an awesome day!

At the train station the group (12 people) bought our tickets and were really excited to go. We arrived at 11 and the train was set to leave at 11:27. Well this is the first disappointment of the day…they cancelled the train L I was so bummed. So then we thought we could catch the next one but then they cancelled that one too. It was a very sad day. Apparently this is not uncommon, but the tickets are good through November or something like that so hopefully we will get out there soon.

After this depressing start we thought that maybe we could find somewhere else to swim…like a pool! Great idea! So we found out that there was a nice pool a little ways out of town. Luckily the train station and the bus station are in the same area. After lying in the grass for a while we hopped on the number 10 bus to who knows where in Florence? I am really enjoying this whole trip so far because I am just along for the ride. There are already plenty of planners in our little gang and I am thrilled to not be at the wheel for once. J The bus takes us pretty far out of the city to a really nice neighborhood. There were trees and big park areas and a lot less people! It was neat to see a part of Florence that I hadn’t before. It was really different from the hustle and bustle of the downtown areas. I really liked it!

After getting off at the correct bus stop we wandered around looking for something remotely resembling a pool. We asked for directions and told to go around the block. Then there was a sign a Piscina! We made it! Nope… strike two. There was another sign- Chiuso(closed). Needless to say we were really bummed out…again. The disappointments were really starting to add up. While standing on the corner deciding what to do next the bus we needed was driving down the road. The bus driver saw us flagging him down and waited as we ran to the next bus stop. Well bus 10 continued to head further and further out of town and we started winding our way into the hillside area surrounding Florence. IT WAS GORGEOUS! The view was amazing. There are some truly beautiful villas and castles. We all found it rather amusing and we really enjoyed our “self made” bus tour. Then at one of the stops the bus driver turns around and tells us this is the last stop. Oops! Luckily he let us just chill on the bus and he drove us back to the city center. Grazie!

Well we made it home but we were still without a pool or beach. So we opted for the last resort option… the pool in the basement of our hostel. I hadn’t checked it out yet and it was actually really neat! The pool lights up and changes colors. It almost feels think your swimming in different kool-aid flavors- grape, fruit punch, blue raspberry. J After a few rousing games of marco polo and some whirpool action time we were ready to head up to the rooftop terrace to catch some sun.

The terrace is on the fifth floor and we are in the basement. This is the WORST part of the best worst day ever. By this point I thought that anything that could’ve gone wrong did and that we were in the clear by now. Not true!

Being stupid American students we decided it was ok to cram 12 people into an 8-person elevator. This elevator is tiny! Emily and I had to take to separate trips just to get our luggage up to our room. So why 12 people you ask? I will never know. By now you can probably guess what happened. About a foot away from the 5^th floor the elevator stops. OMG! At first I wasn’t too worried because sometimes if it’s a little heavy the elevator door takes awhile to open. Sadly that wasn’t the case here. The door just didn’t open and no matter what we did it wasn’t going to. I have never felt so claustrophobic in my life. It was awful! All I wanted was to get out! We started ringing the alarm and we could hear it going off but no one was coming. People probably push it all the time as a joke…not funny! Then we hear people walking by and we all start yelling for help. They are just like “hey you guys ok.” Ummm yeah just having a sweet elevator party… No! We are stuck in a freaking elevator. Luckily they must have realized we were not joking and really needed help. They must have told the front desk people because someone finally came. We heard one of the ladies calling the technician to come help us get out. By now we are all getting nervous wondering how long this was really going to take? I was kinda getting nervous about air and felt really, really trapped. It is the worst feeling and I never want to experience it again. The best way for me to stay calm was helping calm others around me. I didn’t want anyone to really freak out otherwise we all might have. I was in the way, way, way back of the elevator farthest from the door. We took a few fun pictures and joked about what a great story this would all make one day. “Hey to you remember that day when everything that could go wrong did!” Finally the elevator started moving back down! I have never felt so relieved in my life! We were saved and I could breathe again! ( I looked at my wrist and everything Beth and Morgan! J Unfortunately we had to deal with a not so happy front desk lady. She told us that we would get charged if the technician did show up and we totally understood. Then she was mad that we had guests…oops. Apparently they have to register at the desk or something. Nobody had ever said anything to us about that before and we went through all of our restrictions and rules that we signed and couldn’t find anything. Oh well! Too late now! The other front desk guys tried to make us feel better joking about how 14 Spanish guys held the record. How they could’ve fit that many guys in that elevator I have no idea? Anyway I just hope we don’t become the girls who broke the elevator because they couldn’t read the sign. Ugh! I guess we will find out later if we get charged or not. I am just happy to be out of there. The only time that I will probably use that elevator again is when I move out in December. Four flights of stairs is good for me right! Hahaha!

Well after that I wasn’t really up for much of anything. I was tired and drained from our crazy disappointing day. And boy what a day it was… going from thinking your going to lie on the beach all day and ending up trapped for a half hour in an elevator with 12 other people!

I talked to mom and dad and they thought the day was pretty hilarious. Looking back now I guess it was pretty fun and something I will not forget for a long, long time.

Later on the guys called and said they were making dinner and invited us to join. It took all my motivation, but I went and it was nice to talk about our crazy day together. Then they decided they were going to hike up to Piazzle Michelangiolo to see the sunset. I really want to do that, but tonight was not my night. I decided to just hang with roomies and go shopping and get gelato. We found a great supermarket near our school that was actually reasonably priced and I had another amazing gelato flavor (mom you will be jealous) Chocolate Peanuts! It was delicious! Gelato is the greatest ever and the place we went tonight was 1 euro for a little cone. It is the perfect amount for the perfect price. So thankfully at the end of my day things are starting to get better J

Classes start tomorrow for my roomies. I am going to try and get a workout in then hit up the market for some fresh fruit! I have a few errands to run before school starts Tuesday and I may try and tackle some of my laundry soon too. Well I am going to call it an early night for the first time this week, but with the day I had I think that is probably a wise decision. I miss you all so much (but I really don’t want to be trapped in an elevator with you)! Thanks for everything!

Sorry these blog posts are so long, but I am using my blog as a journal for the trip J Hope they are not too terrible to read. I probably should start proof reading them huh?...Nah, you can figure it out! All for now! Ciao!