Tuesday, May 17, 2011

On Holiday

Ok, time to write about Jacqui's visit:
Day 1 (May 7, 2011):
Jacqui's bus was to get in at around 11 am and it was finally rainy here in Bath after a dry spell for a month. I was so excited to walk to the bus station in my Union Jack rain boots, and to see Jacqui. Nothing too exciting this day. She was tired, but we went up to my shop to visit with Rich and Izzy. Then on the way home we discovered a little Italian cafe right by my place. JACKPOT! We came home, watched Community and Starship (a new Starkid show, I liked it). And to bed.

Day 2 (May 8):
Got up from snuggle time in my tiny bed and headed out to the touristy places in Bath. We were done by around lunchtime. We did have tea/lunch at this cute little place. Good times. We stopped to get the train tickets at the station we had gotten online, but there was drama and I was none too pleased. But it worked out and since we had nothing else to do we went and saw the movie "Something Borrowed" I do not recommend. John Krasinski is the only good part. Then too bed early to get up crazy early to catch our train.

Day 3 (May 9):
Train left the station at 6:13 am so you can imagine what time we had to get up. This was a travel day. Train to Gatwick airport. Fly to Pisa Airport. Barely make a train to Firenze where were staying. And I mean BARELY. So thankful we made it because if not we would have had to wait another 2 hours and we were exhausted. We were both a bit wary since we were now in a country that is not English-speaking. But we made it and took a taxi to our hotel. We rested for a bit cleaned up, went and found a restaurant, got gelato and sat in a park. A random man came up to us and stopped asked "Americanos?" Yes, we answered. And he asked if we were students, and so on. Then when we said which state we were from he started singing the Smurfs theme song. ????? Umm ok. Back to the hotel for bed.

Day 4 (May 10):
Tuscany Day Trip. YES!!!!!!! This was by far my favorite day. One, because we did not have to walk everywhere. Two, Tuscany is gorgeous. I can not get over it. Amazing. Three, the lunch we had was fabulous. We made friends with some other Americans and had a great time. And four, our tour guide was absolutely gorgeous/adorable. Oh Stefano. Anyways..... We got back to our place around 8:30ish. And Jacqui decided we could skip dinner. UMM, WHO. ARE. YOU? There was a miscommunication, but needless to say I was not a happy camper.

Day 5 (May 11)
This day was our own walking tour of Florence. It was great, but tiring. We saw the statue of David. At a yummy crepe. Some amazing artwork. They sure do like the Virgin May there. Ummm, other highlights of that day.... Oh, Jacqui got called Shakira, which is so weird because when we were in Rome 6 years ago the Italian men called her that. Then, we were walking down a street and a random man stopped in front of me, got in my face and yelled
"Oh my Gosh" (well not gosh) "JENNIFER LOPEZ! You are beautiful!!!". Umm, I do not know how a person responds to that. I mean, I know I got junk in the trunk, but wow. So we just ran off giggling. That night we went to Mexican because I wanted it so badly. Decent, though I accidentally ordered a very hot dish. Oh well, still great.

Day 6 (May 12)
Another travel day. Got up and got tickets for the train to Pisa airport. Ummmm, we were almost there and the guy comes through to check our tickets. Oops. We were supposed to have had them validated and there was a 40 Euro penalty. How were we supposed to know that??? Good thing we were cute and American. I think those were the reasons he let us slide and not pay the fine. WHEW. That was a close one. Got our plane to London, waited to get our train to Victoria station and finally got to our "hotel" in London. OH. MAN. When I saw the room I was done. I am a bit of a germ/dirtyness freak. I did not know how I was gonna handle it. I did not take a picture because I never wanted to remember this. I slept VERY little that night.

Day 7 (May 13)
WALKING DAY. I swear no one has walked this much. Ever. Jacqui was on a mission to find her man a perfect gift= walking way too much. We should have gotten tube passes but we did not think we would be walking that much. FALSE. Poor Paul (my bunion) was uber angry. I do not want to talk about it now I think about it. We did end up getting tickets to a show dedicated to the music of Queen called We Will Rock You. It was pretty good. They played my 2 life songs from Queen (Somebody to Love and Fat-Bottomed Girls). We got back to the "hotel" around 11:30. We cleaned up and fell asleep around 1ish. But, we had to get up at 3AM to get Jacqui to the train station.....

Day 8 (May 14th)
Jacqui's train supposedly left Victoria Station at 4:30 AM so we had gotten less than 2 hours of sleep after walking all day and little sleep the night before. We get to the station and her train isn't on the board. So she asks. Apparently, the website lied to me and she was supposed to take the tube to Paddington station then that is where her train to Heathrow was...... Except, the tube does not run at 3 am. So the train man said she would have to get a bus or taxi to Paddington!!! Aiya! So we found a taxi and she just took it to Heathrow since it was now 4 am and not worth it. Oh man. I will not say how much it was, but needless to say I felt awful. She made it though. So, then I was alone at Victoria having 4 hours to kill since my bus left at 8 am. SIGH. I read. Tried to stay warm. And counted the minutes. I finally got on the bus, read most of the time and got back to Bath at 11:30. And you can imagine how tired I was.....

But it was a wonderful trip. Had a wonderful time. Had a couple close calls, but we did it. So glad I went and had Jacqui with me. After that trip I am fully convinced I would NOT like to travel alone. My pics are on FB. Check them out....

1 comment:

  1. FUN, FUN, FUN!! Looks and sounds like you and your sis had a GREAT time! Thanks for sharing!!

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