(...I*m not really sure if I spelled that right. Also, on this keyboard, I did a pretty thorough search for an apostrophe and it seems none is to be found. But at least the letters are all where they belong! I keep wanting to switch the z*s and y*s since I*ve gotten used to it, though.)
I guess I should keep this brief since it*s really late here! Big thanks to everyone who has been responding to my emails....it*s so awesome to hear from home! Also, a few people have been asking- I am due home Monday, May 21st, at 7:21 p.m. at LAX. Since I know you all have horridly empty schedules without me there to occupy them, FYI, my oboe teacher Marilyn is having a recital (she and her students will be playing) the day before I get home, on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the Glendale Adventist Academy. It should be pretty rad, so if you*re in the area, go get cultured! And tell her I say hello. Although, she*s probably reading this, so maybe that*s not necessary. hmm.
Getting to the point, we are here in Florence! Italy is our last stop, so this trip feels like it*s complete now, even though there are still two weeks left. I*m very relieved that we made it in tonight- we accidentally thought one of our connections was departing at a time when it was really arriving at where we wanted to be, which we realized on the train prior- and then, we quickly found another train that would fix it, but when we arrived at the station we learned that that train doesn*t start running until June! Mon dieu. So it seemed we would either be stuck in Verona until the 7 a.m. train to Florence, or we could go on to Bologna, get in at 8:23 p.m., and wait around until 4 a.m. for the next train to Florence. Neither was a great option...we*d have preferred Verona to Bologna, but wanted to spend as little time as possible waiting around a train station and it turned out the Verona train station closed at night anyway, so we hopped on board the train to Bologna. On board, we realized there was a train departing Bologna for Florence at 8:20 p.m. A brilliantly impossible connection, but we decided to press our luck. Our train pulled in two minutes early, at 8:21. As we were pulling up, we moved to wait by the door and bolted off the second the train stopped and SPRINTED across the train station, glancing at screens for about a half a second. We ran up to what we thought was the platform. No train. We must have missed it. We ran back down to check the screen and realized the train we wanted was a) still on the screen and b) one platform over. We ran up the stairs and arrived at our platform just as the train pulled up, exactly six minutes late.
In conclusion, we are pretty much amazing.
So, we*re in Florence! We*ve met up with our friend Stephanie again, and we*ve picked up a British chap called Randall (we call him Randy, which he protested at first but now doesn*t mind so much) who is loads of fun and was a very useful lead sprinter at that train station. His itinerary largely matches ours so we*ve seen him now in Krakow, Prague, and Austria, and I think he*s sticking around until Venice. It is so pretty here. I can*t wait to try the food.
Of course, we*ve just gotten in from Salzburg, where we had less than 24 hours because we got a bit unlucky booking hostels (we*re booked for the rest of the trip now though), but we got to see Mozart*s house and the gardens where the Do-Re-Mi scenes were filmed in The Sound of Music, and the graveyard that the one they hide in at the end of the movie was modeled after. All were insanely awesome. We also got to see the castle, which is one of the largest fully preserved medieval ones. They had this really insane display of knights* armor where the armor was set up in positions like knights in battle, with probably over a hundred arrows suspended in midair with fishing thread. The arrows (and crossbows, and cannons) were aimed at a wall that had not only the door you walked into the room from (so that you were walking into all these figures set up like they were shooting at you) but also a projection on the wall with a video of lots of tourists walking around. It was VERY weird. But awesome.
We also had an informal game of "Sound of Music Bingo!" going...we saw a cat in a tree chasing a bird (whiskers on kittens), it poured the first day we were in (raindrops on roses) which resulted in snowy mountains (silver white winters that melt into spring). Not bad. We also saw three nuns. Silly times. Just thought I*d share.
Super tired, heading to bed. Love to all. Keep writing, I have free Internet until Thursday.
hugs, etc.
Sara
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