Pisa

By thursday night around 11pm, Garrett had still not decided if he was going to accompany us to Pisa, due to his illness. The matter took forever to resolve, but eventually he decided that it would be wiser if he stayed behind. We were ok with that, except for the fact that our hostel had 5 beds, and with him not coming, it was going to be more expensive. Sometime before midnight, we found a perfect solution. Marcela and Maria Raquel were also going to Pisa, and hadn't booked a place to stay yet, so they came with us.
Friday morning we left the convent at 7:45, along with Erika, who was going to Florence. We got to Florence by 11, and we in Pisa by 12:30. After some issues finding the bus stop, we arrived at our "camping village" around 1:30. Our hostel turned out to be not a hostel, but a "maxi-caravan," also known as a trailer. We were pretty much in an Italian trailer park, but it was awesome. Our little camper had a full kitchen, a bathroom and shower, and 2 bedrooms...into which they crammed 4 beds. It's a good thing Garrett didn't come since one of the beds was a full bed (Marcela and Raquel stayed in that one). Kate, Carissa, and I stayed in the other room and I have never in my life seen such tiny beds. Also, like most things in Pisa, my bunk was leaning. It was a little scary, but not bad.
After we got settled, we set out in search of food. We found a cafe in town, and I got a ham and cheese pita type sandwich and a 20 oz bottle of coke, trying not to spend too much money. However, when I paid for it, I discovered that the coke was 6 euros, and my meal cost me 12. Life lesson right there...always check prices before buying.
We moseyed on down to the tower, and hung out there for a couple hours. We didn't climb it though, opting to save those 15 euros for something better. We got some gelato down by the river, and to our dismay, as we started walking back it began to rain. By the time we walked back by the tower it was raining so hard that it was nearly impossible to walk. We tried waiting it out under an awning, but it didn't appear as though it would let up any time soon. So we made a run for it..and got completely soaked.
On the way back to our little home, we stopped at PAM, which is pretty much Pisa's second biggest attraction. It's a normal sized grocery store. Italy has something against supermarkets, and almost all grocery stores are tiny little markets. This one was the size of a Shaw's, or any normal supermarket back home. There were road signs for Pam...that's how big a deal it was.
When we got back, we made some dinner and spent the evening watching Psych, while the thunderstorm continued outside.
This morning it was still raining so we decided to cut our trip short and leave as soon as we were ready. Our train from Florence to Orvieto was scheduled for 6pm, but when we got there at 1 we just hopped on the next train heading to Orvieto. We knew we had the wrong tickets, so we were a little nervous when the ticket checker came through our cabin. However, luck was on our side and the ticketman was a good looking fella in his 20s, and we were 3 pretty american girls. Needless to say, he let us stay on the train.
Clear skies greeted us in Orvieto a couple hours later, and it felt good to be back.