...Just Marry A Libyan...

So tonight, as we sit in our hotel in Florence, we would like to say that it has taken 6 buses and 4 trains to get here...

Here is our story...

**please note: it is a lengthy one, but it's one for the memory books!**

This morning began fairly well with another free breakfast at the hostel before we had to grab our backpacks and check out. Unfortunately the lady at the desk couldn't get the internet to work and thus we were delayed for quite a few minutes as she tried to operate everything manually. 

Luckily we got out of there early enough to catch a bus that took us to the metro stop at the Colosseum. With one last glimpse we hopped on the metro (I will make mention that no stands or ticket counters were open at this time so we were riding without passes....very, very naughty of us) and made our way over to the stop where we then had to change trains in order to make it to the main bus terminal. Here we caught a bus to Siena where we planned to spend the afternoon looking at the Duomo and strolling around the town. As we were waiting, we actually met a mother and two daughters from Arkansas who were quite fun to chat with and one of whom got many compliments by a creepy guy hangin' around the station...it was very exciting.

After the bus finally pulled up, we hopped on and enjoyed the 3hr ride across the Tuscan countryside. 

The sights were beautiful to say the least; medieval towns stacked up hillsides like multi-layered cakes topped with slender bell-towers looked down upon rows and rows of sunflowers and vineyards. It was post-card perfect!

INSIDE the bus, however, we had mr. and mrs. let's-make-out-and-squish-our-faces-together-as-many-times-as-possible in front of us who literally could not go 2 seconds without sucking each others' faces off. And then behind Tibby was this old man who kept grabbing the back of her seat and jerking on it for dear life. We couldn't blame him though because the bus driver, without a doubt, got some sick pleasure out of stopping as suddenly as he could and taking corners like a race-car driver and then watching the rest of us fly up into the air or into the headrests in front of us.

Needless to say, we were ready to get off when the vehicle pulled up to the center of the city! However, Tibby and I had read something the night before that said we should wait for another stop so while nearly everyone else got off, we stayed firm and resolutely told the concerned bus driver we wanted to get off later. 

Well turns out we were wrong. 

We ended up on the very outskirts of town in front of an old hotel and a dusty road with no map and no idea how to get back. We were so flustered as we tried to get all of our things together and get off the bus to get a new plan together; that we accidently left behind our bag of recently purchased pasta from Rome. We realized it just in time to watch the bus disappearing down the road. It was definitely a "face-palm" moment. 

Mourning the loss of our pasta, we decided to head towards the hotel for help. Luckily the man behind the hotel counter was wonderful and told us to wait for a bus (I think that's number 3...) that would take us to the train station where we hopefully could store our heavy backpacks as we traipsed around the city; as well as purchase a train ticket for later that evening to Florence. 

**(Kyla's eyes are not staying open, you'll understand why after you read about our day. So I'm jumping in to pick up)**

So anyways, we are standing on the side of this outskirts-of-town road, waiting and waiting for one of two potential buses to come. We waited for nearly 20 minutes, and one of the buses finally rolled up! Without much hesitation, we immediately jumped on board. Any guess where that bus ended up? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the train station like we wanted. Turns out it actually went back into the center of the city to the exact spot where our bus from Rome tried to drop us off at earlier. Again, another "face-palm" moment. 

We knew we still wanted to get to the train station to store our luggage and to buy a train ticket to Florence; so we waited at that bus station, even though we were really clueless as to what we were waiting for. We decided to venture into another hotel to ask which bus to take to the train station. Let's just say they were not very helpful. We then found a little convenience shop (one where you can buy bus tickets from) and went in there to figure things out. They were far more helpful and we were able to figure out which bus to take to get to the train station. So once again, we waited for a bus, it came, and we made it to the train station. 

We walked up to the ticket counter to ask if they had luggage storage. And surprise surprise! They did not. But guess who did? That's right. The bus station we had JUST COME FROM back in the center of the city!! Oh the irony. That sure ruffled our feathers a bit, but we pressed on anyways.

We were able to purchase our train ticket to Florence that was set to depart Siena at 6:18 pm. At that point, it was nearly 3 o'clock, so we knew we had plenty of time before needing to be back at that station to catch the train. 

We needed to store our bags, so we had to catch a bus that left from beneath a shopping center (which was only slightly bizarre) across the street from the train station. It took us back to the bus station in the city center and, it took some looking, but we found where we could store our bags. Feeling more confident in where we were and how to get back to where we needed to be and when we needed to be there; we headed off to see the Duomo and Siena!

And see them we did. I apologize, we can't put up pictures just yet of the Duomo and the city, but they will be coming!!! Just know that the Duomo is SO unique and marvelous. It is certainly one of the favorites of Kyla and I.

Siena is the classic Italian country-city that you can picture. Classic Italian 3-5 story buildings that are all painted different hues of tans, browns, and creams. Narrow, winding, black cobblestone streets and alleyways flow with the hills of the land. Planters of pink flowers hanging from overhead windows that are flanked by shutters. The scene is made perfect when a Vespa zips on by. It is beautiful.

It was nearing 5 o'clock when we started walking back to the city center bus station to get our bags and catch another bus to the train station. On the way we grabbed not one, but two rounds of pizza! I mean, how could we not?

We got our backpacks out of storage and walked to the curb to wait for the one bus that we knew, for sure, would take us back to the train station. It was only slightly after 5 pm. The bus schedule said that the bus we needed would be coming again at 5:42. So we stood there and waited. And waited. More people began to show up on the curb with us, and we all waited. And waited. The time our bus was supposed to arrive at the station left as quickly as it came. We began to get antsy. And the minutes continued to tick by. In fact, we noticed that very few buses were coming into the station; which we knew wasn't normal. Knowing that our train left at 6:18 pm, and knowing that the train station was at least a 15-20 minute walk away, we began to get more nervous as the time drew closer to 6 pm. We began to reach a point where we knew we had to make decisions, and make them quickly if we were going to catch our train. 

As we stood there looking more frantic and bum fuzzled, a young couple (who had also been waiting at the station) approached us and, with very good English, asked us where we needed to go. We brought them up to speed and the lady told us that there was more than one bus we could take to the train station. She offered to help point it out when one came. Well, much to our dismay, and despite this lady's best efforts of helping us, a bus never came. 

The moment when we knew were going to miss our train was undeniably frustrating. And then 6:18 came, and went, and it was all Kyla and I could do to keep our cool. Things just were not going our way.

It was one of those times where it feels like things are just falling apart everywhere. We got off on the wrong bus stop, left our pasta behind, had to wander around aimlessly trying to find a place to store luggage, and even when we were on time to the bus stop; it never showed up. Things were completely out of our hands and we couldn't do a thing about it.

 Looking back on it now, that moment was certainly a blessing in disguise because the couple (I'm sure upon seeing us so distraught) took it upon themselves to help us get to the train station as quickly as possible. So they told us to go with them to another bus stop where they hoped to get on a bus sooner than where we currently were. As we walked with them, the guy stopped to talk to a few other people on the street where he learned that the bus drivers were, in fact, going on strike. ON STRIKE!!! Ah! 

We almost weren't shocked at learning that tid bit of information, yet it was still one of those times where you're thinking to yourself, "I cannot believe this is actually happening right now. All we need is one simple ride down to the train station, and that seems about as possible as pushing a camel through a keyhole". So with our hopes of reaching the train station by bus blown to bits; we just kind of stood there awkwardly, trying to formulate a new plan. It was only few seconds later when this couple spotted another bus driver and ran over to get him to take us to the train station. By God's grace and mercy alone, they talked him into driving us! We couldn't believe it, but after more than an hour and a half of waiting for a bus, we were finally on one headed to the train station! 

This couple really was such a blessing to us and they were really cool themselves! She was from Switzerland, and he was from Libya. ((Quick side note/Silly Girl side note: he was a very attractive man...so our running joke quickly became that we needed to marry a Libyan man...hence the title of this post : ] )) Anyways, when we told them we were from Colorado, they were shocked to learn we were from the States because, according to them, we didn't look like the typical American! They had thought we might be from Australia.  Haha! It was also really neat because he had lived in Denver for a few months because his sister lives there, and so we talked with him a bit about the Rocky Mountains and such.

Upon arrival at the train station, we were able to use our old ticket (without having to buy a new one!) for another train because of the bus strikes. That was also a HUGE blessing and the grace of God! From there, the rest of our night has been fairly calm because it only took two simple trains to reach Florence and now that we are here, we are in a FANTASTIC hotel/hostel for the next 2 nights. We'll write more about it in another post! 

Needless to say, we are more than exhausted after our bus, train, and frustration-mixed-with-blessing filled day.

Good night, and much love from Firenze (Florence)!

K and T