Yay spring break! (part one)

Since I was gone for 2.5 weeks and did tons of stuff I probably need to split it into two parts.
I left April 5th on a sleeper train for Rome, which was fun though I didn't sleep very well. After arriving at my slightly sketchy looking hostel the owner tells us that it's not ready for us yet (he booked people for a room that is not prepared) and he bought us (me and 5 other guys) coffee and booked at as a different hostel which was ok but not great. After a much needed shower I texted my friends who were already there so we could meet up and did not hear back from them (until 9 pm that night), so I went out on my own to explore Rome, starting with the colossium. It was culture week that week in Italy, so entrance into major monuments and museums was free, much to my delight. I walked for at least 8 hours that day and saw all the major sites except for the Vatican.

I met two cool Canadian girls that night in the hostel so we decided to meet up at the Vatican the next day. We were supposed to meet in the Piazza but once I got there I realized that wasn't going to happen and decided to just go into St. Peter's Basilica. Low and behold I found them inside, and we toured the basilica and it's dome together. Then we were on our way to the Sistine Chapel when we found out it had already closed for the day. I could still go the next day, but that was there last day so they were pretty upset. We got dinner by the Pantheon (as well as some really great gelato) and tried to see the truth telling mask before they had to leave, which was also closed.

The next day I got up somewhat early to get to the Sistine Chapel. After the hour long walk through the Vatican Museum, which had some of the most famous frescos of Raphael, I got into the very tiny chapel. Once again my ability to find people in crowded places worked to my advantage, and I found my two travelling companions IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL. It was amazing considering how insanely crowded that room was and the chances that we would be there at the same time on the same day. We split up for lunch but were supposed to meet up later, which became impossible once I ran out of cell phone minutes and text messages. It's widely said that the water from the fountains in Rome is drinkable, though I think my stomach disagreed with that, or perhaps with lunch. In either case, the afternoon wasn't too much fun but I did see the beautiful park around the Medici residence.

I met up with Allison and Stephanie for our train to Florence. I waited at the door of the hostel forever but it was worth it, it was a really great place with the nicest breakfast I've had in a long time. I got through the line for the Academia museum (where Michaelangelo's David is kept) in about 5 minutes which was amazing. The market place in Florence was great - good products for relatively cheap. The only problem is how much they hassel you to buy things, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I went to the Bobbolini gardens and had to come back half way through to use the bathroom. On my way back out they were closing the gates (an hour early) and I was pretty upset, although it was the last free day of culture week so at least I hadn't paid for it. I met up with friends for dinner and we watched a clown show for awhile. It was pretty funny from what I could tell, though I couldn't see much due to the crowd.

The next day I did the top of the duomo - 470 steps later I got to the top and it was definitely worth it. I did two other pretty famous churches and then went to Pisa. Besides the tower, a church, and a few museums all in the same square there's nothing to do there. It was 15 euro to go up the tower, so I decided to just admire it from the ground instead. On Tuesday I went to the Uffizi, the most famous museum in Florence. I was very glad to have made reservations the day before and only waited maybe 5 minutes to get in instead of 3 hours. The museum was nice, but the best part was the special exhibit on DaVinci's works. I met some more cool Canadians in the Piazza Michaelangelo and they told me all about this church and the Gregorian chant that was about to happen, so I stayed for it. It was nice, though the lady next to me decided that she wanted to sing along so after a few minutes I had to move. That night we went to a really great restaurant and I had one of the greatest fillets of all time.

My ability struck again when I happened to walk into the car that Stephanie and Allison were in on our train to Livorno to get on our ferry to Corsica. Then our friend Becca just happened to see us as we were getting on the busy to get to the ferry. The ferry was great - 7 floors with a restaurant, cafe, and even a small swimming pool. We wanted to do a hike called the cap corse, but since that involved getting on a bus at 5:45 am we decided we would find our own place to hike instead and ended up hiking through some private property (the guy kinda gave us a lecture on our way back). We came back to Bastia to find a beach and went to the one the tourist office recommended. Apparently "beach" in Corsica means any place where the water meets the land because it was pretty much just a rocky coastline but we went all the same. We at least got a little sun, had a picnic, and saw some dolphins thanks to Becca. She alerted us to a whale, and when we looked she realized it was the wrong word and was like, "no, those other animals that are like a whale". The didn't come too close but it was nice to see.

The next day we decided to ask for a beach with sand and found a train to get there. We spend 30 minutes on the train trying to get everyone on (boyscouts with big packs) and then get moved to a different train. Our stop was only 5 minutes away and you have to ask them to stop, which we did not know. One of the guys there noticed that our ticket was for an earlier stop and got the train to stop for us but unfortunately the only way to get back to where we wanted to go was to walk down the tracks, so that's what we did. It wasn't too long of a walk, and once we got there we spent the entire day just lying out in the sun and eating our picnic lunch, that is until Becca yelled out "Elephants!". At first we thought she was just crazy or saying the wrong animal again, but it was true, there were 3 elephants walkking onto the beach and into the water. The circus was in town and apparently right next to our beach and they were taking the elephants out for a bath in the Mediterranean. We all got tons of photos of them of course. That night I spent 1 hour in line waiting to get more cell phone minutes and text messages and then we got a nice seafood dinner. I of course got somewhat burnt in the places that I forgot about, but other than that it was great.