Sunday, November 1, 2009

Paris, Pisa, and Firenze with Mason!

I realize that I did not blog last week. I have two simple reasons for that: Mason came on Saturday and nothing significant happened to blog about. So this week blog will be all about my travels with Mason.

Mason was here for 9 days and we went to Pisa, Paris, and spent some time in Firenze, of course. The first night he was here he was extremely jet lagged so we only went out to eat. Nothing exciting really. However, the next day (Sunday) we got up and jumped on the train to go to Pisa. Did it go that smoothly? No, of course not. I forgot that the time had changed, so we got up an hour earlier than we really needed to and (thought) we bought the wrong train tickets. They turned out to be the right ones so we ended up having double the tickets. I was a bit irritated with that because that was wasted money but I held on to the tickets just in case I wanted to use them again. When we got to Pisa things went smoothly and we made it to the leaning tower, baptistery, etc. with no problem. Pisa was beautiful! We climbed to the top of the tower and went in the duomo, baptistery, and cemetery. He was so glad to be able to go to Pisa since he did not get to visit when he was in Italy a year ago. When we climbed to the top of the tower I was terrified because... well... it was leaning! I have vertigo and (obviously) really bad ankles and feet. So, as soon as I stepped into the tower I was fearing for my life. I did make it to the top, though, and the view was phenomenal! Walking down the tower was much more terrifying than going up, but I made it and was glad that I did it!

The next day we stayed in town and walked around. I cooked for him several times and he was impressed! So that made me really happy! That night we found an awesome deal to go to Paris, so we decided to go to Paris at the last minute.

I had to sit in the immigration office for the entire morning and afternoon. I had to get my temporary residency permit. It took so long I was beginning to get concerned because it was taking so long and we had to get on the train to go to Pisa, which was where we flew from (to go to Paris). I got out of the immigration office just in time to grab a sandwich and (literally) run and jump on the train. (this is where those extra Pisa tickets worked out- we did not have to buy new ones!). We got to the airport in plenty of time. However, we started getting concerned because the flight got delayed and when Ryan Air delays that usually means they will cancel the flight and not give you money back for the missed flight! The flight did show up, though, and we got on the plane with no more problems. We made it to Paris after a couple of hours... and that started a whole new ordeal.

We had originally booked a three person room but they put us in a four person- with no discount. However, they made up for it by putting us in a better room at no extra cost. We also had a hard time finding places to eat that took credit card- but eventually found places that worked out. We visited the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame (climbed to the top), saw the big arch, the Louvre (spent 3 hours and only covered on floor), and Sacre Coeur (the highest point in Paris). Paris was absolutely beautiful and we had a fantastic time! We got to see everything during the day and at night when it was lit up. I was so happy to be able to spend several days with Mason in Paris. I couldn't have asked for a better time! We had fantastic crepes and quiche!

We left Paris at night and came back to Firenze (Florence). We got back too late to do anything but get checked into the hostel and go to bed. The next day was Mason's last day and we went to the Uffizzi and ate some awesome Italian food at my favorite restaurant in town! We had to go to bed early because he had to be up by 3:00 since his flight was at 7:15. We had a bit of trouble with the bus to the airport but we did make it in time, so everything worked out fine.

It was so hard for me to say goodbye to him. I won't get to be with him for another 7 weeks. I just hope these next 7 weeks go by as fast as the past 8 have. I was so happy to have him here, it was by far the best time I have had in Europe yet!

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