Firenze Two: Nathan

The goal of the day was getting to the Uffizi Gallery early to avoid the immobile line of the day before. Jordan was a little upset we didn't get up early enough, but we still made it to the gallery in good time and didn't have to wait in the queue very long.

The Uffizi Gallery is a large U shaped structure. It houses many famous works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Raphael, among others. There is also a large collection of busts along the outer walls and portraits of famous and powerful contemporaries of the Medici family. Unfortunately, no pictures. Those kinds of museums make me angry.

For some reason, there's a gap in my memory between the Uffizi and the evening. I think we actually siesta-ed that day. Or I did and Jordan swam. So, I'll use this gap to talk about the awesome hostel we were at.

The hostel is called Plus Florence. It was one of the more expensive places we stayed but still only 23 euro per night. It was huge, clean, and had some very unexpected amenities. There was a restaurant on site and a bar on the top floor. They had a pool that was purple, a Turkish bath, and a workout facility. I even saw a flyer for massages, which I needed but couldn't afford.

We got ready to go to services that night and were looking forward to seeing some Jews and getting free food. But before services, we had to go back to the record shop we found. Jordan's copy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had sold, but I found an interesting version of Yellow Submarine I hadn't seen before and purchased that. The owner wrapped it up very well for me so that I could get it to Rome and then Houston (via London) safely.

We met some girls doing a study abroad program with a focus on choral music. Not going to lie, they were pretty cute. Unfortunately, they separated the men from the women inside, so I didn't get much time to talk. The service was short and sweet, like any Friday night should be. It was almost entirely in Hebrew without page numbers and in different books, so it was hard for me to follow along. Somehow I managed though. Dinner with Chabad was after and that was jam packed full of visitors from all over. I ran into one of the Chabadniks that I had met in Venice a couple days ago. Across from us were some Americans on a program, to the left some Israelis then Californians, and to the right some Germans.

Dinner was standard Chabad, like 5 courses: appetizers, fish, soup, turkey, and dessert. Of course, quite tasty. The talk was pretty standard - where are you from, what are you doing here, how long, stuff like that. There was ruach at random times and benching afterward. Makes me miss USY.

The Germans next to us were some of the most amazing people ever! Their names were Alex (Sasha) and Daniel. They were traveling and having a good time. We decided to go to a bar that sounded good, but first I had to drop my record off. The bar was cool, cheap drinks and good music, so we stayed and danced for a bit. Eventually, we went back outside to cool off and then I could finally talk to Alex and Daniel, because I hadn't been able to at Chabad. We decided to finally start heading back toward our hostels when it started thundering and began to walk toward the train station. Right across the street, we had to go into hiding because it actually started raining kind of hard.

Eventually it stopped, and Jordan and I had to go because we had an early train for Rome in the morning. In the meantime, Florence had placed itself high on my list of favorite cities we visited.

I'll try and continue posting and hopefully will get through Rome by the end of this week. Maybe Jordan will remember to post a little.