11/30/04

It is hard to know how to start this blog with the end or the beginning. I will start from the beginning only because Julie Andrews suggested it is a very good place to start. Caleb and I awoke with a proverbial bang to our palm pilot alarm letting us know that it was 630am and time to get our stuff together and get to a train towards Pisa and ultimately, Rome. It had rained pretty hard all night so our sleeping bags and tent and the garbage bags that protect the rest of our stuff was wet. So instead of packing all our gear in the rain and getting everything more wet Caleb hauled everything that wasnt in the tent up to the hostel which is up the hill about 500 to 600 feet away. Meanwhile I packed the wet bags and everything else up. Once we closed camp we had to attach our gear to our main packs. We barely had enough time to get it all done. We had to run down the mile long path to the road and the bus was coming around the corner when we got down there. We got to the main train station in Florence about 5 minutes before our train was to depart, but we made it. We ran all the way from the hostel and from the bus to the station with our 65 to 75 lbs packs! We felt like Run Lola Run. So we get to Pisa and we find out that today they are having a all around transportation strike from 9am to 1pm so everything having to do with tourism, except taxis, was closed while we were in Pisa. So if we wanted to see the Leaning Tower we had to hoof it with our heavy backpacks and frontpacks. So we did. It was worth it cuz the Tower is pretty cool. I took tons of pics! They were beautiful. After taking in the whole Pisa scene we made it back to the train station to catch our train to Rome. We stopped into a "super market" to get stuff for lunch and the train. This supermarket was more like a New York bodega in that it had a bunch of old products on the shelves and not much to choose from, but you gotta work with whatcha got I guess. So we got on the train to Rome no problem. It left about 20 minutes late cuz of the strike but besides that no prob. Once on the train and in our seats we made ourselves some sandwiches and whatnot, played some cards, wrote tons of postcards, caught up on the blog entry in our palm pilot and enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the way to Rome. The train basically followed the coastline and the ocean was so pretty. A bluegreen color. And the mountains, mmmm bellissimi! Lots of wind so the waves were hitting the coastline hard. We met this cool guy from Sicily that is living and working in New York right now but is going to visit his family with his new baby and wife. He suggested we try Sicily for the beaches and sun. We may give this a try. So we get into Rome and walk out of the station to find our hostel. I had the address in the palm pilot so I looked it up but realized that we had no map of Rome. So Caleb took off his packs and set them down (we were standing in front of a well lit store window, no one behind us,not possible) and I took my front pack off and set it down with his stuff and left my big backpack on and stood in front of the bags. Caleb was not gone even 5 minutes and said that the info desk was on the other side of the station so we set out to find the hostel based on the directions someone had given me in Florence. Not 10 seconds after we picked up our stuff and started to head in what we thought was the correct direction Angie realized that the front pack she had been carrying (it held the CAMERA, THE PALM PILOT, ALL THE RECHARGERS, BASICALLY EVERYTHING BUT OUR MONEY AND PASSPORTS AND CLOTHES) WAS GONE. Someone had stolen it under her nose. I lost it. Literally. Imagine a crazy woman screaming in english and crying desperately in the streets of Rome. (I am sure I looked like a total idiot. but be in that place and see how you react. ) So we went to the police station a couple blocks away (Angie still sobbing this whole time) and reported the stuff stolen (we havent even been in a police station in the states and we have been in two here in europe, not a good track record). We eventually found the hostel and both of us are tapped. We are considering all sorts of scenarios at this point, including coming home to the states. Any good ideas, again, are welcome. I am beginning to feel like Job. Caleb initially said lets just leave Europe but is trying to keep his spirits up and be strong for me. It is like a black cloud is following us around. The only good thing to come out of it is that there is practically nothing of ours left to steal and our load is lightened considerably. All of our addresses and info for here including travel books, and all the photos and camera are GONE. Where do we go from here? We are beginning to hate Italy and feel like we just want to get out of here, but do we give up our whole trip because of a huge string of bad luck? Is it a sign that we shouldnt be here? we need some good karma