Perugia and Assisi

So this weekend, Stefanie and I went to Perugia and Assisi from Saturday to Sunday.

Saturday morning we caught the 11:00 train and got into Perugia at 1. So we go and we ask the woman at the information booth what bus we take to get to the street with our hostel on it, but she has no idea, and she wasnt very nice. so we decided we'd walk around, try to find some food, maybe walk to the city center and just try to figure it out from there. So we start walking and we see signs for the city center, but things start to get sketchy, so we turn around and start walking in a different direction and its not working, so we go to this park, sit down and have some toast and nutella (thank you Old Florence Inn for those! lol). It was beautiful in the park. but by this point, we're all turned around and cant really figure out how to get back to the train station to get tickets and catch the bus somewhere...anywhere at this point. so i ask some random guy. and i guess he could tell my italian wasnt that good so he gave me the simplest directions ever. "Qui. (points down a path) Sinestro." which just means "here. left." lol.

So we managed to get back to the train station, so we went inside the train station and found a different information booth, so we hand the guy the paper with the hostel's address on it, and apparently that place is outside of perugia. so he tells us to take bus number 8 to this other bus terminal. so we do that and go and find another information guy, he sells us tickets for bus 8c. but i saw this big arrow painted on the ground that said, Escalators to the city center. so since we were there, we decided to do that and then just head to the hostel when we're done with perugia. so we start talking all these escalators. underground. outside. up. down. inside cave-like buildings. weird. but we come out and the historic city center of perugia is really nice. so theres a perugina store, so of course i buy some baci candy, cuz how can you not? so we see some parliament places, some churches, a fountain. then we walk to th is church and see a raphael fresco...and our ticket is good for this underground etruscan well....so we go there. it was so cool. you have to like climb down these stairs and its damp and pretty dark and everythign is wet. and you actually get to like stand on this bridge over this ginormous really old well and it seriously felt like somethign out of an indiana jones movie. it was by far my favorite part of perugia. oh, and i had the best gelato ever there. the pizza i bought had a gnat in it, but everything was really cheap there, so that was pretty cool.

So we are at the bus stop for bus 8c. and we dont know what stop we get off or if it even goes to our street, so we call friends and family and finally get the number of the hostel and call them as we're gettin gon the bus, and they tell us to ask the driver to drop us off there! lol, so stef said it was my turn since she called the hostel. so i walk up to the guy an dim like...When....here? (only in italian) and i point to the address on the paper and im hysterically laughing an dhe starts laughing at me, and he asks (in italian) if im talking about the hostel. yes. so he is like near...something or other that i have no idea what he said, so i just stare at him and he tells me twenty minutes. and then tells me twenty minutes in english. i think he thought i was really stupid. but i probably was acting the part, so ya know... lol.

so stef is hysterically laughing at me in the middle of the bus cuz she could tell it wasnt going well lol. so we just laugh about it and more people get off so we move up and stef is behind him and im like practically next to him and every time he turned he saw me and laughed. so he did drop us off right outside the hostel and he pointed it out for us too. my friend the bus driver. lol

but the hostel was really nice. we stayed in the building that looked liek a castle! it was cool, and we practically had the room to ourselves. it was sweet. we went to the food store and bought some chips and bought tickets for the bus in th emorning and went to a pizzeria...no gnats, so that was good lol. then we just played cards for hours cuz we were in a small town an dthere as nothing to do. some spit. some blackjack. we used the baci and as our bets. lol. so we went to bed at about 11 and got up at 7. checked out. 7:25. had breakfast. at the bus stop 7:50. bus gets there 8:15ish. we get back tot he train station. 8:50 to find out that cuz its sunday, the earliest train to assisi is 10:21. so we walk to mcdonalds which apparently isnt open early in perugia. so we sit and read and stand and play war. lol. it was greeeeaaat. lol.

so we get on the train and like 20 minutes later get off in assisi. bought tickets and got on the bus just in time. so we got there and we walked to a church. san francesco. it was really pretty. i felt funny walking through it. there was a service going on. but it was a nice church. from there we walked and got lunch. sandwiches. prosciutto. and ate in the most awkward place ever. then we decide we'd try to catch the 1:19 train. and run around and get lost and cant even find the bus stop. so we took it a little slower. bought some post cards. stef bought some stuff for her grandma and this realyl cool wooden necklace an di bought this big green cross necklace. lol. its pretty.

then we found the bus, got back to teh station, bought our tickets, and went to mcdonalds. of coruse. lol. then we got on the train. an dit was the hottest train ride ever! so it was sleeping on and off and on and off and we were wide awake for th elast hour cuz it just got so hot and stef couldnt feel her hands and i kept slidding off the seat cuz i couldnt take the heat. lol. so we played air war to pass the time and three italian guys next to us just stared at us th ewhole time. we probably looked like we werent doign anything but handing each other random cards. it was a never ending game and we got back, ran to the food store, and then ran home.

it was a fun weekend.

this weekend...cinque terre! only with the school, so that means less problems! lol. hopefully.

oh, and possibly ravenna tomorrow. so i'll write later.

miss you all....4 and a half weeks i think!

ciao.