Getting to Florence

Our train ride to Florence was somewhat relaxing. It was late around 10pm and we were exhausted. We tried to doze off during the ride to Florence however the train was very loud and it was impossible to do so. We decided to chit chat with some of the locals on the train. We met a physics professor from Yemen who decided to chat us up about places to visit in Florence. He was friendly however we were a little uneasy at the fact that it was late at night in a city we were unfamiliar with and he was Yemeni (no offense). We arrived at Florence SMN station around 11pm and we had one more train to catch to our final destination. An interesting and affordable place we found on airbnb. At that time of the night, the station was very busy. We quickly went to look for our train and the time it would be leaving. We were in luck because the train was due to leave in 15 minutes. Unsure on where to purchase tickets, we decided to take a chance and get on the train without tickets since our tickets were not checked on our earlier train ride. We decided to board the last car of the train to avoid being checked for tickets but just our luck, guess who also boarded in the same car? 4 Italian police officers! It was too late to go get tickets now. We were scared to shits to say the least. I cooked up a plan and told Chloe that we would use our tickets from Pisa for this ride if they ever asked and then play the “foreigner” card with some tears mixed into it. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a sucker for morals and do not engage in illegal acts however something about being in a foreign country made me want to take risks. It was a good High that could have possibly ended us in jail. Lol The ride from the station to our stop was 15 minutes away. Boy , was that the longest 15 minutes of my life! We avoided eye contact with the police men the entire time and only spoke in our native language to avoid anyone trying to make conversation with us. When we finally reached our stop, it looked like something out of a ghetto movie. The “station” was not an actual station; instead it was a stop on the railway. It was almost midnight and it was dark as hell. All we could see was train tracks and trees. Needless to say we were afraid! The police men helped us get all 4 of our bags off the train. We began walking towards the trees away from the tracks. With no apparent sign or direction as to where we would be staying, we began walking towards some lights and then some buildings that appeared to be apartments. We then heard people talking outside the buildings, we began walking towards them but we were VERY frightened. There about 5 people, 2 females and 3 men. They did not look scary however we have seen enough horror movies to know that being out that late in a foreign place that looked ghetto does not often end well for the innocent black girls. We built up some courage and dragged our luggage along towards them and decided to ask them to direct us to our airbnb apartment. Surprisingly, they were very pleasant and attempted to direct us however they spoke very little English. All we heard was “go there then go here” and a bunch of signs that did not make any sense but with the language barrier, we decided to just smile and keep it moving. A few minutes of walks ended us on the main road, Thank God! But it was still very dark and quiet. There were no cars on the road. The first thing we saw was an African man riding a bike, we tried to stop him but he paid us no mind. Chloe tried to pull up directions from her phone but her phone died. My phone was dead hours ago so there was no luck there. I thought that was it for us. We were going to die on the streets of Florence. While walking in the wrong direction, we saw a woman getting on a bike so we approached her and asked her for directions. She spoke very good English, Thank God! (God heard my cries) She ended up giving us very good directions. Apparently, the place was only two blocks away from where we were. We were at the apartment within 10 minutes of walking. Chloe forgot that she had told the airbnb host that we would be there an hour ago. With no way of contacting her, we stood infront of the apartment, hoping that she would show up. Within 15 minutes, here she came on her bike. She gave us a long speech about how far she lives from there and that she was there an hour ago looking for us “blah blah blah”. We were not interested! Just let us in! Getting into her apartment reminded me of Ghana, there were several deadbolt locks and gates before actually entering the apartment. Very tight security! The apartment was a studio, very small. It was nicely decorated with IKEA furniture and accessories. It had a small kitchenette, a full bathroom, wi-fi but no cable. She also had a balcony where she stored her bikes that came with the apartment rental. We took showers and went to go to bed. What an eventful day!

#Europe #Italy #Florence #Pisa