Living like a Gypsy

After a tiring day of class we decided to go out on the town.  We ended up at the Red Garter again.  It has gradually become one of my favorite places.  I think this happened as soon as we discovered the karaoke room in the back of the bar.  Talk about entertainment.  We started the night by making fun of people who were singing, then of course we got signed up to sing.  Whoever did this to me picked the song "Do you believe" by Cher.  We are all really good singers, at least that's what we kept telling ourselves.  The locals even started singing the chorus with us, we were a hit.  Then as ketchup and I got off stage to roam around we hear the beginning sounds of "my heart will go on" aka the Titanic song.  Apparently Katie had convinced the man that they had to do one more song....it was hilarious.  All the locals started doing the signature Titanic pose.  All of the sudden a strange man came behind Ketchup and started to do the pose with her. PRICELESS!  When we finally realized we were the only people there we headed home and all wished we had some Whataburger, sigh.

Oh hey awkward girl in the back.

Thursday was the founding of the republic day in Italy.  It was their 150 year anniversary and there were various musicians all over the town. During the day we went on a hunt for a good grocery story.   The first bus we tried to get on, we had the doors slammed in our faces.  We waited forever for the next bus to come around and aggressively got on. Yeah, that failed miserably and we ended up on the outskirts of Florence where absolutely no one spoke English. Lucky for a us a guy managed to point us in the direction of a bus stop.  After we waiting for about 15-20 minutes I decided to go check down the street for a bus.  Of course when I get to the end of the street the bus is approaching the stop and I have to run back to catch it.  I have never been so grateful to see a mode of public transportation in my entire life.

On Friday We arrived at the bike tour at about 9:00 and got all paid and checked in.  We anxiously awaited all the members to get there, so our Tuscany adventure could begin!  When we finally got a moving we got put in a white van.  The tour required that we travel 40 minutes away to get the best bike riding experience.  When we arrived at our destination the guide took us on a tour through the Poppiano Castle.  It was an old medieval castle turned into a small brewery, it was pretty awesome.  We concluded a tour with a wine tasting, after tasting the delicious wine we all bought bottles to take home.  No shame here!  The time had come.  We were all given bikes and ridiculous looking helmets. My bikes name was Minnie mouse, I was extremely jealous of Kathleen who got Harry Potter!  

I love wine.

You know the phrase it’s like riding a bike?  What that phrase fails to explain is that it takes a little while to get used to something again.  Our group of 7 could have definitely been described has a hazard to society for those first 20 minutes.  Ashley was out of control whenever a car came by…then Madison caused a collision which resulted in all of us walking our bikes up the hill has 70 year woman passed us. Greattttt.  Once we all finally got the hang of riding it was a blast!! The scenery was beautiful; there was so much to take in.  Every time you turned your head there was another scenic mountain starring at you from a distance.  In the middle of our ride we stopped at a place for lunch.  I had some really good Pesto pasta and wine.  I had the opportunity to get to know one of the older ladies from our group. She was fascinating.  She had traveled all other the world and was from New York, where she worked in a archeological museum.  

  As we were saddling up ready to leave a huge ominous rain cloud starts to form above us.  The guide assured us that it hasn’t rained in that region for weeks, and we had nothing to worry about.  Such jokes.  About 15 minutes into our bike ride (which was now kind of hard)  I feel the first drop of rain.  At first I’m thinking oh it will be okay, it  actually feels pretty good.  Then comes more drops that are bigger and colder.  Here we all are biking in the pouring rain up some slanted surfaces through Tuscany.  Ketchup and Ashley are hauling butt trying to make it to cover.  Naturally I am in the back cursing up a storm saying how much I love biking in the rain.  I finally decided to pull over when Emily, Megan, Madison  and the two older ladies pull over too.  By this point it is raining extremely hard and I am wearing a white shirt, awesome.  We make it to some cover and wait until someone can pick us up and take us over the gigantic hill.  

 When everyone was finally picked up and taken back we were all soaked and just ready for some warmth.  We got in the vans and started our ride home, what a lovely day!  I absolutely loved the tour and would recommend it to anyone, minus the downpour of course…