Florence part two

Even though we were really excited to be going on the bike tour on Wednesday, we actually delayed it by one day so our friends ( Jon from Chicago, Fiona from Canada and Molly from South Carolina)  could join us. You see, we actually scored a pretty great deal on the trip by going to a little side stand of the company and since we wanted to leave the next day, they sell spots for half price just to fill them. Our friends unfortunately couldn't by the tickets at half price at the official office but got them for cheap the next day instead, and we just pushed our reservation back a day.  Instead, we wandered around the city doing some necessary errands like buying our train ticket for the next day and stopping by the one euro store (think dollar store in America, but a little bit nicer). After that, we enjoyed the great weather and had pizza for lunch outside the Duomo with our friends. Not wanting to go inside for much of anything, we went over the the Santa maria novel and sat outside for a bit, marveling at the impressive church facade that looks unified but was actually constructed in two levels, one before the plague hit Florence and one a few years after. We found an old pharmacy shop that is being redone for the it's 400 anniversary celebration that a guide told us about...they sell all the something's that they did in the past, specifically loose tea, soaps, perfumes, lotions, and oils, all made the old fashioned way. An afternoon treat of gelato cooled us off before we went back to the hostel to relax, eat dinner and pack. 

In an effort to experience Florence nightlife while still getting rest for our bike trip the day after, we went out with Jon, Molly, Fiona and their two other hostel roommates to an Irish pub down the street for a beer.  It was nice to sit outside and relax with our new friends and just talk about our travels and life in general. Katlin actually pointed out that the pub was a wonderful combination of our whole trip thus far: we were in Florence at an Irish pub where the local men had gathered to watch the soccer match between Milan and Barcelona, drinking carlsberg, an English beer. It seems like the travel gods were smiling down on us and giving us a pat on the back for a travel job well done so far. Did I mention how we love those hostel gods? They have been good to us, especially when I accidentally booked the wrong room in Florence...I didn't notice that I selected a private 4 bed room instead of a normal mixed bed dorm. In hostel terms, private means that no one else can stay in the room and you pay for every bed in there, so instead of having 2 beds, I had essentially booked us 4. Luckily, the hostel was very accommodating and kind; they opened the room up and found two other girls that took the other beds. We toasted the hostel gods that night for sure.