Florence, Italy

   Good Morning from Florence, Italy!  This is Shaked's and my third day on the road by ourselves :)  We drove from Mostar to Zadar, Croatia on Thursday evening the 22nd of October 2009 with Leah, Isabelle, Andy, and Nicolai where we parted ways and they drove on to Venice (hopefully) and we stayed the night in a youth hostel to catch our plane to Pisa the next day.  All the girls in the back learned to make friendship braclets and then we curled up and slept for some of the drive along twisting mountainous roads of Bosnia.  The theme song of the car ride was "Tonight's gonna be a good night!" and oh it was amazing indeed.  This is the first time that Shaked and I have both traveled by ourselves and it is epically amazing!  (They told us at the hostel that we were the youngest people to stay there haha)

Preliminary disclaimer:
     For all the parents reading this, the trip is going amazing and very smoothly.  We haven't had any problems or complications.  We have stayed at really great hostels in Zadar and now in Florence.  Don't worry!  There comes a time when we need to spread our wings.  Be proud of us because you have taught us so much about life and traveling and now we are finally old enough and mature enough to put everything you taught us into practice.  Mom and Dad I love you!

    Friday morning we woke up at our hostel located right next to a pretty marina on the Adriatic and headed out to adventure.  We caught our one and a half hour Ryanair five euro flight from Zadar to Pisa and then took a bus about an hour from Pisa to Florence.  We arrived in front of the train station around five o'clock in the evening.  It was pouring down rain, so our first purchase were two umbrellas which have become our fashion statements - but rain couldn't stop us from exploring!  We found maps at the tourist office and started on a trek to find our hostel for the night.  We showed up in front of Plus Florence and it is great, I would definitely recommend it to anybody traveling here.  (We also stayed at one in Venice during the summer.)  After checking in we headed out again to see the Fortezza da Basso which is a palace about five minutes walk from the hostel.  There is so much more to tell...but we want to head out this morning to see the whole city - Florence in one day, is it possible?  Yes we can!  The iternary for the day includes the Duomo and the Uffizi and as many other places as possible!

The adventure continues...
Love,

Hilary