Fun-sina

The last few days have absolutely deemed an update necessary.

We left you on a train to nice, france. We were waiting for the final train at its assigned platform for 30 minutes, at the time of departure I looked up at the screen and couldn't tell but it looked different. I got up to see and it had changed from "c" to "5". I went back to kim and said "we have to get to 5!!" We took off running with our bags on our back, got to the platform to find our train gone and the next one already there. Defeated literally only by one minute we walked back to the ticket counter to see how we could get to the beach. Turns out all the rest of the trains for the night were full. Our second plan was to get the first train to Nice in the a.m. and beach til the afternoon and make our way to venice. Of course the only thing we were able to do was to get a ticket for the first train with a 15 minute transfer in Nice, and a 10 minute transfer in Milan. We had to find a hotel in Marsilles but all the hotels were full after 5 tries we wandered down a dark alley and found what has become "the worst hotel of our trip". For 45 euro we got a room with blood on the mattress and wall, dead bugs on the sheets, a floor that was at a -45 degree slope, a window screen that may or may not have been holding our building together, and a bullet hole in the wall. The bathroom was a whole 'nother story and is still uncharted territory for both of us.

We had to be at the train station by 545 to get our 6 a.m. train, we woke up by 5 and made our way down stairs to find ourselves locked in the "hotel." We managed to unhook one lock which was a rail road spike that was as far as we got. We were sure we were going to miss our train again and therefore miss the next two to venice. After some time someone else came down to leave the hotel. He also had no idea how to open the door but together we made enough noise to wake up someone with keys who opened the door with a lot of anger. We ran to the train station and saw our train was delayed by an hour and was going to make us miss the next two no matter what. We got our ticket changed and somehow made it to Nice and some how on our train to Milan but that train had accumulated a 50 minute delay during our trip and made us miss our train to Venice. We eventually made it all the way and found a Chinese restaurant where the floor was wet, but the food delicious. After our meal a cook came out and went to the corner by our table and that's when we realized there was a fish tank (aka styrofoam box) for "fresh fish" over flowing making the floor wet. The cook caught a fish with his bare hands and went back to the kitchen.

We waited for over two hours for the bus to the hostel. We made two friends Ryan and Alex from California, they ended up being our hostel neighbors. The hostel was a campground with plenty of mosquitos and no air conditioning to compliment the 100 degree and extra humid air. The island was too hot and humid so by the time we got off the ferry we got lunch toured the basillica got gelato and turned right around for the hot mosquito infested camp ground. Our cabin was too hot so we layed outside and napped. After the nap we made some more friends and got food and spent the rest of the night together which ended up being a lot of fun.

In the morning we got on a ferry and finally made it to a beach for a few hours with some of our new friends. In the evening we made it to florence and hung out there for the night and afternoon. Today we got a bus to a tuscan winery an hour outside the city I bought 17 bottles of delicious wine which I am praying makes it home with me.

On the bus home I realized I left the $50 belgian chocolate at the hostel and had to back track to find it.

We got our train to Rome and are very excited about our 4 star hotel outside the city with a pool, air conditioning, proper beds, and four restaurants to end our backpacking adventures.

Also to end the adventures kim just solved the impossible block and can't explain how it happened.

We will be home in a few days until then keep the peace and stay sane. We miss you all and can't wait to be back home.