Nearly 7pm here. Am in my hotel room now in Florence. Very tired, had a fantastic time so far, if I forget to say,)
BGO, up blogging til about 2am, as I couldn´t sleep. Finally got a bit of rest, on one of the beds, whilst charging my mac. Slowly from midnight, as the last flights came in, til about 2am, the airport got quieter and quieter. At one point, when there was no one much but me and a few other stranded travelers, the limited staff turned up the music downstairs, from about 11 til midnight. As it got quieter and quieter after the last flights, the lights all over were dimmed and most of the shops and everything else shut down. There was a bit of a movie like advert on near the conveyor belts. I finished blogging, had a piece of banana bread I´d made. Forgot to eat my rips and bringbær ris lunsj, and it got confiscated by customs as it has berries and seeds in it. The few of us tried to sleep. About 4am, things started slowly humming again, beginning with lovely smells of breads and breakfast being baked/cooked; music being turned on again (not muzak, but music that made me smile and move my feet to the beat, as I lay on "my" bed in the quiet zone. Abit past 4, I walked over to ask about extending my stay here...and they also went ahead and checked me in. Luckily. As, after a bit of back and forth with the security--taking off hiking boots which meant unhooking lots of grommit ties, getting out most everything in my carry on as it mostly was electronics, and apparently unallowable foodstuffs like the berries, getting everything back together and packed again, walking thru to doors which were locked and having to walk back again and wait with some others....just got to my flight as they were boarding. I´d been way too warm in my thermals in the airport, so it was great that we had to walk outside in the ice cold weather! A bus took us to our plane.
Dark skies. Surrounding islands looked all made up specially for Christmas, a soft outline of tiny twinkling lights. A few huge stars were also twinkling in the black skies. As we flew East, the black sky slowly developed a deep colorful horizon of rainbow color spectrum: blood orange, orange, yellow nearly immediately into yellow-green, green, blue, violet fading into the black. All with white clouds stiiated (sp) randomly across the tope edge, making it look like a tropical island horizon. I tried several times to video it but all appeared just black and blurry in the end, so deleted them.
The rainbow horizon across the sky slowly got wider, til the sun came up, as we got closer to Frankfurt. Was tired, but pretty views outside my window seat. Breakfast was exactly what I´d wanted: a cold sandwich of Norwegian cheese, ham with butter on granary bread. A orange juice, some black coffee and a water. Was very thirsty. And super tired.
Ground was slippery, so the landing, though solid and good, was still a bit a skew. Was glad to be in Germany. Frankfurt is renovating their airport, so again a bus picked us all up and shuttled us to A. Well, near A. We walked a quarter mile it seemed to get to stairs to walk 5 flights or so down, then more walking down long corriders sp, then again up another 6 or so flights of stairs to get to A.
After all that, Iwas tired and exhausted, like I´d been beaten up, but had a good workout. I was tired of carrying my bag, and got a free wheely cart (the only one I had seen). Was so annoyed when, whilst nipping into the loo, some snippy cleaning woman took my cart! I tried to tell her both in German and English no I was just using the toilet and it was my cart I was still using it. She annoyedly yelled at me in GErman, whisking off the cart, as I quickly tried to pee ffs. The worst was she´d thrown away my empty water bottle--ffs I paid 10 Euros (TEN!!) for one tiny miniscule bottle of water and had been about to fill it up out side with drinking water for FREE, when she took my "garbage" and threw it away. Not even in the plastics recyclables...but in the main waste, which also annoyed me. It really made me mad, obv as I was also tired, exhausted, thirsty, that there was no way to get FREE water in the Frankfurt airport easily, without paying 10 Euros and up for it (about what amounted to two large Dixie cups worth).
YET, the Frankfurt airport had numerous adorable, modern art like clear glass cubes with camel Joes on them, called the Camel Zone, for smokers. Smokers in their box. Smoky box. Made me smile. As I could see how relieved they were to have a zone to smoke in again,).
HA, I digress, but once in Florence, it was like being in Stockholm again in the 90´s, with so many outwardly, obviously smoking, all gathered round the outside of the fast train (rr sorry tired, not what that is called). So ready to burst to get a smoke, they were already out with cigs and lighting them still on the train walking down the stairs, all gathering in a semi-circle at the doors. So obv relieved to have a smoke,). All dressed in their Italian best. WOW, can I just say, wow the leather shoes, and this in on the men. Incredibly detailed, incredible workmanship!
------
Positive things about the Frankfurt airport. Fantastic German food, reminding me of my Dad cooking. I got a Bavarian bagel like large pretzel with large salt sprinkles. Sausage, kraut, large dill pickle and potato salad. Made a pretzel sandwich, with the sausage, kraut, some mustard, and crunchy fried onions. Sat at the glass walls watching the flights. One had smoke coming out of it tail area at the top. IS that normal? Maybe it was just cold out...
LAyed down on tummy across 3 cushioned flat chair -couches. Think I fell asleep for half a hour. Boarded flight at some point, got a window seat to myself, so took some photos and videos. Gorgeous views. Alps, landscape, Florence.
------
Florence mountains beautiful. Got luggage, walked over to the right, outside along the street following the taxi line back to the airport bus which goes directly to the SMN (Santa Maria Novella train station). L O U D American talking the entire time, loudly. I was so tired, nearly told him to stfu politely, but tried to focus on the views, taking photos and videos, and just seeing the route. Smiling the whole way. Gorgeous city, even the not so gorgeous, just lots of style, lots of atmosphere.
Ah, bus was not free. I´d gotten Euros in BGO. 6E, one way, from driver: THEN you validate it at the machine.
Bus at SMN. Got out, had a good look around. Went to kiosk shop in front, got a basic map of sentrum, then spent a bit of time chatting, and looking about inside and out SMN. Walked out to the large church, looking round, stopped off at Tourist Info got some advice, and info, maps, discounts etc. Walked towards the River, past the SMN Piazza....down the dei...til I got to my hotel, which is near 2 of the gelaterias I want to go to. Lovely walk, stopping lots to take videos and photos, practicing small bits of Italian, making mental notes of places to come back to. Went to a T, got a quatro for 8E. Several others later suggested it was worth the Tourist pass (forget exact name now, as I plan on going to most of the museo and such).
Love this city! Am already planning when I´m back in a few months!
-------
Hotel is fab, staff so chatty, friendly, OTT giving advice and local places to do and see, etc, helping me mark out my own maps, making us Italian espresso in tiny Italian espresso cups with tiny saucers.,marking out their maps for me too. Tomorrow is already a very full day of things. Up early, another long hot bubble bath---wow the Italian shampoo was so good, that even though I did not have any conditioner or anything to put on my hair to detangle, it was fine! I didn´t even have to dry it, it just dried exactly like I like. Glad as I was too tired to fuss with blowdryer.
Lights turn off when no motion, so most of my bath was in the dark,) But the glow of the last of the daylight coming thru the opaque glass windows, gave the room a candle light glow too. Very relaxing, romantic, pampering, calming. bubbles everywhere. The water here is a light, clear almost turquoise color, even before the bubble bath went in. Pretty, like the sea. Maybe it has more minerals in it?
--
So. Tired. Love my room. So relaxing. Huge tall ceiling and triple wood-glass-shutter type windows, tall and narrow, with window doors that open in and out, in twos, just like in French Quarter I like:). My bathroom is similar, with tall wall tank type toilets, bidet, old-fashioned simple basic tiles reminding me of my Grandparents bathrooms. Huge long soaking tub with taps on the side wall on teh side of the tub, not either end.
Oh yeah! The airplane in Florence departed people out on BOTH ends! Never seen that before.
---
Bathroom, huge tall windows, long deep soaking tub, bidet, tall wall tank toilet with wall button flush, tile, wall heaters. Very relaxing.
--
Am off to sleep soon. Nearly 8 pm. Will upload photos and videos first.
---
Tomorrow full day.
7am bath then breakfast. Omelet, chocolate croissant, cappuccinos, orange juice, bacon.
---
Lots of walking around and about, seeing as much as I can. Map marked out. Am looking forward to it.
--
Window overlooks busy tiny alleyway, very noisy, but I like it--hearing the life of this city. The church bells ringing, the people walking down it talking, etc. :) Perfect choice, am coming here again next visit, as family will be full of guests so it´s perfect excuse to stay here again:).
--
oh yeah. Frankfurt does not have wifi. A few Canadians and I were discussing it amongst ourselves, as we all were trying to blog and skype...They ended up just paying the cost for internet...but I´ve already paid for enough (the food....was very expensive! as was the bottle of water!) so was not about to pay for the internet. Plus I didn´t want to SMS on my phone getting skewered for out of country charges! They´d already sent me a few SMS re the costs as soon as I got out of Norwegian air space,)
-------
Good night. Am uploading a bit later, gonna lay down now.
