where were we?

as classes have now come into full swing you'd think all the crazy travel stories would be ending, but no. let's just summarize by saying the beach was beautiful, camping with russians is fun, and slightly tipsy mass skinning dipping in the mediterranian is unforgettable.

that's all you get there. the real story is getting home. formt he beach a few of us leave later to catch a bus into town to get in the main bus by 530. if someone reads the bus schedule wrong, you have to call a taxi. if a taxi doesn't get there til 515 and the trip from town before had taken 30 minutes, the taxi should drive fast. so there we are-sandy, sunburned and weaving between fiats through the countryside all the while trying to caluculate kilometers per hour to miles per hour to estimate it around 90 mph.

we pull up just in time to see the rest of our gang jumping on the bus. ticketless and tired we take an hour and a half ride through beautiful valleys with a bunch of people from massachussets.

enter sienna. we came in to sienna by bus so you'd think it´d work the other way too. we were wrong again. ticketless again we jump on the train station bus only to find none of the trains we need (imagine italian train station guy basically yelling "impossible" when we suggest how to get back home.) so begins the grand detour.

one tasty can of orange fanta and an hour long train to chiuze later, we are on a deserted platform waiting for the munich overnight train which happens to be on the way to arezzo which just happens to be somewhat close to home. did i mention the train was full of sleeping germans? so the 8 of us quietly sit in the hallway so as not to disturb the sleeping germans while trying not to fall asleep ourselves and wake up north of the alps.

ah arezzo. our provincial mother that sits only 16 kilometers from castiglion fiorentino. but no bus. no train. so as they search for taxis i calculate the walk home to 10 miles (i'm getting good at this). our only sign of hope was a sign that simply said taxi. standing nde it seemed our best chance until sirens started flashing, busses of screaming people zoomed by, and cops with walky talkies and riot gear surround us. "are you americans?" an offical man asked. "then i suggest you not stand here." this was our first encounter with italain soccer hooligans. long, long story made shorter, we walked up & down arezzo a few times, the hooligans disappeared, and we eventually found a taxi around 1 am that took us all the way to castiglion fiorentino, right up to the door.

i find it necessary to mention that i was the one guy amongst 7 girls. birth control, penis size, shaving, waxing, and the ever popular classic "circumsized or not" were all up for grabs along our trip. lucky me.

we all leave for rome for a week tomorrow. yeah, shouldn't run into any problems there, eh? just beware of fiats, hooligans, and foreskin.