Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again...NEVER

Saturday September 20, 2008. Venice (JUST BACK FROM SAN MARINO!)

After an uneventful day of class on Thursday, I took the afternoon off. As in I napped ALL AFTERNOON. It was deeeeeeeee-lightful! I finally got up in time to make dinner, watch Tom Cruise in Cocktail with Rhianna, and then pack for my trip the next day. All in all, the day was a success!!

Friday, I woke up right before my alarm (5:40 am, by the way...). I think I was afraid I was going to oversleep so I didn't sleep well--most of you know this is VERY out of character... I got up, showered and finished packing up my bag. We were packing "light" which clearly included an extra tri-delt tee shirt, BOTH night nights, enough purell for an entire army... Can you picture it now?

We had to rush to the train station for our 7:20 train because I had to validate my Eurail pass (stressful, but only because I made it so...). After a BRISK walk to the station we made it on the train perfectly! The train ride was uneventful. I tried to read my book for our literature class, but I fell asleep every 10 minutes, so I just gave up on that. When we got to Rimini, our destination, we got off the train to find RAIN. WHAT IS WITH THE WEATHER THESE DAYS!?!? We pulled out our directions to the hostel and were on our way. Bus #11 to stop 24, then they were number 25. Sunflower Beach Backpacker's Hostel, here we come!! We found the hostel with little difficulty. From the outside, I was...skeptical to say the least. Other than Greece, I have never been to a hostel, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The woman who greeted us at the door was very nice and spoke about 5 different languages. The hostel had free linens, free internet, free breakfast, comfy couches, free showers, lots of books, tables and chairs, free wifi... etc. It was REALLY COOL! It had pretty wall colors, and I just loved it!!! I kinda didn't want to leave the hostel (and the increasing DOWNPOUR outside wasn't helping...) We checked in early and left our stuff while we went to find lunch. While we were there, Zach, a boy from the house who was in Madrid for the weekend, called to tell me that the night before they ran into some sorority sisters of mine!! CRAZY!! In all of Europe...

We stopped off earlier than we wanted to because the rain was just getting tooo bad. I had an umbrella and a rain jacket, but that can only do so much. I had a DELICIOUS mozzarella and tomato sandwich (and a few bites of Jenny's nutella and whipped cream wrap...). We decided to head back to the hostel (YESSSSSSSS) and wait for the rain to die down a tad. Around 2:00, we decided that the rain had subsided enough and we ventured out. The hostel gave us a free map that had 4 "monuments" of Rimini on it, so we went on an adventure to find them. They seem to be spread out across the WHOLE city, so I was concerned that it would be a LOT of walking in the rain, but turns out, Rimini is about the size of Westminster's campus (ok, so maybe slightly bigger), so it wasn't too bad (don't get me wrong, that Askew to Turner walk can be a KILLER in the rain).

We found a few really cute buildings, a castle, some pretty windows, flowers, etc. Check out my pictures and you will see pretty much EVERYTHING I saw! We found a place for dinner after about 45 minutes of walking. Apparently Rimini-ians only eat at cafes, because we could find almost NO real restaurants. After dinner, we even had trouble finding gelato places and that is just NOT ok. We went back to the hostel and fell asleep with NO problem around 9:45 pm. Without a doubt the EARLIEST I have gone to sleep in Europe.

The next morning, we got up, ate our free breakfast, checked out, and headed for San Marino. The teacher in me is coming out: let me give you a little lesson on San Marino. San Marino is a COUNTRY completely land locked in Italy. If you have looked at a map of Italy a thousand times, you STILL probably missed it. We were going to the CITY of San Marino, conveniently located in the COUNTRY of San Marino. It is smaller than Atlanta, yet a country. Interesting. Anyway, they have 3 famous towers there (which we were too cheap to pay to go in, so we only have pictures from the outside) that we hiked around and found. I was in my flip-flops though because my regular shoes were STILL SOAKED from the night before. GROSS. We found some pretty postcards--I bought 2 to send home, but had to write them THERE because the San Marino francobolli (stamps) only work in San Marino. It seems obvious now, but it was quite a concept while we were there.

We saw everything we wanted to see, so decided to take the earlier bus back to Rimini, and then the earlier train back to Venice. We could get back earlier, and eat dinner back at home which would save us money. YES PLEASE!!

We got on the train, but I was slightly disappointed that we had not made any new friends on our trip. Do not fear, the trip was not yet over. A girl came and sat next to us on the train and she was studying just like we were. Granted, she was an ITALIAN student, but we shared the woes of studying etc. I was happy that I had not gone an ENTIRE weekend without making a new friend!!

I think that Rhianna and I are going to Vincenza tomorrow to go shopping. I have not bought ONE THING while here not counting food or other things that were unavoidable. As in NO SOUVENIRS. We must change that and FAST. Don't worry, Daddy, I wont spend TOOOO much. AND I'll have an income come Monday!!

Okie Dokie. Ill tell you all about my shopping adventures later!
Love yall!
xoxo