Pisa

After a solid 3 hours of sleep, Katie and I snuck out of the hostel at 4:00 am, took the metro to the bus stop, and the bus to the Paris-Beauvais airport. In most places, the main airport is on the outskirts/city limits, but not in Pisa; our hostel (and everything else in Pisa) was just a 15-minute walk from the terminal. Because we still had a few hours until we could officially check in, we put our luggage in the luggage closet. There was another couple doing the same thing as us, but I noticed something very peculiar about them: the girl was carrying a Harris Teeter bag. I knew that Harris Teeters weren't very popular outside of North Carolina, so I asked where they were from. Turns out they're from Charlotte, and they graduated from App in 2010! WHAAAAT a small world! They dropped everything at home and were taking 9 months off to travel the world, hitting up most of Europe and then Hong Kong later in the summer. Because we all had a few hours to waste, Katie and I hung out with them for the rest of the day.

The Piazza dei Miracoli (where the Leaning Tower is located) was just a short walk away, and was also slightly underwhelming -- the Pisa tower really is all there is to see in Pisa. No joke. We had pizza at a little bistro beside the Piazza dei Miracoli (my first authentic Italian meal! So yummy!) then headed back to the hostel to check in. On the way back, a guy blazed past us, with a terrified girl screaming and running after him. He could have only been one thing: a pickpocket. The look in her face was pure terror, and I had a reality check slap me in the face: these things happen all the time in European countries, so I need to keep an extra eye on my belongings. At the train station, we picked up a ticket for the 4-hour ride to Rome in the morning. Our 6-bed room at the hostel had been upgraded to a private 2-bed room for free (we didn't ask questions), and I took advantage of it by taking the longest "nap" in the history of mankind. Six hours later, I woke up to a night sky and saw Katie sound asleep beside me, tried to regain my bearings and realized I just sleep until 9:00 pm. Afterwards I spent a few hours playing pool and discussing business and technology and art with two  guys (one was Swahili, the other from India). Because it was so late, dinner consisted of a bag of crackers from the vending machine downstairs. Pisa was pretty uneventful, but both of us were extremely grateful for the day of rest. A full day in Rome awaited us in the morning!