Florence/buying all the leather goods

Hello people,

Sorry I haven't posted anything in forever.

This weekend Malia and I went to Florence. Our flights were originally cancelled and everything was a hot mess, but then we got a different flight, which was then 2 hours late because the front door of the airplane would not close. Seems like that is something you would check... but whatever.

We finally got to Florence around midnight and headed to our hostel. The lady in the bunk below me had some GIANT underpants artfully displayed on a hanger. I really don't know what she was trying to do with those, but hey, good for you lady. artsy.

Saturday we went to the leather market to buy all the things. I had forgotten how pushy the leather sales people can be. I almost bought a custom leather jacket but was afraid I would ruin it or lose it.... andddddd I did manage to lose a bag full of bags later, sooooo good call on not buying the jacket, self.

One guy liked that Malia and I were blonde and offered us anything we wanted for free. We ended up in his shop later and he got totally weird. I was trying on a jacket and apparently he decided that I looked like J.Lo and kept trying to touch my legs.

except with legs, and not dogs.

I bought a giant leather bag to check on the flight back to the states. I was trying to figure out if it was possible to get all my things into my two suitcases, and while I think everything would fit, they would be too heavy. enter, new bag! score. 

My bag is on the right, Malia's new duffel on the left:

We did a free walking tour, which was just awful. I had written in my post from last year that the tour was pretty bad, but we had hoped in a year it would have improved. SO TERRIBLE. the tour guide didn't seem to actually know much about any of the things he was showing us. 'Here is a famous statue created by a famous Florentine artist'  any idea which one, sir?? no? great.

After that we wandered around looking for a place to eat dinner. Grabbed some gelato, because Italy, duh. The two guys who were working in the gelato place were adorable. Malia and I decided they were father and son, because that makes everything more adorable. They were engaging in some sort of gelato beautification contest and kept adding cookies and things to our gelatos and rearranging things and just being adorable. Take my word for it. I can't describe it any other way.

Then we had some time to kill before our dinner reservation and went and rapid fire bought some little purses in the pouring rain. (spoiler alert, these bags for my sistaaaaaas, and I lost them all. SORRY I RUINED CHRISTMAS) The waiters were clearly trying to get us to leave the restaurant quickly and quickly brought out food and then took the plates away and were not properly timing the meal. sooooooo(spoiler alert, mistake) we decided to see how long we could stay at the restaurant. MISTAKE. We ordered wines, coffees, and I kept picking at the bread after we finished our first course. They kept trying to take the bread away though.... GIMME MY BREAD, JERKS.(lots of all caps in this post, sorry world) Sooooooo long story short, we drank alllllll the wine, got separated and I ended up lost and overwhelmed in the pouring rain in Florence surrounded by creeps, lost my umbrella and the purses. *bold caps* SORRY WORLD. 

Sunday we got up and shoved all the things into my new GIANT leather bag(thankfully I didn't lose that as it was considerably more expensive than the other bags(RIP/you're welcome Florence hobos)

We then headed out to go see the David. Weirdly, the Accademia gallery museum thing with the David was roughly twice the price of the Uffizi Gallery which had soooo many more things. Giant naked men really drive the price up I guess. My favorite part of going to see the David was eavesdropping on the little old ladies there who were talking about how amazing the detail on the sculpture was, but that they 'realllllly thought it would be bigger' hilarious. 

Here is the David(iPhone pic):

Here is what I like to think were the intended colors of the David:

pale pink, mustard yellow and HOT.

The Accademia also had this great video of a ginger girl writing/drawing something: 

Perfection.

Here is the Duomo, which I think is my favorite giant cathedral I have seen so far, other than the Sagrada Familia

We grabbed some food near there and then walked over to the Uffizi. They have the Birth of Venus, which was cool to see. and this:

Wonky, stretchy Madonna with wonky stretchy Jesus. AKA 'Madonna with the long neck'

Artist life tip: If you totally botch a painting of something and make it look totally wonky, just add something to the name so people think it was on purpose. noted.

We headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and hopped in a taxi to the airport. Because of the problems with our flight over to Florence, it looked like we were going to be stuck in the airport forever, but they figured it out. We had a layover in the Amsterdam Airport, which was amazing. They have a nature lounge area that is made to look like a park and has nature sounds playing and lounge chairs and fake trees. SO GREAT. 

My final trip is coming up next week. going to Krakow, Poland! MUST EAT ALL THE PIEROGIES. NOMZZZZZ

hopefully I will find something cool to replace the christmas gifts I lost, otherwise... I'll just come home for christmas and everyone should be satisfied with that.

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm going to the sneak preview tonight, finally got tickets in a semi-reasonable row and not row 1. ROW 17 for the win. Hope the movie doesn't suck.