#And I mean just the most spectacular stuff. Love their train ones. And the tower crane one. Probably one of my favourite stim accounts.

[motoroil-recs]

🏁 [X / X / X] [X / 🏎️ / X] [X / X / X] 🏁

A stimboard for Carl Grimes with apocalyptic themed stims such as abandoned buildings, overgrown houses, and bandages.

Hope this is to your liking, my guy! Thank you so much for your request! Don't be a stranger, and feel free to request anything else you'd like.

[asterinjapan]

Off (to) the island

Good evening again!

It’s a bit later than yesterday, haha, but that’s because we went a lot further out than Okayama prefecture this time. Today, our destination was an island away – Takamatsu, which is a city on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. We initially went because it’s the second day of the three day festival there, but we ended up doing a whole lot of other stuff and I took over 300 photos, oops.

Without further ado, here’s the report!

So, Takamatsu today. We’d actually already reserved tickets yesterday, so we hopped on the Marine Liner that would take us to Takamatsu in about an hour. It took us over the Seto Ohashi bridge, which is quite the ride with lovely views on many smaller islands. Already, Shikoku looks a bit different from Honshu (the main island which holds most of the biggest cities of Japan) – less skyscrapers for one thing!

Once in Takamatsu, I figured they’d have information about the Sanuki Takamatsu festival at the tourist information center, so we went over there so I could practice my Japanese a bit, haha. There was indeed information – telling us that the festival activities wouldn’t start until 6 PM. It was barely midday. Oops… Anyway, we’d also learnt about nearby islands, so we asked about the nearest ones and got a folder for Ogijima and Megijima, two tiny islands with regular ferries hitting them. It was summer season, so they went extra often – the trip to Megijima took 20 minutes, after which the ferry goes on to Ogijima for another 20.

We were well in time for the 12 o’clock ferry, so we followed the easy road ahead to the harbor and got ourselves tickets. We secured seats on the upper deck, shielded from the sun, and off we went to Megijima first. The views were amazing – this is part of why I have so many pictures of today, haha. Blue skies, tons of islands in the distance forming splotches of greenery, it was marvelous. I’ll try picking the best pictures for the photo set to follow.

As we knew, the ferry first stopped at Megijima for a while before continuing to Ogijima, which is the smaller of the two islands. We figured it’d be a popular tourist stop, but it – wasn’t, not really, haha. So it was pretty tough finding something to eat. Since we’d both had a snack in the train, we weren’t super hungry yet and decided to walk along the coastline to see if we could find a place.

As it turned out, today most places were closed. Sadly it was super hot again today too, so the walk got a bit tough, but it wasn’t really uphill and the views were spectacular, so all was well in the end. We trailed back to the dock where we found a place that sold rice dishes, so we took a breather there and only went out for just a bit more to take in the views. There is a shrine nearby, but it’s uphill, and pretty steep too by the looks of it, so we decided against that and took pictures of the shrine gate from the coast instead. I’m sure it’s a lovely walk, but it was about 35 C and super sunny, and we quite value not having a sun stroke or getting dehydrated, thank you.

The ferry back to Takamatsu left at 3 PM, which once again took us back over Megijima. We had different views this time, but just as stunning, and I quickly apologized to my camera for abusing it so much today, haha.

Once back, we fled inside the waiting building for ice cream and revelled in the air conditioning for a bit before we dared to wander back outside again. Luckily, the sun sets pretty early in most parts of Japan, even in summer, so the sun was already pretty low when we walked to our next goal: Tamamo park. It’s super close to the station, and since it was around 5 PM now, we started to see more people in yukata (summer kimono), traditional garbs to be worn at festivals. Seems like most people had actually considered the 6 PM start, unlike us, haha…

Anyway, that did mean not a lot of people got here for the park, which at 200 yen entrance is quite the steal for the lovely views it provides. And, not unimportantly, features a castle! Granted, it’s in ruins – only two turrets are still standing, and further of course the moats and walls remain. But the main tower’s foundation is reconstructed and provides a great view over the park, and all in all it’s just a very nice getaway to begin with. Takamatsu is actually home to another one of Japan’s top 3 landscape gardens about 20 minutes from the station, but we saw another one in Okayama the other day and really, we enjoyed this just as much. Takamatsu Castle was actually one of the very few castles built along a waterfront and the moats draw directly from the sea, so that was a change from most of the other castles we’ve seen (they tend to be hilltop). Considering how close it is to the station too, I highly recommend this side trip.

After that, we went back to the station to reserve tickets for the train back to Okayama – for 19:40, because we weren’t quite done yet, haha. The festival booths were all readied up now and tons of people were already visiting them, so we quickly joined them and enjoyed the atmosphere of a Japanese summer festival. Which means: people in yukata, and tons and tons of food stalls selling everything from takoyaki, fries, cotton candy, sugarcoated fruits, to the less usual squid-on-a-stick, fries with chocolate sauce, cow tongue and baby castella, which is sponge cake shaped like (in this case) Pikachu. Yeah, guess which varieties we went with, haha. Neither of those are as disgusting as they might sound, and I’ve always wanted to try fries with chocolate sauce ever since I learnt the Japanese McDonalds occasionally has it. I did feel a bit like a monster decapitating Pikachu like that though, but he was delicious!

All kinds of scents filled the air, the sun was setting and the lights were coming on, there was a karaoke contest going on because this is Japan after all, and we got ourselves lightbulbs with drinks (a Korean trend – the flasks are shaped like bulbs and there’s flickering lights in the bottom, mine have yet to go out, haha). So that was a great end to a lovely day! We did end up missing the fireworks, but meh, that wasn’t a major reason for us to go to the festival to begin with. Sanuki Takamatsu is famous for the traditional dance, though, but that’s only tomorrow, so we won’t get to see that. Maybe next time!

Anyway, we took the Marine Liner back to Okayama and discussed that it might be good to take it a bit easier tomorrow, ahem. If we’re up for it, we might go for a retry for the cycling route, only starting at the end this time to backtrack to a lovely temple and keep it at that. We’ll see. If not, we’ll stick around the station area, since there’s plenty of things to see and do here.

Yep, I really like Okayama, but I also love what Takamatsu had to offer. I fear this might be all we get to see of Shikoku this trip, but it definitely got me excited to go back here one day.

Good night for now, see you tomorrow!

[coolbeansmarvel-blog]

Smartass

Summary: You’re a pretty calculated person, that is until you meet the infamous Winter Soldier, who makes you lose your cool each time you see him. 

Word Count: 2271

Paring: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: language, because I have a potty mouth.

A/N: So this is my first time posting any of my crap here, which is why I’m a lil bit scared! I wrote this months ago, it’s one of my first pieces, so please excuse any typos/ grammar mistakes/ mistakes in general (English is not my first language). Feedback is very welcomed! I hope you enjoy! 

(gif is not mine)

Landing a job at Stark Labs was a dream come true. You had never even hoped for it to happen, but here you were, Chef of Engineering Section, with your own lab, a place to live in the Avengers Compound and most importantly, a space and tools to grow as an scientist.

You loved your job. Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy and Engineering- all of your favourite aspects of science combined into one position in one of the best labs in the world. It was like buying a mystery Mentos pack filled with all of your favourite flavors in it. You could swore that life was literally treating you all too well, which meant that soon enough it should all go to hell. Oh, how right you were.

The day you met the one and only, the infamous James Buchanan Barnes was the day when everything started to go to shit. And that was a very mild description of what was happening. You didn’t even know how you, a very calculated person, started turning into a hot mess every time this big bulk of muscles in a shape and form of Bucky Barnes was around you. But it was happening way too often and it had to stop.

“God dammit, god fucking dammit!” you muttered under your breath when you tried for the billionth of time to modify Tony’s suit. “You fucking piece of shit, little ball of fucking wires that are too fucking dumb to fucking work with me for fuck’s sake!”

“Language” Steve chuckled as he entered your lab.

“Don’t you fucking… Jesus, Captain, I’m so sorry…” you stood up, immediately starting to apologize for your dirty mouth. If you could point out one thing that you would love to change about yourself it would most definitely be your vocabulary. Keeping your cursing at bay when you were mad wasn’t exactly your forte.

“It’s Steve, Y/N, you should know that by now” he told you with a smile. “So I guess you have problems with fixing something?”

“Kinda. It’s just that Tony asked me to modify his suit, but this dumbass forgot to get me the right wires to increase durability of the system, so I have to work with what I got which is, well, nothing, so I’m pissed as hell, I mean, I’m just angry, because how am I supposed to work if I can’t?” you ranted, looking around for your screwdriver.

“So I guess it’s a wrong time to ask you for a favor?”

“Depends. What’s the deal? Something’s wrong with the shield?” you looked at him concerned. You fixed it 2 days before, what could possibly be damaged again?

“No, everything’s fine with me, but I think Bucky needs a checkup. His arm’s been weird lately, you know? I think he messed something up right after you fixed it after the mission and he doesn’t want to admit it.”

That stopped you in your tracks. Every checkup you had to do on Bucky was a dreadful experience for you in general, mostly because you had to remain professional while your brain was all over the place. Any additional meeting with the soldier was an unnecessary show of your clumsiness and very bad acting as you tried to hide your affection for the man. Steve couldn’t be serious.

“Oh” was all you managed to say.

“Yeah, I know, you’re overworked anyway, but it’s probably nothing and it won’t take long, I promise. Please, Y/N?” Rogers looked at you with puppy eyes.

“Y-yeah, sure, bring him in” you stuttered as you turned around from him pretending to be searching for something, while actually trying to hide the redness of your cheeks.

“Great, you’re seriously the best!” he exclaimed happily. “I’ll tell him, you were the one to ask for the checkup, so he won’t feel bad about it, okay?”

“Uh, um, I guess?”

“Fantastic! He’ll be here in a few, I hope” he winked at you and left you all alone again.

“The lord is testing me” you muttered as you fell onto your chair and started fixing the suit again.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, ARE YOU EVEN UP THERE?!” you yelled as once again your attempt at modifying Tony’s suit turned into a failure. You’ve had enough; another try at it proved that you can’t make something so specific out of nothing.

Bucky chuckled at himself as he stood by the door frame, watching you. You were quite adorable when you were mad.

“You alright there?” he asked you with a smug smile, which made you froze. “I don’t want to interrupt your rant, but Steve told me you wanted to see me.”

“He did?” you felt your cheeks redden with embarrassment, Bucky’s presence making you forget all about your previous conversation with Rogers.

“For a checkup” Barnes clarified.

“Oh, alright” you let out a huge sigh. “Um, have a seat.”

You gathered all of your stuff in silence, trying to make yourself look like you knew what you were doing. Bucky silently looked around your messy lab, focusing on anything apart from you. To say that you made his heart race was an understatement. He was head over heels in love with you, yet you seem to never be interested in even talking to him. Each time he would come for a checkup, he felt like you never wanted him around you, which made his little heart ache every time.

“You don’t clean here much often, do you?” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“I didn’t have the time, sorry” you sheepishly apologized, hiding your yet again blossoming blush.

“It was a joke, Y/N. It’s your lab. Why would I care how it looks like?”

“Right” you face palmed yourself in your thoughts. “Shall we get started?”

“Go for it.”

You took a seat on a small stool that you always sat on when you did the checkup and carefully removed pieces of metal covering main electronics of Bucky’s arm. In a complete silence, you started testing the wires and checking the whole system until you found an error that Steve was concerned about.

“There you are” you said to yourself as you detected the damage and started fixing it by replacing a small metal strip.

After few finishing touches, you were done with the arm. You hadn’t even noticed that the whole time you had worked in silence, with furrowed brows and droplets of sweat covering your forehead, Bucky couldn’t tear his eyes off of you. What a beautiful and smart creature, he sighed in his thoughts, taking your presence in.

“Done. Should be as good as new” you told him as you started to put all the equipment back into the box.

“Thanks Y/N, you’re the best” he said with a smile and looked at you. “You have an eyelash on your…” he tried to reach for your cheek to wipe the small piece of hair off of your face, but his touch was so unexpected, that it made you fall off of your stool in the most ungracious way possible. Within seconds, you were lying flat on your ass in front of your crush. So much for keeping it cool.

“Oh my god, Y/N!” he immediately squatted to you, trying to help you get up.

“I’m fine, it’s nothing” you told him with a full on tomato red splashed on your face. How could you be such a clumsy idiot?!

“Did you hit your head? Should I call for help?” he asked looking more concerned each second.

“No, just go Bucky, just… leave me alone” you said getting up and turning away from him. You didn’t even notice that it hurt him a little, but he did as you asked, not wanting to upset you even more.

You huffed in pain as you was left alone. God, you were such an idiot. No way, he was ever going to feel the same way you felt about him.

“Maybe you should just ask her out” Steve told Bucky for what he felt like a hundredth of time since Bucky had confessed his crush on you to him.

“No way, don’t you see? She hates me!” he exclaimed, hitting the punch bag hard.

Steve rolled his eyes at his friend. He was getting tired of all of this.

“She doesn’t hate you.”

“Yeah right, like you would know!”

“Then at least talk to her at the party tonight. It won’t hurt, right? If she won’t want to, then will figure it out” he told Barnes.

“Alright, but if she hates me even more after this, then you’re screwed” Bucky threatened him.  

“I know, I know” he sighed and the men continued to train.

“Hey kid” Natasha greeted you few hours after that fatal incident with Bucky. You were now in your room, watching Netflix while being wrapped like a burrito in multiple blankets.

“Hey mom” you replied, causing the redhead to roll her eyes.

“So” she started, sitting on the edge of your bed. “Are you going to a party tonight?”

In that moment you noticed she was all glammed up. “What party?”

“Have you ever left this cage or lab at all?” she asked you irritated.

“No” you simply replied.

“Tony is hosting a party tonight, in the tower. So wear something nice and go downstairs” she ordered.

“I don’t want to” you whined.

“Why?”

“I’m planning on not seeing Bucky for few months after my spectacular fail.”

“Y/N please, stop acting like a baby” she rolled her eyes.

“Why do you care?”

“Because” she looked at you irritated.

“That’s not an answer” you fixed your eyes on the screen.

“What happened between you and Barnes?” she changed the subject.

“I fell on the floor…”

“That’s not that bad” she said, shrugging.

“…because he tried to touch me” you finished, your face flushing once again.

“Where?!” her eyes widened at the vision of him trying to get into your panties.

“Not there!” you hit her with a pillow. “He tried to remove an eyelash from my cheek.”

“That’s adorable” she smiled.

“That’s fucking humiliating!” you huffed, rolling your eyes.

“Then get wasted trying to forget about it and your crush on him” she stood up. “C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

“God I hate you” you muttered as you stood up and changed to go to the party in a decent state.

“I just think it’s kinda impossible, ya know? Like Asgard must be so much better than all of this lame ass shit on Earth” you slurred to Thor. After your non-stopping pleas, he put a little drop of his drink into your own and without a doubt, you had never been more wasted in your life.

“I’ll take you there one day, Lady Y/N” he smiled at your drunken state. “You’d love our astronomy tower.”

“Oh my God, you would show me it?! This is the best night of my life!” you exclaimed a little too loud with a little bit too much of hand gestures as you spilled your drink on your Star Wars shirt.

Bucky watched you from the distance, chuckling. You were too adorable. And beautiful. And perfect. And you really have to stop being so cringy, he ordered himself. He did find a bit of jealousy in him as Thor made you laugh more than he ever did. A race of thoughts ran through his head; did you like Thor? Was it because of his muscles? Or maybe you thought he was smarter than Bucky? Maybe he should dye his hair blond and try to braid it, maybe then you would like him?

“Y/N is so wasted” Nat interrupted his internal monologue when she and Steve approached Buck.

“She is” he replied, eyes glued to you.

“Go and talk to her” Steve ordered him, seeing his miserable state.            

“She is talking with Thor now.”

“Hey Thor, come here buddy!” Rogers yelled at the god and he left you alone, before saying his apologies.

“Not anymore, so move your ass over there” Nat gave a firm squeeze to his flesh arm.

“God, you annoy me both” he muttered and made his way to you, nervousness overtaking his body. “Hey Y/N, how are you?”

“Oh man, you look hella fine tonight!” you slurred, not realizing what exactly you were saying or more specifically, to who.

“Thanks” Bucky blushed a little. Was she serious?

“I mean, like damn, your ass looks great in those pants!” you winked at him. “Hey, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, no I have not” he told you, being more and more curious. There is a chance!

“Well, I have a candidate” you exclaimed with a grin plastered across your face.

“Really?” he was hoping it was a little joke you planed and that maybe, maybe, you would tell him that you liked him too.

“Yeah, wanna know who I have on my brilliant mind, soldier?” you whispered.

“I do” he smiled at you.

“Natasha” you told him in the most conspiratorial tone.

His face fell at the sound of your words.

“Seriously, she told me. I mean, she didn’t but who wouldn’t want to be your girlfriend, right? You would be great together…” 

“Jesus Y/N, could you shut your goddamn mouth for one minute?” he told you before cupping your face and kissing you fiercely. At first you couldn’t react but after few seconds you started to reciprocate the kiss.

“I also have a candidate” he said as he pulled back, a new wave of confidence flowing through his body.

“Yeah? Who?” you mumbled, still in shock.

“You, you little smartass” he smiled before kissing you again.

[alainas-adventures]

Guilin/Yangshuo!

For months, I had been looking at images of the picturesque towns of Guilin and Yangshuo, China. It was a goal of mine to visit these places by the end of the summer, and we made it! Homer and I spent a 3-day weekend enjoying nature, spectacle, and culture in a more provincial region of China.

Note: I found it pretty difficult to gain specific information about traveling in Guilin and Yangshuo online, so hopefully this is helpful for those who are planning trips there!

Thursday, September 7

There are two main ways to get to Guilin from Hong Kong: by plane or by train. We found that there was only one flight a day going to Guilin that was very expensive (Cathay is the only airline that does direct flights from HK to Guilin). Also, since we only had two nights there, we didn't want to arrive at 4 or 5pm, by which time all the outdoor experiences would be closed. So we opted to take a train. From Tsuen Wan, we took a public bus to Sha Tin, then a train to Shenzhen, and then another train from Shenzhen to Guilin. We booked our tickets from Shenzhen to Guilin online ahead of time. In total, it took us about 7 hours to get there; but if you take the earliest train, you can arrive by 1 or 2 in the afternoon and still have most of the day to explore. 

We took a cab from the station in Guilin and arrived at our hotel around 3:00 PM. (Side note: cabs and communication in general is a lot easier if you’re able to speak Chinese – even just a little bit goes a long way. Of course Homer did most of the legwork in this department, but even I was able to converse with the locals from time to time.)

By 3:30, we were bummed to find that the bamboo rafts and other attractions were already about to close. However, our hotel was able to help us book a nighttime boat cruise which toured the architecture of Guilin. In the meantime, we chose to shop and dine in the area to kill time.

In this area, there were a lot of touristy shops, tea (especially mango tea) places, a few restaurants, and stands serving local delicacies (fried bugs and crocodile meat). I’m not even sure what this plaza is called, but it was just a few steps away from the Sheraton Guilin.

By nightfall, it was just about time to board the Two Rivers/Four Lakes boat tour. This is definitely worth doing, especially at night. All the buildings and mountains are lit up colorfully and you get a really good view of the famous Sun and Moon towers. There are two versions of this tour: one has English and Chinese narration and is an hour long, and one just has Chinese and is about 80 minutes long. The former stops halfway through to watch a piece of performance art from the boat; the latter basically skips it and turns back. There are some great photo ops along the way, as you’ll see...

The Sun and Moon Towers

As this picture was being taken, I heard “aww”ing next to me and looked over to see two parents, bemused at the fact that their kid was decidedly enamored with me. I began to “aww” myself but then noticed that the kid had on no bottoms. No pants. No undies. Just livin’ free. I wish I could say this was the first time this has happened on my travels, but alas.

This bridge reminded me of the floating lanterns in Tangled. What else?

Friday, September 8

This was our only full day of the trip, and was therefore our big touring day. We booked a tour to Yangshuo through our hotel, the first leg of which was a 90-minute bus ride to the coast of the Li River. There, we disembarked and (after waiting for the rain to settle) boarded bamboo speed boats in groups of four. I was actually expecting those stand-up rafts that you paddle with a giant stick, but this was a good experience too. (It turns out those kinds of rafts are mostly found in Yangshuo proper, and they’re really just for leisure, not for transportation purposes.)

These speedboats took us on an hourlong cruise down the river, past the beautiful knobby mountains – including the famous “Mural Hill Nine Horses” mountain. Personally, I don’t know if this was totally worthwhile. It was really interesting at first, but after 60 or 70 minutes, we were pretty bored. Unfortunately, the main attraction (Nine Horses Mountain) was the last thing of the tour, so I suppose it’s worth it if you really want a great view of that.

Can you spot nine horses? I could make a case for maybe three.

The boat dropped us off near a taxi stand, where transportation had been pre-arranged by the tour group. We piled into 10-person tuk-tuk-style taxis and took a quick ride to the nearby town of Xingping. We only had a few minutes here to poke around the souvenir shops before catching the tour bus to Yangshuo.

The tour group offered an extended tour of the sights of “Shangri La” for whoever was interested. But since we only had one day in the area, we decided to do our own thing for the rest of the day. After grabbing a quick lunch at a place called “Demon” (????) (I know) (the food was good tho), our first order of business was finding a place to rent scooters. We found one without too much trouble – 100 RMB per person bought us each a scooter for the day. For another 100 RMB, we hired a guide to take us around the countryside of Yangshuo. This was undoubtedly the most priceless experience of our trip, as well as one of my favorite things I’ve done since living in Asia.

This was literally advertised to us as “the place where they took the photo for the default background on Windows XP.” It exceeded expectations. Also, my Lizzie McGuire dreams came true with this mint green vespa. I mean are you kidding?!

Our guide – a sprightly older lady – helped us find a half dozen hidden gems that we never would have seen on TripAdvisor or Instagram. She took us to a place with an old mill spinning in the water, a cavernous mountain area where you could sing and your voice would echo off the mountains (and we did), a mountain with a piece missing from it where the light shone through, and an area where 20 RMB would buy you a bucket of arrows to shoot at makeshift targets beneath the mountains. To top it all off, we got to see the sunset as we rode back into town. It was truly unforgettable.

After returning our scooters, we headed back into what seemed to be “downtown Yangshuo” (I’m not actually sure what this area is called), and grabbed some snacks. Homer got a hot dog covered in hash browns, and I got a ramune/vanilla flavored ice cream. 

Still having dreams about that ice cream, from a place called Youngsun.

That night, we had tickets to see “Impressions of Sanjie Liu,” a music, light, and water show performed nightly by an ensemble of hundreds of Yangshuo locals. There's not much of a storyline, but the inspiration is a character from a Chinese legend named Sanjie Liu, a girl with a beautiful singing voice who won the heart of her lover by singing to him from one mountain to another. Going in, our frame of reference was Macau’s House of Dancing Water and Disney’s Fantasmic. It wasn’t on the same scale of course, but this is still definitely worth seeing – if only for the moments when 200 people in costume light up the lake in front of you. Scenes of local choirs singing native folk songs, and performers walking their cattle along the river give you a feeling of what traditional life is/was like in these villages of China. And there are also more spectacular moments, featuring dance, large floating set pieces, and even lighting up the entirety of the mountains in front of you. We also enjoyed being far enough away from light pollution to be able to look up and see the stars. Tickets range from 200-500 RMB as I recall, and we got them through our hotel.

Saturday, September 9

On our last morning in Guilin, we decided to pay a visit to the Ludi Yan reed flute caves. This is a place to see the natural cave formations that have been "enhanced" by tourism companies; the formations are all colorfully lit, and it's a really interesting way to experience nature. You can buy tickets at the door. The tour was just over an hour long and the narration was all in Chinese. We really enjoyed this. (Except for the part where a kid dropped trow in the middle of the caves while his mom held a Ziploc bag for him to pee into. She then sealed the bag and dropped it into a trash can. I can’t make this stuff up.)

After stopping by the souvenir vendors outside the reed caves exhibition (and using my limited Mandarin to bargain with them), it was just about time to head back to Hong Kong. Guilin and Yangshuo were a wonderful retreat. If we could have stayed longer, I would have loved to try the stand-up bamboo rafting and maybe a hot air balloon. These towns are truly diamonds in the rough, and I recommend them to anyone traveling in Asia. Especially if you have a China visa that’s good for the next ten years!

[engineeringhungry]

Florence

Florence Tumblr

Friday started at 6:45 AM. I promised that I would run in the morning with this guy from work that I met last week. I was extremely sore from playing soccer the day before so I knew I was going to be slow. However I thought we’d run at like a 9:30 pace but the guy pushed for an 8 minute mile for 3 miles. I could barely keep up. Then on the way back (3 miles back) I quickly dropped off and ran at a 10 minute pace. It was sad but its okay, I ran in the morning! at 7, something I haven’t done. I really liked doing it in the morning though and I asked if he wanted to do hill sprints with me next Monday. He said yes so I have to look forward to that. I went to work with all my clothes packed. Worked rather diligently that day and then picked up my stuff at 4 and took the bus to the train station. It was chaos at the train station - there was a strike that started the night before and all these trains were being cancelled. Was literally praying (fyi not religious) that my bus wouldn’t be cancelled. Holly and Mirny’s were cancelled the the hour before mine and were planning on joining me on my train. Luckily our trained wasn’t cancelled and we jumped onto find seats as soon as that bitch landed in the station. I’m glad they were there though because it was really nice talking and getting to know them as we traveled to Florence. Holly is very cool and I really like her. I’m really glad she came on this trip to Florence - we really bonded. We sat next to each other on the train to Mestre but had assigned seat from Venezia to Florence and I was’t next to them. I tried to sleep but failed miserably and then decided to try and pay my mobile bill since it was going to expire on Saturday. However I kept getting an error and it was so frustrating! I also started to talk to Ariel to see if we could get together or something later that night. We agreed to meet at a square near my apartment, Piazza Santo Spiritosa at Osteria Santo Spiritosa. Once the train got into Florence I wobbled our way to the apartment, twisting and turning through these cobble stone streets and overhanging shutters beckoning the beaming night into their homes. Fireworks burst in the background as we stepped through the streets. We soon ventured along the Ponte Vecchio and saw the display of fireworks celebrating the main saint of Florence. The bridge we were trying to cross was extremely crowded and we needed to push our way through just to try and get across the river.

Upon first approaching the apartment we had turned off the main street and into a smaller alley. The door was tucked away within the wall, with a few steps leading up to the door. A bed of flowers hung over rails in the window next to the door. We called Cody, the guy we were staying in the AirBnb with and he came within a few minutes of reaching the apartment to let us in. The hallway was cool and dark as we climbed to the second floor. The apartment was extremely cute. It had two bedrooms, single and double, with a pull out couch in the main living area. The hosts had left us some fig newton like cookies in the kitchen and I quickly went in and munched on one. Holly and I claimed the double, which looked sort of like a sexy honey moon sweet, complete with a canopy. I mean its probably for mosquitos but never the less, it provided a romantic vibe. Our windows overlooked the alley in the front of the house and the other windows in the apartment looked into little courtyards between each apartment building.

I contacted Ariel and she was on here way by 10. The five of us (Holly, Mirny, Cody, Cici, and I) decided to explore a bit and found that our Piazza nearby was a bumping party. Mirny quickly got the idea to grab a few bottles of wine and drink them in the square. We walked around the streets a little bit and soon found a liquor store that sold us a bag of cashews and 3 bottles of wine, despite it being past the buying hours. They were busy buying it and I was beginning to get worried that Ariel was at the square so I ran over to the square ahead of them to make sure that we found each other. It wasn’t long before we finally caught each other and we then the rest of the gang joined in suite. That first night we just talked and hung out at the square, sitting drinking wine next to a fountain. It was lovely to say the least.

Friday night ended after we walked to Ponte Vecchio bridge and looked out at the water. The air was warm and the breeze felt nice on the skin as we watched the water dance with the lights from the buildings.

Saturday started at 9. I kept waking up during the night for some reason, likely because I have gotten used to waking up a at 8. I texted Taylor and tried to pay my phone bill again but failed. We left around 9:45 and headed towards the Duomo since we were trying to do all the church’s today. We got side tracked and stopped by the church right next to our apartment which was quite glamorous and large in size. I had to buy a shawl to make sure I was descent - honestly a fantastic buy. Its the lovely blue floral print that has nice vibrant colors lining the edges. Holly and I talked outside briefly while we waited for Mirny and Cody to finish upon the church. We then headed for the Duomo, quickly positioning ourselves in line for the tower next to it. The tower is quite tall and climbing all the way to the top was for sure a workout. However - the view at the top was spectacular. You could see the shear size of the church compared to the city and the antique nature of the curving streets and building facades. Breath taking. I climbed own after about an hour of photos and reflection to meet up with the whole group. We decided to go into the church and the battista and meet up with Mirny at 2:30 by the Opera House.

Chruch

Battistsa

Lunch - market

Medici church

TIM

other church

gelato

get lost

View + wine

Trattoria L’Brindellone

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Piazza Santo Spiritosa

Sunday started at 7:45 AM. I woke up right before my alarm went off. I quickly put on my clothes and Cody, Cici and I all dashed off towards the Galleria dell’Accademia. Florence is beautiful in the morning. No tourists, empty streets, shining sun. Truly a marvel to behold when you’ve only seen the city riddled with hungry people browsing the gelato and finery. We walked with pace and I struggled to keep up due to my soreness and frankly sleepless nights. Finally we arrived at the museum only to see a long line of people already waiting to get in. It seemed as though they hadn’t started letting people into the gallery yet so we were hopefully. I managed to escape the line briefly to find some fruit for us to munch on as our breakfast. I found two apples at a cafe around the corner from the museum. Eventually the line began to move and after an hour of waiting - luckily we had wifi - we made it into the museum.

The museum was poorly laid out. I’m sorry. I just really disliked the layout and planning the curators put into the flow of the gallery. Besides that, it was very religious with well over 50% of the gallery being church panels. Granted they were beautiful but I can only handle church panels for so long before getting slightly bored. Though, David was magical. The power the statue had was incredible. The shear size, crisp lines, beautify the statue holds is truly a marvel to see. I also found a beautiful Portelli piece called the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception. There was so much happening in that piece - the underlying meanings, the stories it alludes to, poses of each woman, the comparison between eve and the virgin mary, the transfer of power. It both reflects the art of the time, religious significance, and the changing attitudes of people and their relationship and perspective with god and religion. There was so much in this piece as well as the shear genius of the mastery of craft. Favorite piece there by far.

After seeing David I took a quick snooze near the exit while waiting for the other two to finish the exhibit. We then rushed to get lunch with Holly and Mirny at Osteria Santo Spiritosa. The food was pretty good, by far sub par to the food we had gotten the night before, but it had a good atmosphere and white wine. I do have to say the risotto was also quite good - unsure if it was the fact i hadn’t had risotto ever or if it was actually good risotto. Lunch ended and Cody went to go pick up our tickets at the Uffizi while Cici and I walked Mirny and Holly back to the apartment to get the keys. After those two left, Cici and I rushed to the Uffizi Gallery where we met Cody and were quickly ushered into the museum at 2:20.

The Uffizi is likely one of my favorite galleries to date. I felt like I was guided on a personal tour through the ages and evolution of art - really getting a feel for Italian art and their masters. The true marvel of the museum is really the museum itself. It’s hallways are lined with fantastic murals and statues that decorate the warm hall which overlooks Florence at the epicenter of culture. My second favorite was the botticelli room where they casually have some of the most famous painting in the world by botecelli just chilling all in one room. I have a list of favorite works from this museum below.

After the Uffizi, we headed back to the apartment, stumbling on some parade of men dressed up in traditional garb and riding on horses, and then packed up and left. I was the last to leave the apartment, closing the door on my adventure in this cultural paradise. I killed some time by going to La Carraia which is one of the most famous gelateria’s in Italy and tried their white chocolate covered in pistatio flavor - very good and very cream but I just wasn’t feeling all that creamy that day. I walked to the train station, passing beautiful churches right and left, and then got on the train, napped, and then began to write this.

I’m looking at a cloud. It towers above the tumbling town below. The tallest point of the town barley reaches the base of the mountain of clouds. The clouds are a dark blue at the base and softly rise to a careful gray with a tint of turquoise. A radiant beam of orange pierces the face of the mountainous billows and highlight an out stretched arm reaching towards the sun from the heavy mass.

We’re just getting into Trieste. It’s nice to be relaxed.