Captains log 09/07/13 ok so things don't always go as planned, nor do they general just work out. So we lay here on the ground at 12am inside the train station, everything's closed. We're stranded. We don't want to get franks out, everything's really expensive. It's going to cost 50 euros to lock up our cases, were screwed. We just have to sit and wait 9 hours in the dark cold train station. I get Bella to sleep as I read my book trying not to let the glares and funny looks get to me. I notice a guard coming up to me, it's 1am, this can't be good. He informs me that they are closing the station and its time to leave. Great. Now, we have no battery on our phones, no place to go, limited water, no toilet, no franks and no idea how we are going to kill time in the dark cold slightly scary Zurich. We follow another would be traveler to a dark corner outside the station and try settle down and get cozy. Guess what people, every big cities the same. Doesn't matter if your in Switzerland! It's freaking scary, there's drunk and wacked out people everywhere, it stinks of pee, in fact I'm sure we were sitting close to a fresh one. It was driving me crazy. Bella was stressed and didn't feel safe. I couldn't take it, why trying to find a place to kill time I got up and noticed a man with a Mickey ds bag. Good maccas is around the corner. Lovely it will be 24/7 we can sit there and have a coffee and feel safe. I get Bella and we head off, before long we found it, it was really close. We get there, and s***, closes at 3. Great that means we still have another hour to kill in the dark. We have a coffee and general just watch the world go by. Apparently everyone in Switzerland wears a suit when they club, even on a Monday. Maccas closed, and we decided the best place to kill time would be by the taxi rank. There was cabbys and a few other people with suitcases. It felt as safe as possible. Again trying to some what lay and sit on our cases. It was ok, a little worries when a super drunk local just came and passed out suit and all 1 meter to the left of us. Random. Soon enough we had heard the right clock-tower Bells and the station was reopened. We found our little spot again and Bella got a bit of sleep why I carried on reading my book. 100 pages in 1 day, I'm a beast ;)! Soon enough the morning business crowd started coming into the station and we were asked to not lay around and go find a seat. It was then that Bella notices that I had been laying on my bag and blown up our toothpaste. It was everywhere, this day didn't need to get any worst. Sigh! Bella did a great job and cleaning it up, why the 0 hours sleep just started to take its toll and stressed me out. Finally 7:09 was getting closer and we could almost feel the train. When Bella really needed to pee, and for some stupid reason the train toilets weren't opened. We walked up and down taking in turns trying to find her one. She looked so stressed, poor thing. Finally we begged an unopened, but setting up cafe to let her use it. They were nice and did, for free! Free toilets don't exist here! I felt truly sorry for her. Ok so 7;09 came, this was the first train we have caught that you have to pay for. It was nice, but at this point I didn't care it just wasn't a cold hard floor. 5 hours, we just crashed. But you start to fall asleep and the ticket guy comes, or the train stops and you are stressed its your stop. It wasn't good. Also the fact my body started to hurt in every single muscle was getting to much. I gave up trying to sleep, but got a good hour or maybe even two under my belt. We got off at Milan, and had to run to our train. Bella not caring she was like the juggernaut pushing, bumping even owning some poor unexpected girls foot. When I asked her about it her soulless answer was " shouldn't have been on her phone" was quite funny. The train from Milan to Florence was quick and we could finally charge our phones. We arrived, ok now to get wifi, a map and find our hotel. Lucky for us Florence had a really good information center, they gave us a map, showed us were our hotel was all for free. It was seriously 1 minute walk from the station. Sweet. We checked in, got wifi, got in contract with mum who is my spokes person to find Lara and to delay our check in. The hotel is only a 2 star, but it's nice. The staff our friendly our rooms old, and again another old school lift, this time a cage one, its cool. The rooms really big with a double bed and a single bed! The naughty corner! Oh well it's a bed. We had shower and de-hobo ourselves. It felt so good. Also we haven't eaten since 10pm, it's now 2pm, we were so hungry! We found a local pizza shop and destroyed a pizza each! This shop had a turtle! Just trolling out the back, he was so cool! He ate strawberries! We tipped our friendly ( but naturally Italian grumpy) waiter and he gave us free limoncello shots! Yum! I went to meet up with Lara! Yay, and Bella went to nap. I was extremely excited to see her, and it made me feel a little home sick! Both the girls had just been to piza, so we chatted and walked to there hotel, chilled there for 30 minutes then went to wake up Bella. Poor thing was out like a light! She got ready why we sat around catching up and getting friendly with Lara's friend Alise, she's a nice girl! We all went walking around the town and I was showing the girls some of the stuff our tour guide told us about Florence. Showed them the bridge. Hilter didn't blow up, and town hall and center with all the statues. We settled down at a bar for some frozen limoncello and ice tea, a Castillo for me, feeling refreshed we went to find a place for dinner. We went back to the place Bella and I had a huge T-bone steak. It was so full, we committed and waiting 10 minutes for our table, we got free sparkling wine for waiting. We sat down, I had t-bone again, Bella had a really nice mushroom ravioli, Lara had a carbonara, and Alise had a chicken breast, we all shared a little vino! It was really good again. For dessert Bella and I shared a cheese board, Lara had strawberries and cream and Alise had assorted icecream. It was really good, and not even that expensive. We walked back to the girls hotel, feeling like we could roll home! We dropped them off and headed back. Finally feeling like I've had 1 hour sleep in 40 hours my head hit the pillow and it was game over! Roma tomorrow! Ashes tomorrow! And we have a bed! Yay :)