When the train arrived in Florence, this time I was going to be on my toes. I realized that a taxi is extremely expensive and you can get most places by bus or metro. I hadn't done my homework on how to get to my hostel. I was going to just by a bus ticket and look at the map and piece it together somehow. I stood in line for the bus ticket and practiced my Italian on the iPod. By clicking the buttons and selecting what I wanted to say and it reads it out loud and displays the spelling on the screen. When I got to the bus ticket counter, I think I may have passed for a local- okay maybe that's wishful thinking...but the point is, I'm getting better.

I bought my bus ticket for one Euro and headed out to the street. This city was completely different then Milan and Venice. It was very fast paced, buildings on top of each other and everyone was smoking cigarettes. I went up to the bus line and looked at all the different routes. I had not a clue where to go. I thought I was getting better at this, but who was I kidding. All I had was an address on my iPod. I asked the girl next to me if she spoke English. My hostel said it was in Firenze so I asked her if she knew where that was. She was kind enough to tell me that is where we currently are, Florence is Firenze. Okay, check. Now I know the proper way to pronounce Florence. She did not know where my hostel was so I ran across the street to a café to see if I could hook up to Wifi and map out my route. I needed to see if it was in walking distance or what direction to take the bus. Not one cafe' around had Wifi I was beginning to run out of options.

I crossed the busy street back to the train station and realized I better figure this out soon before it gets dark. I approached an older woman and asked her if knew my street "Via Faenza." Becca had booked this hostel for me and I knew she said it was right in the center of the city where everything is happening so I was assuming if I could make my way in that direction I could figure it out from there. The woman began explaining in a very complicated manner where we were and this American girl walked up and saved me. She asked if I needed help and told me she had a map. We looked up my street and we literally were a block away! Here I was about to take a bus and all I had to do was cross the street and turn left. The girl said she would walk with me and I was a little hesitant but after talking for a few minutes she seemed genuine.

As we walked she told me she was from NYC and has been traveling for the last three weeks in Europe. That's about all I heard. She was talking a million miles per hour because I think she was excited to speak to another American, but I was captivated by the city. I had never seen anything like Florence. All the streets were old brick and the shops and restaurants lined the path. Block after block had unique store fronts and so many people walking around. It was so fascinating. I could not believe I was actually walking around here. I felt very lucky.

When we turned down the alley to my street there weren't as many people on the main street and I was slightly concerned that she could be one of those girls that trick you and act like they're helping but lead you to get robbed. I thanked her and told her I could find it from here.

When I walked in my hostel I was pleasantly surprised. It was so much nicer then I imagined. They checked me in and gave me a key to my room. They have computers everywhere to use, free breakfast, a beautiful little courtyard in the middle. My room was all the way on the top floor room fifty. I would be sharing with eight other girls. I made my way up and wondered who I would meet. This was such a bizarre concept to me that I would be rooming with complete strangers. I opened the door and the room was huge with tall ceilings and four bunk beds and two bathrooms. The windows had no screens and opened up to the streets. It was truly a neat experience to be staying here.

I heard a "Hello" from the corner for the room. I peaked my head around the bunk beds and a girl introduced herself. Her name was Jinhoon but goes by Choony and she is from South Korea. We became instant friends and talked for an hour at a table by the window overlooking the street. She speaks great English, although she would argue that it is not that good. Every person I have met on this trip says that when I compliment them on their English. Bianca and Eva also complained that they don't speak that well. I was impressed by all of them. I can't speak any other language fluently so to me, I think they speak great. I did notice that while traveling, I have really broke my speech down to the basics. I didn't realize how much slang and jokes I use to describe things so I have been speaking much more proper so that people can understand me.

Choony and I decided to head out and get some dinner and beer. I wanted to wander around the streets before it got dark and it was already 7.30pm. We walked around the block and Choony led me on to the secret of saving money- going to the market. So we picked up beer at the market and split a pizza to go. I got my first Italian beer and it was only one Euro for a beer the size of a forty. I got two of them, why not? Choony got only one- lightweight.

While we waited for our pizza I asked the server at the restaurant if we were allowed to drink our beer that we bought at the market. He looked at me like I was crazy and so did Choony. I told them I just wanted to make sure I didn't get arrested. Choony asked why I would get arrested and I explained that in the U.S you can't have an open container walking around. She laughed and thought that was bizarre. In Korea and Italy you can walk up and down the streets drinking whatever you like. So we started drinking our beers and laughing about the differences between the U.S and Korea. There were so many.

All of a sudden, two Korean guys walked up and started talking to Choony. I introduced myself and shook their hand. The boys started laughing and turned away so I asked Choony if I said something wrong. She laughed and told me in Korea boys are very shy and they didn't know what to do when an American girl would introduce themselves so they were blushing. This was so odd to me. She talked a lot about the Korean culture and she said she's actually normally really shy but took a volunteer trip in Scotland for the last year so is getting much better at talking to strangers.

After our pizza was ready we walked back to our hostel and sat in the courtyard and talked for hours. Choony is really funny and we shared our lingo. She's taking back "Debbie Downer" to Korea. She thinks that is hilarious. She has never heard of that. It got brought up because she was telling me she was glad I came today because she has been here two days and the other girl in the room was not friendly and was very negative. I guess the girl asked Choony how long she was staying in Florence and when she replied four days, the girl said in disgust "There is not nearly enough to do in Florence for that many days, you are going to be so bored." Choony said she was excited because when I arrived I asked her to go explore the city and grab dinner and this was completely unlike the other girl who was stuck up. That's when I said to Chonny, that girl must of been a "Debbie Downer." Now Choony says it a lot and can't wait to tell her friends.

We stayed up and talked for longer until the hostel host came and told us the courtyard was closing down. We sat in the inner courtyard which was also beautiful and looked up at the stars and all the buildings with the old stone and red shutters. It was the coolest place to stay, I loved it here already.

A few minutes later a few guys came out with bottles of wine and offered it to us. We all headed into the dinner hall and sat at a big booth and played cards. My recommendation of course. At the table there were two guys from the London, two guys from Australia and a girl from Russia and South Korea. I taught them how to play categories where you place a card down and whatever the number starts with you say a word. If you pick up a "Seven," you would say movies that start with an "S." They loved this game and it was really interesting that most of their answers of bands or movies are from the U.S. We played this for hours and I had a cool moment of thinking how the hell did I get here? Here I am playing cards with people from all over the world in the a hostel in Italy. Life is funny, and great.

We got kicked out of the hall after 1am so we took our bottles of wine and sat in a circle on the brick streets right outside our hostel. We talked more about everything under the sun. It's so funny what other countries perception of America is. One of the English guys said that I was so "American". I asked what he meant and he said Americans always have to be center of attention. That I showed everyone how to play the card game while others would wait for someone to propose what we do. They talked about holidays and college and everything under the sun. Around two we all headed up, Choony went up before me so I had trouble trying to get in the room. The door was very old and it looked like something from a castle. There were no lights in hallway so I was feeling all around the door to see where to put the key in. I got in the room and every bed was filled. I tiptoed to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. When I went to open the door back to the bedroom, it wouldn't unlock. All the doors in the hostel were so old. Every time I turned the handle it made a big creaking sound. I was so afraid of waking everyone up so considered just sleeping in the bathroom at this point. I decided to attempt one more time and was successful. I tiptoed over to my bunk, climbed the ladder and crawled into bed. I looked around the room and could not believe that I was here. I never thought I'd be sleeping in a hostel with a bunch of strangers at the age of twenty-seven. It was a really cool feeling.

I got really lucky to find such a unique hostel, find a Choony and be able to spend the evening with people from all different countries. This experience is much more then I could have possibly imagined. It is a blessing to be able to see and do all of these things, it really is. I know that it is completely rare to have had such good experiences so far. I know that not everything is going to go perfect on this trip, but every person I have encountered at this point has been incredibly nice and helped make my trip an unbelievable one.