We Like to Travel!: January 2017

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Because I am a genius, I decided that we MUST start our trip the day before Thanksgiving, on literally the worst travel day of the year. I was already taking 10 days off of work, but because I am a greedy bitch, I whined until my parents gave in and we left on Wednesday instead of Friday or Saturday so I could have two extra days in Florence. We left over 4 hours before our flight and got through security in about an hour. It’s a good thing we got there early, because the line just got longer and longer. Dad and I breezed through, but mom was pulled aside for a pat down - even after the nekkid scan, because she ended up wearing a tunic that had a TON of metal studs on it (note to self: never wear clothing with metal studs on a flight) and they had to bring a female TSA person over to pat her down because all the studs on her tunic freaked out the machine. So dad and I grabbed our stuff and just sat there to wait.

Because my parents are gold members in the Star Alliance (it sounds like they’re a part of Star Trek, doesn’t it?) they have lounge access for Star Alliance airlines and can each bring one guest. I’ve talked a lot of smack about U.S airline lounges because they usually just offer some beverage and some trail mix, but the S.A lounge in LAX’s International terminal is fantastic. Probably because it’s brand new, but it had a lot of seating and a large variety of tasty food. I had some kind of New Zealand Cheddar (too pungent for me), and some other kind of English cheese with green specks in it. And of all the food they had, my dad and I got super excited that they also had our favorite brand of Korean instant noodles. So yes, while there was plenty of deliciousness available, my dad and I also each inhaled some instant noodles. That’s how we roll.

I had done a ton of research in the months leading up to the trip and had been relieved to learn that flights to Europe over Thanksgiving weekend tend to be almost empty, and had visions of each of us having our own row dancing in my head. Yeah…that didn't happen. The night before our flight we had checked in online and it seemed like the flight was less than half full. So while we wouldn't have our own rows, the plane wasn't packed. We had arranged it where my parents would share a row of 4 and I would sit across the aisle from the probably sharing 3 seats with a stranger. That's not what happened. Lufthansa, henceforth known as the airline-that-is-dead-to-me, ended up on a freaking pilot's strike the day of our trip (technically it started the day before) and because Swiss and the airline-that-is-dead-to-me are both in the Star Alliance, our flight ended up being crazy full because we took on the passengers from flight evil’s last two missed flights to Europe. So yes, we fit THREE FLIGHTS FULL OF PEOPLE onto our flight. We were packed like sardines and in the trendiest tiniest plane seat I've ever had the misfortune to be in. The seats for Swiss Air’s 777-300ER are crazy narrow, but there also isn't any legroom, and I'm 5’2”! The senior citizen assigned to the middle seat next to me was over 6 feet tall and his knees were wedged against the seat back in front of him. He looked miserable the whole flight. We were lucky enough to have booked aisle seats for all three of us, but it was still a cramped and miserable experience being squashed there for twelve hours. I ended up just heading to the back area with the little clearing in front of the bathrooms to stand and stretch because my back was killing me, and I’m not even that old yet!

They served us two bleh meals. Dinner was either overcooked pasta with a layer of plastic cheese layer over it (my mom got this, made a face and handed it to me. I took a bite and even I didn’t want to eat it) or mashed potatoes with beef. It was kind of like pot roast, just...not as good. Breakfast was a box with bread, cheddar, jams and yogurt. I couldn’t even get excited about cheese I was so miserable. Out of the many, many, many flights I’ve taken, that was definitely a low point.

We ended up in Zurich with 45 minutes to spare after going through immigration entering the EU. We went to the Swiss Air lounge, but while it also had a fantastic coffee machine and lots of really good food, the seating sucked. A lot of people were standing around because there was no place to sit and it was small and crowded. The service was also slow - I snatched a table for 4 (and then some white guy just came and sat with us...okay…) and they never cleaned it off in the half hour we were there. I had time to stuff 2 cookies in my maw and suck down a quick latte before we had to board our flight. Because we were taking a dinky regional flight on Helvetica Airlines (never heard of ‘em before), we had to board a shuttle TO THE PLANE and climb up the stairs. You know, like in movies from the 1950’s. Even though this was a dinky regional plane, it was still so much better than the crappy Swiss Air flight we just took. SO MUCH BETTER. There were only two rows of two on each side, but the seats were wider, plusher, and had more leg room.

After a quick 55 minute flight we arrived in Florence’s teeny tiny airport. It was so teeny tiny that our luggage came out within 3 minutes of us arriving at the baggage claim. Which was pretty much right by the gate. I’m always relieved to see my luggage, even though I don’t put anything valuable in there, I take great comfort in having my clean underwear with me. We got in line for a taxi and were at our apartment in about 30 minutes.

Our landlord Gianni was waiting for us outside the apartment - we got a great deal on it and I loved the location. It was literally about 2 minutes from the Ponte Vecchio - so heading into the historical center was a matter of steps. We were just down the street from Pitti Palace, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get to visit the palace and the Boboli Gardens, but we had such a short span of time and we were jet lagged the entire two days we spent there.

Gianni situated us in the apartment - it was small, but immaculately clean with everything you’d need (except for soap and shampoo - but everything else was provided), comfortable beds and nice linens and towels. The best part? There was a teeny elevator that actually worked! And it started from floor 0!!! So we could shove our suitcases into the elevator instead of dragging them up floors. Yay!

Gianni spent some time with me going over the city map showing me where the best sights were and his favorite restaurants and gelateria, then he left us to explore on our own. We settled in and with our umbrellas and coats on, we headed out of explore. After all, it was only 8 pm at this point, which in Florentine time, is like 5:30 pm in LA. People weren’t even eating dinner yet!

It wasn’t raining hard, but it was a soft shower. Weather reports before we left on our trip indicated that we were in for a lot of rain in Italy - but we got lucky, in our first four days, the only time we actually encountered rain was our first night there - and it wasn’t even heavy!

We walked across the Ponte Vecchio and took some photos, and we wandered onto the the square with Palazzo Vecchio and took some photos there. The restaurants weren’t full, and I don’t know if it’s because it’s not tourist season, or because it was too early, but it was kind of quiet. The square was well lit and we took lots of photos that actually came out pretty well.

the Ponte Vecchio at night with all its little shops closed

We then wandered the streets some more until we got hungry, and we realized that it was in fact Thursday, and we needed to have our Thanksgiving dinner! We haven’t missed our family Thanksgiving dinner in years, in fact, we usually host it - so it was weird not being at home cooking all day and smelling like grease. Instead of being too adventurous, we walked back to our apartment and ate at the restaurant downstairs that Gianni recommended: La Galleria, a family run trattoria that was warm, inviting, and the staff spoke just enough English to get us by. Because my parents humored me, we ordered the Bistecca Florentine - which is a gigantor T-bone from local cow. I’ve been drooling over food porn photos of this since I knew we were returning to Florence. Because my mom isn’t a big meat eater, we ordered spaghetti with seafood in a tomato sauce, which was really, really tasty. The steak was so good - it was huge (it’s meant for 2) and even my mom enjoyed it. The steak only comes rare, but we cut off the edges that were cooked for her, and she also enjoyed their amazing roasted potatoes that came out crispy on the outside but fluffy on the insdie. This were the best potatoes I’ve ever had. And this entire meal as about 46 Euros. Hell, the bistecca for two was only about 30 euros. What??!!!

do you see how empty the restaurant is? It's not because they don't do good business - because they do - it's because it's too early for dinner for Europeans. Groups of people started showing up after we were done eating and were leaving.