Day 4 - July 3

 Sleep. This was my day to catch up on sleep (or try to catch up) because I was extremely exhausted I was actually starting to get sick. I wasn't eating very much because we were so busy (besides having pizza everyday I've been here so far) and absolutely had to recover. So I got about 9 hours of sleep, which is more than I had gotten in the last 4 days combined!! When we eventually all woke up, it was too late to go to the market for groceries (again) and it was just in time to make the 12:28 train to the beach!! It all sounded very easy...get on the train...get off here...walk to the beach...go home. Well when you do not know a city or the language that they speak, nothing is that easy. Luckily all my roommates and I get along so well that we never let each other be by ourselves and went to pretty much everything together. So we got on the train, barely in time, and headed to the beach. Got off at the station we were told and started walking. 2.5km later we were still lost and not able to find the ocean. So taxi time. 24 euros later we get there. Although by now it is closing in on 2:30. We walk up and see the ocean...which is as always beautiful, but really nothing special. We set our stuff down and start to unpack when we are then told this was a private beach where we cannot stay unless we pay a fee of 50 euros...each. Obviously that was not going to happen so we had to move. We walked about a mile probably and tried to stop again, but it was the same story there as well. We walk for another mile and a half until we find the free (and topless) beach. Not everyone was topless, but you would be surprised how many spedoes and thong bikinis I saw! So very, very different from Americna beaches. So come 3:30 we find our way to a piece of beach we can lay out on for a while. After some much needed rest, sun, and ocean we make our way back to the train to go home by calling another taxi since we are so far and cannot walk back the way we came. We get to the very small train station cannot figure out the tickets, miss the 6:15 train and have to wait for the 7:20 one to Florence. It was a very long, expensive day at the beach but at least we made it home because we were all tired by the end of the hour train ride also. When we did get home some people went out for dinner, but Carrie and I stayed in and ate some spaghetti. It was also the first time I got to actually talk (through skype) to JJ!!!!!!! I was super excited and we probably talked for about 4 hours :) but I got to see a little bit of everyone since he was at my house so it was great. Trying not to be homesick is hard, but getting to see everyone through skype at least helps a little bit!