Commercialization of Florence

Il Duomo

Replica of Da Vinci's paintings.

Last time I briefly narrated what happened in the romantic city called Venice. The following day we hopped on a first class train to Florence. We booked really late that's why we got the first class seats. It was a bit expensive. But as they say, you can never buy experience. True enough, when we sat down, what greeted us was a gorgeous Italian model with skyscraper shoes! She happened to be our seatmate! Although I really love shoes and dresses, I have never (not once in my whole life) attended a fashion show! Just looking at her made me imagine how lavish fashion shows can be like. She looked so "fancy" with her Louis Vuitton luggage and Louis Vuitton tote bag. Anyway, we spent 3 hours sitting beside her. The whole time I was reading my lectures while she was making bracelets! She must have thought reading was boring. Well, that's ok because I also thought that making bracelets was boring either.

A big tulip pot in the middle of the street.

We got off the train with the desire to have a normal day. We were hoping we'd immediately find our hotel. We were quite positive because the map said it's only about a hundred meters away. We just walked straight for 15 minutes and made a left turn afterwards. We found the hotel! We found the hotel! I wanted to jump so high with my arms stretched in the horizon! I was the happiest traveler!

But here's the twist. After we checked-in, the front desk staff told us, "you have to go to this apartment one block away..." I interrupted, "I thought this is the hotel?" "Yes, it is. But we have an apartment one block away which is bigger..." 

We felt robbed again. We booked the hotel but the hotel booked us in their apartment. Isn't that weird? Only in Italy!

Carousel!

Nevertheless, it was ok because indeed, the apartment was bigger. The only thing was that, the apartment didn't have wi-fi. To access the internet, we still had to go to the hotel which was one block away.

After dropping our backpacks in the apartment, we immediately  wandered around Florence and tried to feel the Renaissance vibe. Unfortunately, all that we could feel was the typical energy exuded by avaricious fashion capitalists. Most areas were lined with boutiques!

Someone's buying vino!

Nevertheless, there were still some areas where I could somehow feel "peace." For instance, we went to a square with lots of people selling various homemade goods. I tried tasting almost all of the food I found appetizing. There was this store selling honey from different kinds of flowers. I tasted all of them and I have thus, proven that different  flowers produce different tastes! I was so happy, I nearly grew bee wings! haha.

We also visited the Da Vinci museum. In that museum, they displayed the different machines Da Vinci conceptualized. I liked the museum in general but it definitely isn't the best...

Arc.

If I have give Florence a grade, it would be a  B!  But it's a relatively a safe place to go to. 

B for...Byebye! XD Tomorrow will be a beautiful day! Why?

I'm going to Keukenhof to see the biggest Spring Garden in the world!

Remembering Venice

My favorite focaccia!

 Hi Everyone! 

We saw this when we got lost.

We are currently having practicals in different laboratories and I barely have time to sit down and write about my thoughts. The past two weeks was extremely exhausting for me because everyday, I had to travel from Brussels to Leuven (and back) just to do lab practicals there. I did learn a lot about different techniques concerning protein-protein interactions, chromatin immunoprecipitation and RT PCR. This week, I will be studying molecular techniques concerning protein-DNA interactions. Now, I'm really beginning to feel I'm being honed to become a competent "molecular biologist." I am definitely pursuing PhD! 

Took my breath away.

Meanwhile, let me talk about my other activities outside the classroom and the laboratory. Last Saturday, I was scheduled to go to Netherlands to visit the Red Light District. But I was so exhausted, I cancelled and forced myself to forget about the money I spent on booking my ticket. I wanted to just stay at home to recuperate physically and mentally. I have no new trips to talk about, so let me just narrate what happened during our second day in Italy. 

Strolling in the preserved area near the Grand Canal.

Recall that in my previous post, I talked about our misadventures in Milan during the first day. The next day, we hopped on a train going to Venice! We arrived around two in the afternoon filled with the hopes of not encountering another bad spirit. With a map in hand, we started walking towards our Hotel. My friends and I are so bad with directions, we spent an hour perpetually looking for the hotel. Somehow, we managed to read the map. What we did not realize earlier was the fact that there was no way for us to reach the Hotel without riding a taxi! We thought taking the taxi would be more expensive than booking another hotel! To cut the long story short, we booked another hotel! Our wallets cried.

Just some random photo.

Around four in the afternoon, we started worrying about the sunset. We had to reach the Grand Canal before the sun would vanish otherwise, we'd never be able to appreciate the true beauty of Venice! So then we rode the bus the Hotel Manager instructed us to take. Luckily, we didn't get lost! We found the most enchanting and romantic part of Italy: the Grand Canal in Venice! I imagined myself reading a book beside the Canal or having candlelight dinner with my bf in one of the restaurants nearby! Fancy thoughts XD

My friends and I explored the narrow streets in the preserved area near the Grand Canal. Everything looked so old yet so stunning. For the first time, we got lost in the beauty of Venice--and not due to our shamefully poor path-finding skills!