"Europeans don't line up...they mash"

Today Camille and I decided to take a break from the regular sight seeing of Florence life and take a day trip to Siena, a nearby town (or so we thought). So we woke up early, trekked the 45 minutes from our hostel to the train station. A few strange fountains and piazzas later, we made it to the station. But THIS bus doesn't leave from the front of the train station like all the other buses! Of course it doesn't. So after several confused conversations in several languages (everyone seems to think we are Spanish here..) we finally found it. The next bus wasn't leaving for an hour, so we sat down to relax until we saw this ridiculous line forming and feared it might be for our bus. It was.

So we stood in a squished line for almost an hour, and met two nice guys - one from San Francisco and one from Sweden, both going to school in Florence. When the bus pulled up, a mob formed around the doors like the parking lot was flooding and this was the only form of survival. The Swedish boy calmly told us, unfazed by the horrifying situation, "Europeans don't line up, they mash into each other" and oh was it true. Camille somehow weaseled heerself onto the bus, and pulled me in from behind (I almost lost an arm in the process) but then we took the nice, bumpy 2 hour ride to Siena.

After that, everything was greeat. Siena is beautiful and we saw a huggggge Duomo, which I'm pretty sure was bigger than the one in Florence. It's all hills and adorable houses, and we also saw a nice marching parade of jesters. We also saw an opera serenade, which was super random but cool. We spent some time relaxing in this main square that's sloped all around with the lowest point in the middle. Then on our way back we found this tiny little gem of a store where I bought some luggage and an unbelievably adorable umbrella, which I cannot wait to use in London. We finally made it back, scarfed down dinner (we were starving) and then walked the 45 minutes back to the hostel.
Tomorrow we are going to the Uffizi Gallery which I am so excited for. But right now it's time for bed!