Livorno 2010-07-14 Destination Barcilona\u2026
\nWhat a mess\u2026\u00a0 ok, not that bad, but a lot of waiting.\u00a0 I could not get ticket on-line and the schedule was not in the Europass timetable BUT I figured it out\u2026\u00a0 I got to Livorno from Pisa fairly early to make sure u got a berth\u2026\u00a0 so I was at the ticket office at 13:00.\u00a0 Turns out that the ticket office does not open until 17:00.\u00a0 I tried to get tickets in town but no one had a clue or could understand me.\u00a0 The good news is that I helped a greek guy find a train to roma and 3 women how to use the kiosk.\u00a0 Interesting.\u00a0 So I wandered around the train station looking for a taxi\u2026\u00a0 finally I bought a bus ticket that some nice people thought might bring me to where I needed to be.\u00a0 Turns out I needed to be in the commercial port of Livorno.\u00a0 We are talking container ships and trucking.\u00a0 No nice restaurants, no bars, no nothin\u2019
\nI decided I need to venture back into civilization because I have no cash, not a good thing.\u00a0 So first I walk to the beach, because if you feet are starting to hurt you should schlep you back pack a few kilometers to check out the beach and the sail boarders.\u00a0 I venture into a private beach club after the topless beach\u2026 not-so-good\u2026 there was some sketchy trailer type building and a rusty fence.\u00a0 I go in but do not stay.\u00a0 In English I am pretty good, but decide to try to stay out of trouble in Livorno, Italy\u2026
\nI wander across bridges and the country side.\u00a0 I finally see a restaurant , they are closing, but she tells me that a bus should come\u2026 fortunately I still have the bus pass from the train station where I took the taxi\u2026\u00a0 are you following?\u00a0 So I get on the bus hoping for the train station, but a very nice girl tells me go get off where there is a big church and I can good food and money\u2026\u00a0 HELLO, this place has more churches than you can shake a pope at\u2026 but somehow I get off where she recommended.\u00a0 I find an ATM and get a bite to eat.\u00a0 I attempt to get the bus back to the port, but am again clueless.\u00a0 I can\u2019t even figure out buses in the US, never mind in a language that I don\u2019t understand\u2026\u00a0 I grab a cab, yeah!\u00a0 But alas you does not understand where I want to go \u2026\u00a0 did I mention that it is really hot\u2026\u00a0 the second cab had a clue and fortunately I geo-tagged a picture so that clinched it.\u00a0 I got back to the ticket office and met 2 Finish guys.\u00a0 They too were going to Barcelona.\u00a0 They had tickets that they booked on-line, but the 30% discount did not apply\u2026\u00a0 what up with that?!??!\u00a0 Anyway, I got my ticket and my birth and now have to wait 5 hours for the ferry\u2026\u00a0 there might be a chance I could have planned this better but the Fin\u2019s tried and ended up in the same\u2026.\u00a0 Wait for it\u2026 boat\u2026\u00a0 so I have been back and forth twice now and know the ropes.\u00a0 They too did not get money or food for the wait.\u00a0 I told them I would watch their stuff while they went back into town.\u00a0 They did not want to wait for the bus so I gave them the number for the taxi\u2026 you may wonder why I had the number for the taxi\u2026 because I asked for it.\u00a0 A number I will never use again, but it was helpful to them.\u00a0 So they went into town and I sat and guarded the luggage.\u00a0 They said that they would be \u00bd an hour.\u00a0 I believed that I laughed out loud at them.\u00a0 Two hours later they show back up with food and drink for me.\u00a0 By this point I have a nice chair, a nice view and a pillow under my butt.
\nI watch the people come and go and most of them have questions.\u00a0 My question is why do you have a tourist passenger ferry office in the middle of shipping\u2026
\nSo I just sent the boys off to the beach.\u00a0 I already visited it and don\u2019t need to get all sandy and salty.\u00a0 I am again in charge of everything\u2026\u00a0 they know that they owe me :>\u00a0 only 2 hours left to wait\u2026 back to my book..
\n\u201cFinal Theory\u201d by Mark Alpert.\u00a0 It is pretty good and unfortunately, pretty gone.\u00a0 I will need a new book.
\nOh yeah, I got a hotel room in Barcelona using my phone.\u00a0 Gotta love it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Livorno 2010-07-14 Destination Barcilona\u2026 What a mess\u2026\u00a0 ok, not that bad, but a lot of waiting.\u00a0 I could not get ticket on-line and the schedule was not in the Europass timetable BUT I figured it out\u2026\u00a0 I got to Livorno from Pisa fairly early to make sure u got a berth\u2026\u00a0 so I was at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe-2010"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7vq9N-4d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}