Florence may be old, dirty and chaotic but it’s FUN. Happy Hour now, want to hit the pubs soon. I’m sharing the room with like a thousand people, so-called “8 bed mixed dorm” but much dodgier. But whoa, it is actually the bedroom of one of the hostel workers, and he plays rock guitar !!! His guitar is pretty shit but it is plugged into a Marshall JCM900, right below my bunk bed !!!! Don’t think I’m going to sleep much tonight.

Florence is really funny, there’s these two other American Hispanic dudes from LA (USA) and they were like telling their absolutely hilarious backpacking stories. Their most funny one, they asked for Florence accommodation while they were in a s*** hostel from Rome, just yesterday night. The receptionist booked them a reservation in a place called “Florentine” or something. When they got here this morning, the whole place got shut down !!!! Apparently it was overcrowded or something. And it was shut down because they were like repeat offenders of the council laws.

When we finally got to our hostel, they had to take us elsewhere using a golf cart, zipping around the tiny streets of Florence. Imagine 5 backpackers with their huge luggage just crammed onto a little cart going at 20km/h, tourists were taking photos of us!!

Once we got there, I noticed at least 20 other people in three bedrooms, each with probably 8 beds. And there were more coming. I also noticed hostel workers were pulling out spare beds, I think they had to be “illegal” tonight. And when they mean MIXED dorm, they really mean it. The other girls don’t seem to be very modest as well, walking around in their, ahem. Most are Americans so .. I don’t know.

Best of luck in the Swiss competition!