Luxury bus ride 💸 + David with a huge s.. uh.. butt

Today we took the bus instead of the tram. The bus stop was right next to a huge construction site 🚧 and there was no bus at first. After waiting for 10 minutes, past the scheduled arrival time, to go to the train, it finally arrived🚍

First, we went to the Botanical Garden of the University ⛲️🪴🌿🌵. It wasn't that big and wasn't well maintained either. I've seen nicer ones before. Even the Palmengarten in Frankfurt is nicer. We were already exhausted from yesterday morning, so it wasn't that bad to just relax on a bench in the garden 😌

Then we headed towards the city center, where we got lucky twice. On the way to the cathedral, we passed by the Gallerie der Akademie where you can admire the famous statue 'David' by Michelangelo. The tickets were already sold out online, but there were still tickets available at the ticket office for 5:15 p.m. Of course, only for €2 because it was a youth special price 🥳 U know. But what are we going to do for the next 3 hours? 🙃

First, we had ice cream 🍦🍦 And then I had a sandwich 🥪 I really wanted to see the inside of a building. There was an information stand for the Uffizi, an art gallery with many famous paintings and statues 🖼 I asked if there were still tickets available. They had tickets available in 1 hour. But you had to buy them somewhere else, so we went back almost to where I had eaten my sandwich. We bought the tickets, unfortunately not cheap, but oh well, and then went back to see the building. We spent the remaining time buying drinks in an empty supermarket 🛒

In the gallery, everything was checked by security, like at the airport. Then we had to walk, down a lot of stairs with a lot of people, through some corridors, show our tickets for a moment, and then walk up the stairs to the second floor. Then we were there 👟

The gallery is in the shape of a U. The main path was lined with many statues and busts. But you could also go into the side rooms and look at paintings. There were many Christian-Catholic paintings. The ceiling paintings, which were all beautiful, were too unnoticed. The Uffizi used to be the office of the Medici and they had money for things like that💰

The crowds always gathered around the 'famous' paintings. 98% of the people probably didn't even know what they were photographing 📷 The rooms of Da Vinci and Michelangelo were the most crowded. But we didn't know the paintings either 😂

Since we didn't know much, we started telling a story about each painting in the room or imitating poses of statues. Who did it better? 😂🙈

We did discover a few famous paintings and recognized several statues. We found cute little books in the gift shop and I bought one about Lupin. Btw, great Netflix series 🎩😍

Then there wasn't much time left until we could see 'David'. We refilled our water at the fountain, which even had sparkling water from a tap, and then strolled through the alleys a bit ⛲️

When we arrived at the gallery, there was an incredibly long line, but we didn't have to stand in it (it was for people who didn't have a ticket yet, apparently it took forever and there was no guarantee they could get in) 😅

We went through another security check and then entered. The gallery is actually not that big, because it's all about 'David'. We saw some religious artworks, a few musical instruments, and many heads of Michelangelo, 3D prints of his works in other museums. They all looked a bit different, and he could have smiled for our selfie 🤗

Then we went to see 'David'. Wow 😯 Very impressive. He is huge and very detailed. And of course, everyone only wants pictures of him and not the rest. The view of 'David' is adorned by unfinished statues. I quickly glanced at his butt 🍑 and then we left. And quickly went home.

Luck 🍀 was clearly on our side, because the bus ride was not that pleasant. The bus was very crowded and we boarded at the back, where there was no ticket validation machine. When ticket inspectors boarded at the next stop, I squeezed through to validate the ticket. The inspector immediately accused us of fare evasion, which was not the case and only due to the large number of people on the overcrowded bus. And it was only one stop. But she didn't want to listen to me, so we had to pay a fine of €40 each. Quite ridiculous and unjustified 🤦🏼‍♀️ But the woman probably enjoyed writing up the German tourists. I didn't need the 5-meter long receipt she gave me. What a waste of paper 📃🚮 The man who obviously evaded the fare, as he frantically looked for and validated his ticket when he saw the ticket inspectors, about 20 seconds before me, got lucky. But whatever 🤷🏼‍♀️

For dinner, we had pizza 🍕 and for dessert, mango 🥭, chocolate bar 🍫, and sour UFOs 🛸. With that, the anger faded away 😇

The super loud washing machine just finished, so I'm going to hang up the laundry now 🧺

P.S.: We saw the symbol on the far right in the last picture constantly on the way to Florence. Since we always drove past it quickly, I thought it was a gardener 👨🏽‍🌾 and Finn said it was a guy with a shotgun 🔫. But in combination with a phone number, something else makes much more sense. Without zooming in too closely and thinking too long, what do you see? 🙈😂