Good ole Ikea!

Well I had an interesting day to say the least. I was downtown at the train station by 11:30 this morning hopeing to jump on the Ikea bus and I would be on my way. Well, I learned today that some things you have to work for...

I first asked at the train station info booth and she pointed me to the McDonalds corner. So there I stood for about 20min with no bus before I went into the bus info place where I was standing to ask this person. They didn't understand a word I said but said yes, stand here. Ok, so I stood for about 15min more before I went into the travel agency by the bus info place. The lady spoke a bit of English (just about as much English as I know Italian) and said yes, here, Ikea. So I waited yet again. By this point it was well after 12 and I was getting very hot. It was high 30's today and no wind. decided to go back into the train station and ask the woman again that I first asked. She said yet again, go back there the bus will come! so there I stood, starting to get a little annoyed. I decided to just start randomly asking people on the street. Ok, so maybe this wasn't my best idea, but seriously... how hard could it be to find a bus that was going to Ikea? I asked about 4 ladies that were also waiting for buses. Some of them pointed for me to go to different places (which I had already been to earlier) and others just looked at me funny. I was about ready to give up when I thought to myself, "I'm just going to ask this last lady and then I will go home....defeated." So I said my usual "Parle inglese?"(do you speak English?) and she said YES! it was so great! She lives in Florence every summer so knows English and Italian pretty well. She actually had time to spare so she went around with me asking 3 more offices of people where to go. We figured out that the main Ikea bus that used to take people to and from was discontinued a couple of months ago. So I needed to take a regular city bus that comes and go every 10min or so. ugh! I thanked her muchly and headed on my way. I punched my ticket when I got on the bus and it was 1:25pm. lol I was searching for the stupid bus for almost 2 hours!

Made it to Ikea with no problems and looked around for about 2 hours. I also sat on a couch exhausted for about 20min on top of it all. I was so tired from my two hour wait in the sun. I ate some Ikea lunch which was nothing like our Ikea lunches. they had hotdogs and panini's so I chose one of them and continued on my way. By the time I was done, I walked out of there with a pillow for my head, and one for just lounging. A extra sheet for my bed, a pack of tealights (I actually felt weird buying them but really wanted to smell something nice in my room) and a holder for the tealight. I also bought a cork board for my family pics and a sunflower plant for my room with a pot. All together I was well under my 50 euro goal. I ended up spending 38euro! good deals or what?

I made it back home with not to much trouble and I have a bag of goodies, a beautiful sunflower plant and a sunburn to show for it! ;)