Day 9- Damn It! Why Won't The Pigeons Just Do The "Blue Steel" Pose?

Colleen's first ever night on a cruise ship came and went without incident.  The ship did not sink, she did not push me overboard, and no seniors mistakenly tried to kidnap us thinking that we were there grandchildren.  Glad that was over!

Our first port of call on the ship was Livorno, Italy, a coastal town that can grant you access via train or bus to either Florence or Pisa, both of which are major tourist towns.  Unfortunately, after one look outside we knew it was going to be a trying day as we were greeted with torrential downpour.  After a conversation that lasted about 20 seconds (Colleen just lets me decide everything that we are going to do) we decided that we would catch the train to Pisa and take in the world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.  With that in mind we braved the torrential rain and were on our way.

The day's journey got off to a somewhat rocky start as I being the master navigator that I am made us miss our train to Pisa as I mixed up the departures and arrivals board at the train station.  With time being of the essence, I decided that the best course of action was for Colleen and I to sneak on to a more expensive train that was heading in the same direction and hope we didn't get caught!  Well, mission accomplished.  Three bus rides and one unpaid train ride later and we were standing at the base of the world's most famous crooked tower.  The funny thing about Pisa is that there isn't much else to do besides take pictures of yourself doing stupid things like holding the tower up, kicking it over, etc.  After taking the mandatory pictures and getting slaughtered by the heavy rains, we made our way back to Livorno where Colleen indulged in her favorite pastime of exercising her credit cards.  Personally, the H&M store looked awfully similar to the ones you see sprawled all over suburban Canada, but Colleen insisted that the clothing was much more "European".  Yeah, okay there dear.  I took this as my cue to go and take pictures of something Colleen fears immensely; shit-hawks pigeons!  Pretty sure I looked like a monster tool out in the middle of some European piazza trying to capture the perfect pigeon picture. 

After failing to get my pigeon models to do exactly as I wished (such divas!), we made our way back to the ship for some nightly entertainment (singing, dancing, stripping) and another exceptional dinner.  Let me just say to anyone thinking about cruising in the future, if food and good nightly shows are your thing and you don't mind lots of old people in diapers, Celebrity Cruises might just be for you!  The food was some of the best I have ever had, the service was second to none, and the nightly shows were generally good.  If nightlife is your thing though, you may want to stick to Carnival or some of the other more party-oriented cruise lines.

~Brentski~