The Great Adventure: Italian Edition

I've spent the past two weeks travelling EVERYWHERE: Paris, Sicily, Rome, and Florence...and while there are SO many amazing things to share about every single place, I feel it is necessary to reflect on my travels BACK to Brussels from bella Italia more than any other adventure of my break.

Here's the story:
After a nice, two-week long vacation, my two travel companions and I had plans to fly out of Pisa, Italy on Sunday morning in time to be back for classes on Monday.
Well, have you all heard about the Volcanic eruptions in Iceland? Because I hadn't. Until our flight (and everyone else's in Europe) got cancelled due to the supposed clouds upon CLOUDS of volcanic ash clouding up the atmosphere (I would like to point out that I've seen no evidence of this ash yet... where exactly does it all go?)
We discovered our plane was cancelled late Friday evening, and so woke up EARLY on Saturday morning to head to the train station to see what our options were...luckily the station was only a couple blocks from our hostel in Florence. Very convenenient. The train station was PACKED! and the line for the tickets led all the way to the very back of the entrance hall. and only got longer from there. The Italians also only had like 3 people working at the ticket booths. One thing I learned from my trip to Italy is that the Italians really aren't very efficient people. Organization and planning are not their strong points. haha.
The long and short of the matter is that, after spending all morning in the train station and then walking across the street to the bus station, were were able to find a ride back to Brussels. Only a 3 hour bus ride to Milan, an 11 hour ride from Milan to Paris, and then 4 more hours from Paris to Brussels. Scheduled for Monday. So we got to spend one extra (and lovely) day in Florence Italy. And then the adventure REALLY began.
Monday Morning: We frantically search for a bus from our hostel to the station across town where we need to catch our bus to Milan. We JUST make the bus. But have no idea where to get off. While speaking a mixture of French, English, Spanish and Italian to our bus driver to figure out this minor dilemma, we finally show him our tickets to Milan and he drops us off...on the side of a highway. I kid you not. Once off the bus we found ourselves on the gravel siding of what was a MAJOR road with a GIGANTIC round-about, tons of semi trucks, and a tollway. No bus station in sight. Luckily, we saw a group of people huddled with luggage by a gigantic parking sign. This group included two college girls from Canada, a couple from London, and another couple from somewhere around Scandinavia (thank god for them- the husband was the only one of the bunch of us who spoke Italian. I wasn't really a fan of the wife's haircut though. She was sporting a mullet).
After walking back and forth across the HIGHWAY for probably 20 minutes (that is DEFINITELY illegal in the United States) we found the sign that was described to our Canadian Comrades as "A big sign on the wall with the bus company's name. You'll see it on a big wall right when you get off the bus".
What it actually was? A sign the size of a hot dog on a post hidden by a bunch of cars parked along the side of a road next to a wall that you could barely tell was a wall because it was covered in vines. Same thing, right?
The picture included with this post is of me with my luggage at the so called "bus station".

ANYWAY, once that was all figured out, we took an uneventful bus ride to Milan. Wish I could say I actually SAW that city. What I DID see was the bus station (which wasn't even on my Milan map because it was so far outside of town), an intersection, and a grocery store.
My experience with the people in Milan? Limited. I did run into an old woman ranting to herself about something involving milk in the grocery store. Also found out that the bus drivers/ bus personnel at the check-in counter were EXTREMELY inefficient. But it was to be expected.
Our bus to Paris was supposed to leave Milan at 9:30pm. When the bus arrived, there was a MASS EXODUS to get on the bus. And not everyone fit. Because it turned out they actually had THREE buses to Paris. The bus driver of the first bus was being BOMBARDED by people, all with the same quesiton "where are the other buses to Paris!?"
His response (other than looking semi shell-shocked) "uhh, mmm, I don't know...maybe dat one?" (pointing his finger vaguely in a general direction...aka he had no idea what was going on).
45 minutes after the scheduled departure, the bus situation was finally squared away and we were off! The Americans behind us jokingly commenting "oh wait, folks, if you're looking for the bus to Paris, this is the wrong one. This one's actually headed to Iceland."
Long story short: I made it home. After my 11-hour overnight bus to Paris followed by another 4 hour ride to Brussels. I've never been happier to be in Brussels in my ENTIRE LIFE. The best part about returning was that it was ACTUALLY SUNNY! Amazing.
The whole experience was quite the adventure. Just don't mention anything to me about Iceland or Volcanoes.