Well, i made it to ROMA and it was faaaaaabulous! The weekend almost didn't happen as I was feeling pretty under the weather last week and made the split decision to suck it up and go about 30 seconds before I actually had to be out the door. I lucked out BIG TIME having not planned how I was getting to the airport from the John Knox Center (the bus was not running at 5:00 AM when I needed to leave). I went upstairs to the lobby and just HAPPENED to find a girl from St. Olaf who was also leaving at the same time as me and had already called a cab. She was going to the train station to I offered to be taken to the airport after that... Unfortunately, the cab driver took that as me paying for the whole excursion. A $$$ mistake but lesson learned and with that I was off to ROMA.
The airport was another interesting experience. As I was flying easyJet, I had printed out my confirmation number and gotten through security and customs with just my sheet of paper and my passport. It was not until I got to the gate that I realized that I needed an actual boarding pass... OOPS. I do not function well at 5:30 am apparently. Anyway, after being yelled at by the EasyJet employee at the gate, I had my boarding pass and was on my way! The flight was an easy one and I just love how in Europe you can hop on a plane, fly for an hour and end up somewhere COMPLETELY different- new language, customs, culture...everything! It is truly amazing.
Arrived at Rome Ciapiano at about 9:30 and hopped on a bus to head to Termani downtown to meet Megan and her friends from BCN. I ended up waiting awhile as their flight got in later than mine and passed the time by getting solicited by gypsies, hit on in Italian by weird kids and sticking out like a sore thumb as a foreigner... oh well. FINALLY, we were reunited ("I CAN'T STOP LOOKING AT YOU") and it was off to the hostel. Our hostel (The Yellow) was only a few blocks from Termani though the rain did not help our situation. Ended up stopping for some delicious pizza and Coca Light before heading off to our first church. Went to "The Mother Church of the World" though it's name escapes me now and then went to a set of steps (the name I also cannot remember) that were supposedly climbed by Christ to his crucifixion. People climb these every day on their knees to do penance etc so three of us decided to do so... let me tell you it was NOT EASY. I think the bruising is still there to remind me what I thought about the whole way up those steps. After the steps, we stopped by the Coliseum but at this point it was getting cold and rainy so we decided to head back to the hostel, pick up some groceries and turn in early.
Saturday, the weather was BEAUTIFUL and we were able to do all the typical "Rome Stuff"--The Coliseum, Roman ruins, Piazza Narvona, Parthenon, Spanish Steps...etc. It was all AMAZING and i took some pretty great pictures to document everything for you all to review :). The Spanish steps were pretty ridiculous and filled with excessive couples making out... actually, that is how all of Rome was. We joked that we should all just forget about the language barrier and start kissing someone because that apparently is a language the Italians understand (ha!) That night, we went on a bar crawl with people from our hostel which ended up being an interesting experience, to say the least... but I am happy to report that bars in Rome do not allow smoking (or at least the ones that we were in) so my clothes made it through a whole barcrawl without smelling appalling.
Sunday, we headed off to the Vatican, , the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's and all that good stuff. I think of all the things I see on my travels, I still love churches the best. They are always such architectural masterpieces and overwhelmingly ornate. Obviously, St. Peter's was no exception and it was incredible to think of how many people had probably been in the same church as I was at that moment. It was a great way to end the trip.
Some fun observations about Rome:
-VERY dirty. Graffiti graces the front of pretty much everything in sight.
-No real city center as I had anticipated
-The gelato and the pizza somehow just taste 100000 times better when in Rome...
-The whole kissing thing (apparently PDA is encouraged rather than frowned upon)
-Lots o' gypsies which was a huge contrast to Geneve where we basically have no homeless people whatsoever.
-The best sugar cookies from a bag that I've ever eaten are at the PAM grocery story 2 blocks from Termani.
-Italian as a language really isn't as close to Spanish or french as I thought but still, people are usually fairly kind and a smile and a few euros will get you where you need to go.
-Australians are crazy, nuff said. (I've now had about 5 awkward experiences involving aussis and youth hostels... makes me think perhaps they whole country is just nuts. We shall see)
This weekend, I'm off to Madrid which is supposed to have some great nightlife and lots of fun stuff to do so I am very much looking forward to that. Hope this finds everyone well and drop me a line and let me know how life is going for you when you get the chance.
Currently playing...Into the Mystic- Van Morrison
Lots of love,
aim
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