Eurotrip - Part Rome.

     Okay, so unlike how American universities get two short breaks during the Fall semester, one in early October and one over Thanksgiving, European universities get one long break in early November. We get a ten day break to "catch up on our school work." Now while actual European students do use this break to do just that, the professors should know Americans do not. We cram as many cities and countries into this break as possible. And that's just what I did. Dublin, Ireland to Rome, Italy to Prague, Czech Republic to Copenhagen, Denmark to Paris, France and back to Dublin, Ireland. Five planes, four countries, and only three passport stamps later, makes for a very successful Reading Week.

     So our flight to Rome was at 6:50 which meant we had to be at the airport at 4:50 which meant we had to leave for the airport at 4 which meant we didn't get any sleep the night before. Also, you should just know now that my roommate, Kristen, is a hot damn mess. This will be mentioned throughout this blog. We ended up booking all cheap flights on cheap airlines, which means no free checked bags and your carry on has to be able to fit into what seems like the equivalent of a cereal box. Liz and I ended up borrow two camping backpacks from our two friends. You know the kind. Tall, skinny, 50 million zippers and pockets that you could potentially lose your stuff in. Kristen used her regular back pack, so Liz and I offered to carry some stuff for her. The morning of, Kristen comes out with her backpack stuffed to the size of two Thanksgiving turkeys both feeding families of 20. She gave me all her shirts and Liz all her pants. You may be wondering what the heck could possibly still be in her backpack, but the cab driver was here and called me about 5 times wondering where we were so I didn't have time to ask. (But now we know for future reference, Kristen's not allowed to travel with us unless we pack her bag for her). So we make it to the airport, Kristen ends up having to check her bag, but Liz and I were fine. We got to our deserted gate and sat for about 1.5 hours with nothing to do. Since it was so early, nothing in the airport was open. After we finally got on the plane, I passed out and was awoken by a rough landing. I swore we were crashing. But I soon learned we were just landing when people started clapping. They do that in Europe. Clap when the plane lands safely. As if we weren't sure if it would or not.
     Anywho. As I walked off the airplane, something hit me that I hadn't felt since I landed in Ireland way back in September. The sun. I almost forgot what it felt like. It's warmth just sucked me in and I knew Rome was going to soon become my favorite city in the world. Well we made it through the airport, requested our passports be stamped, and were outside sweating in the warmth as we waited for the bus to come. Everyone around me was speaking Italian, obvi, and I was slowly, but surely, starting to remember some of my high school Italian. Small words though. And not much about verb conjugation. But I got the gist of what those around me were saying, which was a good feeling. While we were waiting I taught Liz and Kristen the basics. Hello, bye, thanks, yes, no, I don't know, I don't understand, and, most importantly, I don't speak Italian. None of which any of us used, except hello and thanks. When people started speaking to us in Italian, we all sort of stared with our mouths open like idiots. At some points, I was able to answer back in English, but I still had a few moments of processing. Guess I wasn't as well versed in Italian as I remembered.
     Once we got to our hostel (which we somehow found by walking, go us!), we were set up with a free map of the city. The lady was really nice and circled all the main points we'd want to see. She also told us about a few options to get around the city. We decided the best option was to grab a 3-day pass for the metro. It was only 11EUR and luckily there was a stop two blocks down from our hostel. In order to get out money's worth, we had to ride it 11 times. (One ticket, one way cost only 1EUR). And you best believe we rode that bitch at least 16 times. While we were checking in, the receptionist asked us if we wanted to come to the free dinner that night. Uhhhh yes, please! So we put our names down on the list and recognized some of the previous names. Go figure we're staying at the same hostel as four other girls that live with us in Ireland. Small world. But we dropped our crap off and headed to the Vatican to meet up with our other friend who went to Rome that same week too. Apparently most of the Americans I live with ended up going to Rome for the first few days of Reading Week. Super small world.
     On our way over, we could tell we were getting closer by the amount of people trying to sell us tours. They all started out the same way: "Are you guys American?" At one point Kristen said, "No, we're from Canada." Surprisingly enough that dude just walked away. Maybe they thought we'd want to fight play some hockey or something. We walked in to the Basilica, where Dani told us to meet her, and were just amazed. It reminded me of that thing in Hercules that he knocks down while playing frisbee. But obviously better and everything was stone. They were cleaning it though, so certain sections of the surrounding pillars were covered up. Clearly just means I'll have to go back in about a year to see it. No problem. After finally finding Dani, we headed towards the entrance to the Vatican City. Well, the museum anyway. Luckily, they had student discounts. We got in and made a bee line for the Sistine Chapel. The place was closing at 5 and it was about 4:45. Good timing we had. But then we learned that they just stop letting people in at 5. Which was good because we thought that it wouldn't take long to get to the chapel, but who knew it was a friggin' maze to get there. After 20 long hallways and getting stuck behind 10 groups of Asians taking pictures of every single thing, we finally got into the chapel. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures and there were any lights on. It was also a lot smaller than I expected as well. But nonetheless, it was quite amazing. After that we went and found noms, which in Italy is quite amazingly delicious. I'm only glad I didn't study there because I would have spent so much money eating in restaurants.
     After diner at the hostel with our lovely fellow Dubliners, we went to "the best and oldest gelato" place in Rome. And I'd have to agree with their sign. At least on the best part. I can't account for oldest. Then we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. I don't know what angles they use in movies, but just so everyone knows, there are building surrounding it and it is not across from the Spanish steps. I don't know why, but in every movie, and by that I mean the Lizzie McGuire Movie, they always make it seem like the Spanish steps are across from the Trevi Fountain. LIES! But after staring at it for 20 minutes, I threw in a coin and made my wish! And then stared at it for another 30 minutes from the other side haha. We then made our way to the Spanish steps. Which aren't far, but still. Now those do have a huge plaza in front of them, so that was nice. We climbed those, and luckily there was a metro stop at the top, so we went home. It was about 12:30 when we got home, so I just passed out without even changing out of my jeans. Not that I mind. I love, love, love sleeping in jeans.
     The next day we decided that we wanted to go to the colosseum. One of the people who worked at the hostel, who didn't speak English very well, told us to walk left out of the hostel and "walk walk walk until we see big colosseo." It was about a 15 minute walk. Being the Americans we are, we looked on the map and saw that there was a stop on the Metro called Colosseo. So of course we hopped on that sucker and rode for 5 minutes instead of the walk. When we exited the Metro and walked above ground, the colosseum pretty much smacked us in the face. It was literally right there. Just chillen. No big. The thing is massive too. Italians were just walking by on there way to wherever not even looking at it. I guess it becomes invisible if you walk past it every day. Again, we were hounded to pay extra to go on an english speaking tour and skip the queue. But we decided that the line wasn't long enough for 20 extra euro. The ticket we got ended up getting us into the colosseum, as well as the ancient city. Which was also just chillen out right next to the colosseum right in the middle of a couple major roads. I guess I'm just use to having to venture into the country side to see ancient ruins or something. And by venture into the country side, I mean open a history book.
     After the colosseum and ancient city, we just walked around that area a bit and shopped and found some food. Okay, now the restaurant we found was AMAZING. Literally. We sat down, Liz and I ordered ravioli and Kristen got pizza with sausage on it. The ravioli was perfect. Then the guy next to us got his food. Which smelled amazing and made me even more hungry. So yes.. I ordered more food. Fatty. But it's okay because I've been training all my life to be in Italy. Any get together with my mom's side includes salad, pasta, first course, second course, and about 3 courses of desert. So I ordered a plate of tortellini and Liz ordered a cheese pizza for her and I to split. (Stop it. I can't tell you're judging me). You must understand the smells surrounding me. I was like Pavlov's dogs. Some guy in the room got mussels, I don't even like mussels! But it still smelled amazing and made me want some. But I refrained.
     Then we walked around at bit. Found a few hundred plazas to see. I don't even remember how many plazas and fountains we saw. They're literally everywhere in Rome. So unfortunately I don't remember all the one's I went to, or the names. But one of these plazas did contain the Pantheon. That was cool. By that point I was exhausted though and to me it was a giant circular room with a hole in the ceiling. But looking back, it is pretty cool that I have seen it in person now. After the Pantheon we went and found another plaza which was really cool. There were about 20 different artists selling their work, a couple musicians, and a spray painter. Spray painters are always fun to watch. We were all pretty exhausted after that though, so we shortly went home and to bed.
     The next day was our last day. Which was very upsetting. I wish I could have stayed longer. We decided for our last day since we were out of sights to see, we would just chill around Rome. One of the places marked on our map was a student community. It sounded cool so we headed in that direction. As we were looking for a bridge to cross over the river, we noticed that there was a random island in the middle of the river. After about 10 minutes, we figured out how to finally get down there. It was really cool. In front of the island was an arch. It looked as if it use to be a bridge the whole way across, but now it was it's own island standing there. It was really quite cool to try to picture what the area use to look like back in its hay day. You could see little remnants of what the river use to look like as well. But soon we grew hungry and made our way to the student area. We found this little back alley restaurant, which was exactly what I picture when I picture Rome. I loved it. And I only got one course this time, even though I wanted more. I held back. Then we just sort of meandered around until it was time to go catch our flight to Prague.

Now since this blog was so long already, I'm just going to stop it here and break it up into parts. Hope ya don't mind!