Eurotrip: Rome

Rome was a love\hate thing for me. We started off on the wrong foot. We got in late and were really tired. It took a little while to find our hostel and when we did find it, it was not ok. I mean, it was a bed for one night but that was about it. We did run into three kids from Miami who were studying abroad in Spain and they were cool, but that was perhaps the only redeeming factor about the place.
Our second day there, we tried to find another hostel but our internet was sketchy. So we got dressed (it was really warm for us, so we were wearing very little in comparsion to everyone else and got a lot of attention) and walked around trying to find decently priced internet. Finally succeeded and actually ended up with a Couchsurfer, which was awesome. After we figured that out, we went to the Colleseum, Palatine Hill (I live there!), and the Roman Forum. It was so cool! I loved the Colleseum. It was like a dream for me. The Romans did amazing, albeit bloody things, and especially did cool things in the theatre world. The Collesuem was (is) a work of art and I would love to go inside the center and explore it. I had so much fun there. It was awesome. Except for the stupid guys who got us to pay them 10 Euro for taking our picture with them. They had dressed up in traditional soldier garb and conned us. I suppose it happens, but it wasn't fun either way. I learned. We hopped on a tour of the Colleseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was quite helpful and really funny. We had great tour guides. I now have all sorts of useless facts floating around in my head. The Roman Forum was also amazing. I stood not five feet away from where Julius Ceasar was allegedly cremated. Cool...We did a lot of wandering around after that, saw more cool old things, and eventually ended up at the Trevia Fountain. Unfortunately, there was a lot of people there so the first picture didn't turn out so well. We wandered back to the hostel to pick our stuff up and meet our Couchsurfer, Andrea. He was really cool, despite the fact that I called him earlier that morning and woke him up. Oops. :) He lived outside the city so he drove us out there. We made dinner, hung out, watched the Olympics, and went to bed.

The next morning we packed and leisurely went back to the city. Andrea couldn't host us another night but he did make our Rome experience much better because up til that point, our impression wasn't the best. That day we had planned on going to the Vatican and St. Peters Basilica but sadly only made it through the Vatican. I was underwhelmed, to be honest. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that. The museums were geat and the art collections were cool (the guy selling us the tickets even told us that we were "18" so we got a reduced entrance price) but I wanted to see secret catacombs, the Pope, the Popemobile, the old men of the Clergy and conspiracy. Maybe I read too much Dan Brown.

Anyway, by the time we got out of the Vatican it was too late to go the St. Peters. We walked to the Pantheon. Such a ridiculous building. How on earth does the roof of that thing stand up? I really don't get that. I felt like it was gonna collapse on me at any minute. Or that it was floating. Also, the floor of the Pantheon was stunning! Marble of all different shades and colors and patterns. The art and altars in there were cool too. I even signed the book in there. :) My name is permanently in the Pantheon.
We eventually decided that we should eat cuz we were delirious and exhausted so we somewhere found the energy to go find food. The restaurant we ate at had decent food but what really made the experience was the rain. (We were sitting outside.) All the waiters ran outside with umbrellas for the customers. It was quite the dining experience. We ended up back at our hostel and changed to go out with some CouchSurfers that couldn't host us but wanted to go out. The five of us (Jana and I and three of them) went and got a drink and then they showed us this little hole-in-the-wall club where we danced for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun! Jana made the mistake of wearing a really low-cut shirt and the Italians are just unabashed about staring. One of the guys that was with us started dancing with me and it was fun, cuz he actually dances unlike the Germans, but I had to explain that I wasn't interested and was just dancing. He then told me I was beautiful. Can't blame him for trying right? Anyway, we got back to our hostel around 3:00 and had to get up at 6:00 to pack and catch a plane to Athens. I was not very happy about that but shit happens. All in all, my first impression of Rome was that it was dirty and busy and I wasn't very impressed. Then we hung out with Andrea and saw the Colleseum and the Roman Forum and went out with the Couchsurfers and it turned out to be much better. I actually ended up liking Rome, it just wasn't instant like Florence or Venice.