When in Rome...

The day that my Germany adventure ended was the day that Leslie flew into Munich. Her plane arrived in the morning so we were at the airport bright and early! She packed much lighter than I did, which we were later really glad about since we literally carried our luggage all over Rome. We spent the day in Munich, which I deeply enjoyed since it was my first time actually being in the city. Plus we had the greatest tour guide ever, Max, who insisted we start our tour with a beer and a traditional Bavarian lunch at the Hofbrauhaus. It was here that Leslie had her first true German beer, and where she fell in love with it just like I did. We ate a giant meal and then started to walk it off. It was about -2 C, so we were freezing for most of the time.

            We basically just walked, without purpose, while Max told us the history of everything surrounding us and took us into a view churches. We went back to St. Mary’s Square and went to the top of the parliament building. You could see all of Munich, and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen. I think it was at this moment that Leslie realized what she could expect from Europe in general and she just stared, speechless, over all the rooftops. After getting coffee, Leslie was in need of a nap. So we walked back to the car, tucked her in with all the blankets and jackets we could find, and then left her sleeping in a car, in a parking garage, in Munich. Epic way to start her journey I thought.

            At this point, we were all so cold Max decided the best option was to go find a good place for beer and coffee. So we did, spending a couple hours there and laughing at all the memories we had from the week. Max began speaking English a lot more at the end of the trip so we had a lot of fun in those hours before going to wake Leslie up. We were still early for our train, so Max again decided the best option was to go for a beer, or two. So an hour later, two semi-drunk American girls boarded a night train for Rome. If we had known what lay before us, we would have made sure we were drunk before we left. Max and Kathi left us with a giant bag of bread and meat and then we left.

            The beginning of our journey started out great, there were only four people in a six person cabin so we had some foot space. But at the next stop, those seats were taken and we sat like sardines with nowhere to rest our heads while sleeping. I got to sit next to some crazy old lady who not only talked out loud to herself, but also talked in her sleep. The worst part of our journey was the stops: we would stop in one town for usually about a half an hour, and during this time there would be great commotion on the train. When we reached Bologna, we sat for 45 minutes and then the train finally moved. But it only went about 200 meters before stopping and returning to the station for another half an hour, and then going the direction we had just come from. Leslie and I were convinced we’d never make it to Rome.

            In Florence, everyone left the train and we got the cabin to ourselves. We stretched out and got a good hour of sleep before the next stop. We finally got to Rome about 10 am the morning after we left and we were tired and confused. We got money, a Roma Pass and a map, figuring this would be all we would need to find our hostel. We were determined to use the Metro since our hostel was not in central Rome. Let’s just say, four hours later and a couple break downs later, we finally walked up the hill towards the greatest hostel ever. We got a room to ourselves (for cheap!) which had its own bathroom with a shower. Since it was still afternoon, we decided we should at least go into Rome and do something. So we took the Metro down to the river, looked at some of the bridges and walked around looking for a café.

            After the most delicious mocha of my life, we headed back to the hostel for dinner where our waiters had a joyous time making fun of us since we were so delirious at this point, we didn’t even know what we were ordering. We ended up getting way too much food and then going back to our room in misery. We decided to sleep in the next day in order to try to catch up on the sleep we didn’t get on the plane, and decided we’d go to the closest attraction the next day which was the Vatican.

            We finally left our hostel around 11 am the next day and headed off to the Vatican, which was even closer than we had thought! Upon arriving there, we realized it was surrounded by a market place selling everything you could ever want and had some good gift ideas. We tried to not buy too much and walked into the Vatican to get away from the vendors. What greeted us was a sight we couldn’t put into words and literally made us speechless and we both turned to each other and grinned. We knew this was only a small part of Rome and we couldn’t wait for what was to come. It was about at this moment that we realized it was a holiday, and a Wednesday, so the Pope had spoke that morning at the Vatican and we had just missed him. But even that didn’t deter our spirits.

            We spent most of the day walking around the Vatican, inside St. Paul’s Cathedral and down to a castle that I’m not even sure of its name. It was sunset at this time and we stood on a bridge, looking down the street at St. Paul’s and then continued wandering this part of the city. We didn’t even know what we were looking at, but we took pictures of buildings we defined as pretty or unique, and then decided since it was dark, we should probably try to get back to the hostel.

It was during this day that we began to notice a trend in the style of clothes people were wearing, and how to most accurately describe them is “bubble jackets.” A type of jacket that not only looks like it’s inflatable and could double as a floatation device in the case of a flash flood, but is also shiny to the point of astonishment. If you want to float in an ocean and look at your reflection, a bubble jacket is the thing for you. The moment of absolute ridiculousness was when we saw a couple, waiting for the bus next to us, dressed in matched bubble jackets and pushing a stroller. Immediately, Leslie and I had made a snide comment to each other and sarcastically bet that the baby was also wearing a bubble jacket. At that moment, we glimpsed the little bit of black shininess which confirmed our hope of the complete bubble jacket family. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, we realized that what we had assumed was a baby in a stroller was actually a pub in a bubble jacket vest. We lost it. This couple not only bought a stroller SPECIFICALLY for their dog, but also dressed it in a matching outfit. The next night, this same couple pushed that stroller with their pug, thankfully not in his jacket, through the door of our hostel restaurant and asked for special seating for their dog. Greatest part of the trip right there.

That night at the hostel, we had a beer and French fries at the restaurant so yet again, the waiters made fun of us. We went to bed early and decided the next day would be ultimate tourist day. We started early and decided that the Colosseum would be the right thing to start with. As we walked out of the Metro station, there it was, looming above us and stealing our breath. We used our Roma Pass to get in for free and spent almost two hours walking the inside of the legendary building. By far, the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life, even more amazing then Bubble Jacket Stroller Pug. We walked around looking at some of the other sites in the surrounding area, and then headed for the Trevi Fountain.

The place was packed, but we fought our way to the front, took pictures, threw in our coins of choice, and then ran from the massive crowd that had engulfed us. We stopped at a hole in the wall restaurant that had cheap prices so we thought, why not. Best pasta I’ve ever had! I don’t even remember what it was called but it was cheese ravioli with white sauce that had ham in it. We also got house wine, which was about two or three glasses of wine a piece. The entire meal, two giant plates of pasta and lots of wine was a grand total of 16 Euros! We saw signs saying the Pantheon was close, so wandered down a side street and there it was! We didn’t know it at first because it’s under construction and surrounded by scaffolding. It was at this moment, we realized we had done everything backwards. We should have gone to the Colosseum last because it trumped everything else we saw and so we just kind of shrugged at the Pantheon. We got gelato and ate it at the base of a column at the Pantheon and decided that we were the ultimate tourist.



YUM!



We discovered a couple plazas that were gorgeous and ended up buying a lot of postcards. We headed back to the Trevi Fountain and sat on the steps of a church across the street writing postcards until the sun went down. We headed back to our hostel, had more pasta and wine, got made fun of again by our waiters and then went to bed. The last day in Rome we bought day passes for the Metro and met up with a friend of Leslie’s that she went to high school with that is studying in Rome. We spent the majority of the day with her, walking around Rome and eating the traditional foods: pasta, pizza, gelato and crepes. Afterwards, Leslie and I headed back to the hostel, read books and relaxed for a little bit and then went to the bar. We had a couple bottles of wine, befriended those same waiters that had been making fun of us for days and meet some Australians. We got free shots from the waiters for the rest of the night and started an epic dance party with the Auzzies that lasted until the wee hours of the morning.

We woke up slowly the next morning, deciding that going to bed at 3:30 am when we had to be at the airport by 11 am might not have been the greatest idea. But we made it! We were on time, just moving at a slow pace and finding any opportunity to sneak in a quick nap. Our flight was delayed an hour, but we didn’t mind since we weren’t really in any sort of hurry. We landed in Heathrow, found our luggage and headed for our host families. This is where the London life begins!

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Leslie and I inside the most amazing place on Earth...