Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to update my blog. I know you are anxiously awaiting each one... Am I righrt?? Well, aren't I? :) This week has been finals week and therefore I've been rather preocupied lately. But now that it's Thursday and I've only got one paper to finish for tomorrow, I have time to update everyone on Roma!
For one, this trip started off amazingly because we didn't have to sleep at the airport. We did have to get up ridiculously early, but I'd rather do that than sleep on a cold, hard airport floor all night. Done that two too many times already. Not a good descision in hind sight... Anyway, got up super early to catch the 5:15am bus from Toledo to Madrid and got to the airport around 7:30am. Our flight was at 9:15am, so once we got through security we had time to stop and get breakfast. We boarded the plane around 8:45am and off we went to Rome!
Kami, being the super smart girl she is (I mean that literally, not sarcastically, just for the record!), thought to get directions to the hostel BEFORE we got there. I can't believe we hadn't thought of doing that sooner... So we got off the plane and immediately knew which stand to go to in order to start our journey to the hostel. We had to take a bus to a Metro station and then walk from the Metro to the hostel, but it really wasn't that bad. I actually did a good job at booking the hostel for once (if I do say so myself...)! The hostel was more like an apartment than a hostel, but with 6 people sharing a room. The staff was really nice (and had a dog!!) and the rooms/bathrooms were clean. We never once worried about bugs or anything. The first night (Friday night), the guy who checked us in made everyone dinner... for free! But before dinner, we went to go explore the colloseum (sp?) for a little bit. We wandered around, took our pictures and headed back to hostel to rest a bit before dinner (we were exhausted from getting up so early).
Dinner was really good! He made pasta with some sort of red sauce. So we had pasta (of course, we were in ITALY!) and wine for dinner :) After dinner, Kami and I headed out to my friends' apartment. We got to the nearest Metro stop with no problems (we are metro EXPERTS now!), but we were supposed to take bus number 3 which stops right near where they are, but we couldn't find it. So we ended up grabbing a taxi instead. Which was fine because it really wasn't that much. So the taxi dropped us off and I knew the number of their building and apartment. We found it and started pushing the button to ring up. But no one answered... So we pushed it again. Still no answer. So we waited a few minutes, then Kami pushed (and held) the button for a few seconds. Still no one answered. So I texted Alison who texted Kali who came down to let us in. But she came down a few doors to our right. You know why? Yeah. We had the wrong building. Even though it said "281" on it AND had their apartment number on it. So eventually we made our way in and chatted with Kali and Kristy for awhile. Alison had a friend from home visiting, so we didn't see her all that much. We were going to go and get gelato, but we waited too long and all the places were closed. So we just went back to their place and talked some more. Around 11:15pm, Kami and I headed back to the hostel. We waited for the bus for 30 minutes, but it never came. So once again, we managed to find a taxi to take us to the metro station.
Saturday morning we got up and saw the Vatican. That was incredible! We got to see the Sistine Chapel upclose and in person. To have learned about it before and then to see it in person was amazing! We wandered around some more and then grabbed lunch around 12:30pm. By 2:00pm (sorry guys :( ) we met up with Kali and Kristy, who were going to show us around Rome a bit. So we went and saw other touristy things and got these HUGE donuts with nutella on them. Oh my gosh, they were heaven!! Right after finishing the donuts, Kami and I got gelato (a must when in Rome, of course). She got pistaccio and I got tiramisu. It was delicious! From there we wandered around a little bit more and then walked a ways back to their apartment (it was POURING earlier, so we wanted to get back before it happened again) and wait for 8:00pm when we were going to meet up with Lindsay and Leticia for dinner.
It was sooooooo good to see Lindsay!! I missed her in London, but I'm really happy I got a chance to see her in Rome! I hadn't seen her since early June when I left for the summer. We found this cute little place near where we met up and ate. It was really good! I missed Italian food! Dinner was all around just a lot of fun. Lots of laughing and story telling. I was really happy that Kami got along with all of my friends. She and Kali have a lot in common... particularly Lost.
After dinner they wanted to go see the Trevi fountain at night, but Kami and I had to head back to hostel and sleep because we were getting up at 2:45am to make our 6:15am (yes.... AM) flight. As it was, I only got 1 1/2 hours of sleep... So we said our goodbyes (only for a few weeks because we were all DU students) and went back to the hostel.
Normally I would end my blog here saying that we made it back and whatnot, but there is a story to be told here. A ridiculous story. We had bought tickets for the bus back to the airport when we first arrived because there was one leaving at 4:30am which worked perfectly with our timeline. So we got the station, walked all the way around it looking for where the bus would pick us up and stood waiting in line to get on. When the bus came, the driver said something in Italian and everyone started moving away from the bus into the building. We figured they just hadn't bought their tickets yet, but as it turns out, this was not the case. Oh, they had their tickets, but apparently you need to show your ticket to a person who gives you a boarding pass. The passes are colored depending on the time the bus leaves. So by the time we figured this out, only Kami got a pass for the 4:30am bus and Elle and I got one for the 4:50am one. The 4:50am one was going to get us there too late, not leaving time to get our visas checked or through security. We couldn't convince anyone to switch with us, so (for the third time this trip), caught a taxi to the airport. We got there at the same time as the 4:30am bus! So with barely enough time to spare, we made it to our flight. Finally.
Upon arriving in Madrid, we all went to the Metro together, but they went the other direction than I did because they were staying in the city to go to a museum for a class. I only wanted to go and sleep (definitely almost wrote that in Spanish...), so I headed straight back to Toledo. And sleep was what I did. I slept until lunch and then slept until we left my "grandparents'" house. The rest of my evening looked something like that, too. Lots of sleeping went on :)
I'd write about this past week, but realistically nothing exciting happened. I studied, I took tests and I wrote a paper. Go me? Anyway, I am done now and only have 5 1/2 more days until I'm back in Seattle! :)
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