Rome Hotels
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Roma
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Rome,
Lazio, Italy
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Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008 15:01
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Entry 5 of 5 | show all | print this entry |
2/19 3:01 pm
The train to Nice was pretty relaxed. I talked to a French businessman for a bit and we shared a few laughs. The train from Nice to Rome was a sleeper. I talked to the roommates for a bit. There was a couple from India and a guy from Japan. When he found out I was from Seattle he immediately mentioned Ichiro. I said oh yes and showed him my backpack which has a red sox symbol drawn on it. He was ecstatic and we talked about Diasuke and Okajima for a little bit. He reenacted Okajima's violent head snap when he pitches. After chatting I climbed up to my bed and slept like a baby.
We got to Rome at 9:45 am and I headed straight to the Coliseum. It is pretty enormous. There were a lot of people there and I had to wait in the longest line of the entire trip. I kinda wish we were allowed to go into the bottom part but that's okay.
I went to the Forum after that since it is right next to it. That's some old stuff! Cool pillars. From there it was off to see the Trevi Fountain. Too many stupid street vendors there. Oh well, it was still pretty awesome. I think my picture with me in it was too dark so I might get one tomorrow.
From there it was up to the hostel. At first I couldn't find it so I went to a little pizza place where I asked for two slices which turned out to be enormous. I ate most of the two pieces even though there were mushrooms on the pizza. I might accidentally eat them here but I knew those were there and I still ate it. So I looked at my reservation sheet and figured out that the hostel is one of many things in a building. So the lady buzzed me up and I got checked in. I've found that no two hostels are the same. After getting checked in I walked back to the train station and bought a ticket to the airport. I have to double check that is the airport that I leave from but I am fairly sure. Oh and I bought some souvenirs for folks. Okay time to look into using the internet.
2/19 7:59 pm
Haven't done much since the last time I wrote but I'm probably going to go to bed soon. I was able to use the internet and found that I am taking the train to the correct airport. After using the airport I went and bought stamps. Finding a drop box was a tougher task but I finally found one. Bought a few more souvenirs so now my pack is pretty much full.
Came back to the hostel after that and took an hour nap. I didn't want to get up but I made myself. I was going to find a spot where I could get a calzone but caved in and went somewhere easy. McDonald's should just hire me to do quality checks. I decided it is much harder when you don't know any of the language at all. Maybe it is a mental thing but I just feel weird, maybe ignorant, just pointing to things. The diet coke, or coke light as it is called here, tastes funny. Well I'm gonna go shave and possibly shower. If I do shower then I'll have to resort to drying off with a towel, something I haven't done since Paris since I rented a towel in Barcelona.
2/20 2:48 pm
Shaved and showered last night. When I came back to the room I watched an office on my ipod. While I was watching it an Indian guy came in and got in his bed. As soon as I stopped watching he started snoring, VERY LOUDLY! And it wasn't just a snore while breathing in...it was both breathing in and breathing out. Ugh. So it took me a while to get to sleep. Looks like his stuff is still here today so that stinks.
Woke up at 10 this morning and finally got up at 10:30. I headed back to the Trevi Fountain and got a good picture with it. Then I walked to the Pantheon. Free so that's good. Took a few pictures and went to Navona Plaza. The two fountains on the ends were cool but the middle statue was under construction..
From there I went to Vatican City. Well, just the St. Peter's Plaza part. It was enormous. There were a ton of street vendors leading up to the plaza but none in there. After hanging out there and taking a pretty terrible panoramic photo I decided I wouldn't check out the museums and would head up to the Spanish Steps. On the way there I saw Saint Angelo Castle on the Tiber River. It looked pretty old. From there I weaved my way up to the steps. Ugh more street vendors and they are more aggressive than the ones by the Vatican. I saw one pretty much force a Japanese teenager to give him his hand so he could tie a worthless piece of string to his finger. The Japanese guy got out of it right after he started though. These guys are selling junk that no one wants...rocks that make noise, balloons with flour in them with yarn for hair, phoney necklaces and cheapo posters of soccer players. The stairs were pretty cool except there was construction at the top which blocked a good picture of the church up there. I guess this isn't prime tourist season.
On the way to find food I walked past a group of Italian students and their leader who spotted a turd on the sidewalk, turned, pointed to the turd and said "Attenti!" and then every student mimicked her and said it to the next student in line. I laughed a little. I found a little pizzeria and had a calzone with ham. I just picked one on the menu that wasn't fungu or something like that because I assumed it was mushroom and just lucked out with ham. It was tasty but it took forever to get the bill. After I paid I headed back here to the hostel. Nap soon maybe?
2/20 5:43 pm
No nap. I just explored a bit. Walking around with the ipod out gets different looks. I made sure to keep a hand on it in my sweatshirt pouch pocket. I've got 18.79 euros left...hmmm if I can keep dinner to around 10 then I can afford the typical 8 euro McDonald's for breakfast at the airport. But what will cost only 2 more euros than McDonald's? Maybe I'll cave and do McDonald's both times...lame I know but cheap and tasty. Hmmm that sounds like one of their burgers...
2/20 7:32 pm
Just McDonald's for dinner J but I did try one of the local specialties. They are called panzerottis. They are little snacky things that look like mini calzones. Have all my things pretty much packed up. Leaving the bathroom stuff out so I can brush my teeth before bed and when I wake up. Kinda weird not meeting people at this hostel like I did at the last two places. It's just me, the Indian guy L
2/21 8:32 am
Woke up with my 6:15 alarm after a fairly good night's rest. I got in bed right at 8:00 and at 8:30 a new guest arrived and the lady had to show him the room so it was kinda noisy.
I wasn't planning on taking the train to the airport til 7:20 but I caught the one at 6:50. This airport is set up in a pretty efficient way. From the train you walk down a hallway to a set of TVs to see what gate you are at and head to the correct terminal to check in. At that check in I showed the lady my bottle of Lynx body spray (Euro Axe I guess) and she said it was a little too big but they might let it go through security since it was partially gone. I knew it was close to the 3 ounce limit but the only measurement was in mL so I couldn't convert that! So I get to the security checkpoint and of course the guy asks to search my bag and I pull out the bathroom stuff and he has me throw out the spray. Oh well.
I decided I needed some grub so I got a salami sandwich (yeah even though it was around 9 in the morning) and a sprite for 6,30 euros. Got a powerade after that for 2,70 more. Now I'm at the gate waiting to see board at 10:20 for the 11 o'clock flight. I might write in Chicago or maybe just close it out in Seattle.
3/6 1:31
Yeah I'm definitely closing it out in Seattle. After I got home everything was just rush rush rush so here's the rest.
The flight from Rome to Chicago was ridiculously long. 11 hours, boo. I only slept for maybe 15 minutes and was awoke by the pilot announcing that the smoke alarm in the middle bathroom had just gone off and if they found the person they would be fined. The movies they were showing were the Jane Austen Book Club or something, and Chicago. Not exactly my kind of movies but I watched Chicago. CBS shows came on after that and they were pretty good.
So we finally got to Chicago and I had to hustle to my next flight. It was quite the process. I had to walk down under the tarmac to customs. Wait in line there and finally get through. Find which terminal my flight was leaving from. Go through security again, where they all the sudden decide my zip lock bag is too big so I told them I'd just throw all of that away. A lady behind me said she had an extra though so I got one from her and all my stuff fit in the smaller one easily. It only took the airports 3 tries to notice my bag was (unintentionally) too big. Take a train to get out to those terminals. Grab McDonald's, yes again. Scarf that and board the plane. Phew I'm tired, hopefully that means I can sleep on the plane.
Negative. I got to talking with an older guy next to me who tells me that I should definitely do the Peace Corps after I told him my situation. But then again he was also on his way home from playing handball in Florida. He told me that if i wanted to see some world class handball go to blah blah blah in seattle on Wednesday because all the best players in the world would be there, so...Luckily this was a shorter flight because I felt like a sardine in there and my bag was just a little too big to fit under the seat in front of me, shhh. When we were getting close to Seattle he started guessing where we were by looking at the scenery. Got a little annoying. He was way off because he thought we would land an hour before we actually were scheduled for. He got a bloody mary mix during the last go around for drinks and accidentally spilled it everywhere and I got some on my pants. They had come so long without getting dirty but that's okay. (I had another pair with me on the trip, don't worry)
Got to Seattle right on time and I called mom and she drove in from the cell phone lot. And that brings to a close my Europe vacation. If you have any questions, just ask.
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