ciao, bella

ROME:

our little trip to rome was EXHAUSTING, to say the least.

i shall regale you as to why, whilst i lay in a bed i may not get out of today and eat an apple, the only non-carb/gelato item ive had to eat in days.

so, being the eager traveller that i am, and having the somewhat anal type A personality boyfriend i have, i made all the arrangements we would need to allow this trip to go smoothly. of COURSE this cant happen, i mean its me we're talking about. i booked a hotel, yes HOTEL not hostel, on cheaphotels.com thinking that this would be our little splurge trip and we'd have some luxury. i looked up directions to all the sites we wanted to see and was so relieved when the directions seemed easier than any other trip ive planned. our flight got in at about 10 pm (night was the cheapest) so i thought we could go straight to our hotel and meet up with the boys in the morning.

boy, was i wrong.

we got to the airport in Dublin just fine. we used to take a cab (costed about 25E) but we found a shuttle bus that brought us there for E6 each. i searched and searched the airport for Dr. Pepper to bring to andri, as they dont have it in italy i guess(those poor, sad italians) and was unsuccessful. our flight was more than a little shaky, the landing bounced like 3 times and we basically had to keep our seat belts on the whole time. we get into Rome (ciampano) and we take a shuttle to Termini, the big train and bus station. 

its aaaaaall down hill from there. 

in termini, we first thought we'd look up a bus that might take us there. we cant seem to find a schedule, so we decide to go find information as they usually speak english. we end us wandering the termini station for several hours, all while trying to get our phones to work to call the boys, trying to find an information desk. at about 11:30 pm, we finally find one. in very broken english, the man tells us that our hotel we booked, you know, the one that said it was 11km (about 6 miles) from trastevere where the boys live is actually 30 KM (15 MILES) from where the boys live, about 25 miles from Termini. no buses or trains run that far, and the best way would be to take a E65 taxi. 

then

we go to take a taxi, we're standing outside, minding our own business, when this short tubby italian man comes up to us and asks where we're going. we tell him, and then a group of 4-5 italian men crowd around us and start babbling in italian about who is going to take us there. i was starting to get weirded out by them, but jake said he read that that's what taxi drivers do there, they discuss who is going where because some of them dont want to drive super far but some dont mind, etc, etc. the guy says "you wait for taxi, will be E100! i take you for 90" i said "im definitely not paying more than E50", and we negotiated until about E65 was decided. we start walking to his car. WHICH we find out is an unmarked, taxi license-less car. i was like NOPE not getting in there. he couldnt figure out why in the world we wouldnt want to drive with him in his sketchy ass car. he kept saying "i know these streets vedy well vedy well you get there fast" YEAH, without our organs. needless to say we ditched him quick. 

so now its about 12:30 am and our phones FINALLY start working. we get a hold of the boys who said they will come to termini.jake and i are sitting in the train station cafe tired, cranky, hungry, and pissed. we decide to walk around a bit, watching all the hobos drink and have deep philosophic discussions. finally this person comes running at us screaming something. i started to walk away and was like ANDRI?! it was our friend from florence that was in rome too. THEY WERE FINALLY HERE. its about 1am at this point.

we walk to the boys apartment, about a half hour walk, so i can use their internet to try to find a hostel for the night and cancel our other res.im on there for about 2 hours and cant find a THING thats under E100, even hostels were crazy expensive. its about 2:30 am. trevor looks up some hostels that are close to the apartment, gives us directions, and jake, drunk matt, somewhat buzzed mark, and i set out to find these places.

so, google maps lies. ALOT.

we took the exact directions  it gave us, only to find out that not 1, not 2, but ALL 3 of these hostels do not exist. at lest not in the place that they say they do. we wandered basically into the complete other side of Rome, kind of the ghetto area. its about 5am now. we decide, after getting very lost, to head back. we finally head back to the boys apartment at about 530 am. we sat at the table till about 6am, and decided that it was best to give up, save one night's hotel fee and just get trashed at the table until morning. thats exactly what we did.

matt ended up passing out at the table, smashed his head against the corner, mark jake and i kept talking irish accents saying "DRUNK POTATOES" over and over again; it was a shitshow.

so now it's 7:30 am, we watched the sun come up in rome, drunk. i found us a new hotel and at 8am, i called and asked if i could check in that early. i was able to sweet talk him into letting us, and we set out, once again, on our trek around Rome. if thats what being homeless feels like, i can see the pros and cons. we FINALLY got to our hotel. we got a "queen sized bed" which was actually just two beds pushed together. as soon as we walked in, i ran to the shower, jake ran to the bed. i joined him shortly after; its incredible what a hot shower can do. we finally slept.

but only for 3 hours.

its now noon. we decide to get up and sight-see, goddamnit. it took us a little bit to figure out the public transportation, but we did, and  then we went to the Vatican. it was like Christian Mecca. St. Peter's was incredibly gorgeous. it gave me chills. i blessed myself with holy water from the vatican. i feel holier. lol! 

later that night, we went out to eat with boys.  i had pesto gnocchi, jake had a different kind. then we got gelato, my second one of the day. IT WAS AWESOME. we wanted to stay and party with them, but our buses stopped running at 1am, so we had to head back to the hotel. i slept like a rock.

day 1/day 2 = 3 out of 5 stars.

The next day, we saw the colosseum and the roman forum. i forgot my camera in the hotel, so no pictures from the forum. it was so beautiful. it was sunny and gorgeous out, still a little chilly tho. i wore my new yellow roman dress, E12! we were supposed to go to a soccer match with the boys, but we decided to sight see more. we wanted to see the trevi fountain and the colosseum at night, so we were going to go back and put pants and sweaters on.

turns out, roman metros only run until 9pm on sundays.

so now we're stuck at a bus stop called cornelia, with no bus going home and no train to take us to the city center. we finally get on two connecting trains NEAR our hotel and walked the rest of the way. so, stuck in the suburbs of italy because nothing runs on sundays, we decide to go to dinner. pictures are on here. it was a tiny little place and i got a veggie pizza and this super yummy dessert. we got about a block away on the bus and i thought, hey, id better check for my wallet. YUP. i left it at the restaurant. we went SPRINTING back, trying not to have a panic attack. we got  there and the waiter had it in his apron. he was even going to bring it to the hotel as its the only one near the restaurant and he knew we weren't italian. i couldve hugged him. THANK GOD it was a tiny mom-and-pop place. italy outside of the roman city center actually reminds me alot of arizona when i went with my family on the way to hawaii. it was nice =] but anyway, we went to sleep early and got much needed down time together.

the next day, we got up early and saw the vatican museum, sistine chapel, colosseum again, and hung out with matt. we cut in line about 2 hours up the que, and made it into the chapel in about an hour's wait. it was INCREDIBLE. we had gelato AGAIN; we knew it was the last time we could there. on the way to the colosseum, i tripped on a rock and fell and twisted my ankle. i just sat on the ground for a while. seriously, what else? it was fine tho, just a little sore. we got back on a train and got on the shuttle to the airport. the shuttle left late. of course the shuttle left late. we got to the airport with only 45 minutes to go through security and get to our gate. we got there on time, and got in line right away. 

turns out, ryan air delays flights and doesnt tell you

so, our flight was delayed an hour. its not 9pm and we've been standing in line for an hour. jake and i are sitting on the floor in line at this point. they have it set up so that once you're through passport check, you cant go back out to go get food or anything to drink. yet again, jake and i are cranky, tired, starving (we ate breakfast and that was it), and we JUST WANT TO GO HOME. we finally board the plane and ride on of the shakiest, coldest flights of my life. it landed late, and as we were hurrying through the terminal in Dublin we saw the shuttle bus that would take us to oconnell.

turns out, it was the last shuttle bus.

SO, we end up taking a more expensive coach bus to our stop and ride the luas home. we never buy luas tickets, you can normally just jump on.

turns out, they have guards that check your tickets after 11pm.

THANKFULLY they did not check ours. the guys didnt seem to vigilant on doing their job. THANK. GOD. finally got home and passed out. i may have skipped my 3 hour masters class. sorry, david hurley and other french students that i hate. i was supposed to volunteer, and i was trying to find a way out of it when i got an email from the guy saying not to come in today. SWEET. i get to go learn how to play gaelic football today, and it counts for a grade. after the weekend i had, i'll take it.