August 1st, 2014 // Rome, Italy | Europe Trip Day 5

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Rome. From my journal entry:
"I regret ever making early flights."

Winifred and I were up at four am to head to the airport (we went to bed at midnight) and to top it all off, I didn't sleep well. I was hot and every little noise woke me up. I was not to very happy on our walk to the bus. The driver seemed a little put out with us but eventually we made it. I was sad to say goodbye to Edinburgh. We ate at the airport and got through security without a problem. The queue to board was miles long as it always is. We were near the end and I was worried we wouldn't have a place for our bags, but it turned out alright. We arrived and it was green-- but an Arizona green were the weather is too hot and the leafs try to wilt but are too resilient so they settle for looking half dead, instead. It was incredibly hot when we got off the plane. I went from spending the entire summer in weather that ranged from 40-70 degrees to suddenly humidity and 90 degree weather. My body in protest gave me a raging headache. Needless to say, I was a grump when we landed in Rome. 

We got our bus tickets from Ryan Air. Mistake. We waited in a long queue in the sun for ages before we were finally able to get on the bus. The bus driver was rude, we deducted that he hated his job.

We finally made it to Rome and had no idea where we were. We sauntered off to find a map and food. Wendy and I stopped at the first restaurant we found to eat. The menus were all in Italian but the man was very nice and helped us order our food despite the language barrier. 

After having food in my stomach, I felt a bit better and we went to look for our hostel because staying outside was just not an option in this heat with our packs. I needed a towel so we stopped in a store to buy one, I'm 90% sure it's actually a rug but it beat using a dirty t-shirt. We arrived at the hostel a little early but the lady behind the counter checked us in anyway, which was super nice. 

As she lead us to our room we had to go through these HUGE doors, which turned out to be false and only one fourth of it opened. It was awesome. We were the only ones in our rooms at that time so we took showers and unpacked a little. Once we were cooled down enough and our heavy bags unloaded, we walked back to the train station so we could buy tickets to Florence. Wendy did that. She took care of so many necessary things.

We ended up checking out the coliseum first, and joined a tour. Before our tour started there was a youtube star filming and a huge group of his fans came up and he made a video. Somewhere on the internet, Wendy and I are youtube extra stars. 
"We were in the presences of a celebrity, has our life changed?"
The answer was no.

Our tour guide cracked me up. The colosseum was huge and really quite grandiose, or would have been back in the day. We walked around the ruins of Rome, which was right in the center of a bustling city. (Coolest part of Rome). I was shocked at how quiet the areas around the ruins were despite it being in the middle of a bustling city.

We stopped to get dinner at a pizzeria, it was awful. Mine was fishy, Wendy's was soggy. I'll never get over it. However, by the time we finished eating the sun was setting and Rome became amazing. The heat was bearable and the buildings: magnificent. We stopped to get gelato and the man behind the counter was great. I loved talking with the shop workers, they were more often than not very nice. He looked to be about our age and we just traded language pronunciations. He was a cool guy, I should have snapped a picture.

Wendy and I walked to the Pantheon, which was closed at this time but still beautiful. The square was lively, but in a relaxed way. We sat by the fountain and listened to some classic Italian opera singers preform. We finally decided to head back (we got lost, our map was backwards) and on one of our detours I got a crepe. Freaking amazing. We spent two hours wandering Rome at night, lost. It was marvelous. 

We got up at eight the next morning to see the inside of the Pantheon. We almost didn't wake up. I'm glad we did though, it was stunning.

This is behind those big false doors, our room is on the left.




So much yellow!

Only Percy Jackson fans will understand how FREAKING HAPPY THIS MADE ME


















Ruins in the middle of a city








Ruins again in the middle. How awesome is that?
















My favorite part of Rome were the fountains






















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