Did Ceasar live here?

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME!

This past weekend we took a little pre-spring break break and had an amazing long weekend in Rome! Justin, Sarah, Alex, and I caught an early flight Thursday morning and landed in Italy less than two hours after! We got to our hostel (called Ivanhoe) just before the afternoon lockout (the time they clean our beds and stuff, most hostels close for a few hours during the day) dropped off our stuff grabbed a map and headed out to see the city!

Our first goal we had was to get some food! (this happens a lot this weekend as you will read) We found a small little place and all ordered some bruschetta and wine with our various

plates of pasta. It was all delicious. After this we headed to the Colosseum which was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel. Outside the Colosseum we got bombarded with pub crawl promoters and people trying to sell us things as well as guys in gladiator costumes or others trying to give tours. We had planned to go into the Colosseum another day so after a few minutes hanging out outside and taking pictures we headed to the Trevy Fountain. Had to stop to grab some gelato on the way there though!

The next morning we were up pretty early for a full day of touring. We started the day at the Colosseum. It was so amazing and the weather was amazing as well! We opted out of taking a guided tour so we had fun making up our own little facts about the history of the place. After that we

explored the Roman Forum which was right next door. It was basically a large park like area you could walk around with a lot of ancient Roman ruins. At this point the rain started to come and we were ready for food so we headed to a small restaurant and got some pizza and wine. Then

back to the hostel for a nap! (usually on these trips I am nap nazi as many of you know that have read my other posts but with all the walking we did there was no way we could of skipped the naps). When we got up we got ready to go out but with so many new arrivals of different groups of people in the hostel we kept getting distracted and ended up hanging out in the hostel the entire night. It was so much fun though. We met a cool group of people from Ireland, and a big group of boys from Scotland who were basically celebrating a bachelor party. Because of them I now respond to "Glasgow Rangers" with "Champions!" and know that the Celtic fans are "soap dodgers". The fountain was amazing, and because it was only Thursday the place wasn't extreemly crowded and we got some good pictures taken. We did some more wandering and took some more pictures then eventually headed back to the hostel for a nap

before the pub crawl we were going to go on that night. We woke up to a full hostel complete with plenty of young kids and some more pub crawl promotors pouring drinks in the common area!

We eventually headed to the pub crawl which made for an interesting night. And thats all of the story that needs to be told. That probably makes it sound worse than it was but it was pretty much your run of the mill pub crawl.

The next morning we headed to see the Vatican, we walked there and saw some cool sights on the way. We spent some time in the Basilica (basically like the chapel and where the pope comes out of on sundays). Then went to the Vatican Museums where we saw a lot of really cool art and other various pope/catholic related things, then saw the Sistine Chapel. Which was amazing but we weren't allowed to take pictures. So for those of you who don't know its the picture on the ceiling of the fingers touching. After this we searched for a pizza place that had been recommended to us from a few sources but failed horribly and ended up settling for a completely overpriced (but still delic

ious) restaurant outside the Vatican. Then we got gelato by a lady who was apparently in the worst mood and almost screamed at Sarah for asking a simple question. So rude but actually quite entertaining.

After this we walked through the city and did a little shopping and more sight seeing before heading back to the hostel. The party continued in the hostel and we ended the night with a wild game of never have I ever and would you rather going on with about 2o strangers. Such an amazing way to get to know the craziest side of people right away.

The last day we slept in a bit and then headed out to walk the city and see everything else we could. We walked around for a few hours then ended up in a park with an amazing look out of the city. Up at the park we saw people on these bikes (its hard to explain but they basically look like flinstone cars but with bike pedals) so we rented on for an hour and made fools of ourselves having so much fun riding around this park. After the park we saw the Spanish Steps and a few other places then had lunch by the Pantheon. This was my favorite meal by far! And finished the meal wish tiramisu for desert that was absolutely amazing!!!!!

After dinner Justin and I shopped like mad men and got a lot of cool souvenirs. Nothing I regret buying so far so I think we are all good. I mean who doesn't need a sexy priests of rome calendar? After grabbing dinner back at the hostel we headed back to see the Trevy Fountain at night and hung out there for a bit. That was really cool because the place was practically empty. We headed to bed early that night because we had to fly out the next day and did not want to miss a flight or anything.... little did we know getting up wasn't going to be the problem.

So yes, I missed the first flight I have ever missed in my life of my many years of extensive traveling. Why you say? Were we late? No. Did we get lost? No. Oooohh we were just at the completely wrong air port. Ok something we could have avoided had we double checked our sources of information but still not 100% our fault. So a 60 euro cab ride later and rushing and hoping our flight was delayed an hour or something like that we get to the correct air port and head to the ticket counter. Ok so the flight had already left. duh. But they easily got us another flight for only a penalty fare, which was still a lot of money but way less than it would of been to buy a completely new ticket.

Four hours in the airport a small nap and enjoying my first European McDonalds we got on our flight and were ready to go home. About an hour and thirty minutes into the flight (one that is only supposed to take an hour fifteen), they finally prepare us for landing.... 20 minutes later no landing... 30 minutes no landing... o but outside the windows its completely dark gray. Lovely. Then the turbulence hits and I'm not going to like I was legitimately scared for my life and I fly a lot. People were holding hands and white knuckle gripping the seats. About 5 seconds before touch down was the first we saw any land because the clouds were that thick and the first thing we see out the window was snow! Feet of snow. I thought we had to make an emergency landing in Sweden or something. Nope. Barcelona was in the middle of a snow storm and the city had no idea how to deal with it. Keep in mind Italy had great weather so we were not dressed for the occasion. We stepped out of the bus to out house into half a foot of slush! It was absolutely crazy. But a completely appropriate ending to the day we had.

So back to school for the rest of the week. And 3 short days later I am packing for Dublin! Leaving tomorrow night for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day and it should make for a good time. So check back next week for updates on that trip!