Longest. Post. Ever.

Rome:

-After a really bumpy takeoff from one of the smallest-yet-major airports known to man, we landed in Rome, yay!  Had to wait about an hour for the bus to Termini station.  The hostel was really easy to find from there, maybe a 10 minute walk max. Walking down the street that has the address of the hostel, I wasn't quite sure I was still in Italy - all the shop names were in Chinese!  That street had character, I think.  I got to the hostel, including buzzing up through two doors and taking this teeny little elevator up a couple floors.  I couldn't check in til 3 or 4, so I walked around, got some gelato, then went sat in a cute park just right down the road.  I later found out that the park - and the ruins therein - was from the house of the first king of Italy.  Not too shabby!    I considered taking a nap in the park, but it was around 3:30 by this time so I figured they'd probably be okay with me checking in then.   So I did what you know you would've done too (and don't even try to deny it!), I went back to the hostel, checked in, and went with every intention of taking a short sleep.  But then I met Andy, and I guess we were both just so cool to talk to that neither one of us took the nap we'd planned on!  :)

Eventually our other new roomies showed up and we all got to know each other a bit, walked out around the area trying to find a laundromat and some good Italian eatin'!      Mmm, first real authentic spaghetti in Italy.. Benissimo!   And seriously, it really is true that men with foreign accents (not American accents) can totally get away with saying things like "Lovely".  But I digress.   In the process of walking around we'd lost one of our compadres, Austin from Australia.   We popped back to the hostel to grab him, the others grabbed some wine from the little grocery store downstairs from our hostel, and walked right on down to the Colosseum!   (Refer to previous posts for other details on this amazing night.)

Honestly, I felt more comfortable around that group (in particular Andy, Carolyn, and Signy) than I do with a lot of people I've known for ages here back home.   Analyze that however you'd like.

The next morning, got up late and went out to walk around for a while..   Walked around the area where my hostel was located, went up to St Maria Maggiore church, spent a good bit of time in there looking at the paintings and sculptures and such.   It's a beautiful church and has some famous people entombed there.   It's a little bit weird to me, having famous dead people (not meaning to sound disrespectful) entombed in a church building instead of a grave yard.  It makes sense, and I mean I'd certainly like to have such a respected resting place.. but, it's just foreign to me.

After walking around a bit more and grabbing a couple bananas for breakfast, I made my way back to the hostel, kicked Andy out of bed and we went down to the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine area.  Honestly, there are no words quite grand enough to say how amazing I found the ancient Forum.   I'm really glad that we had Rick Steves along with us (in free podcast form) because I think we learned a lot from him - apart from his cheesy humor, of course.    Naptime in the Palatine in the grass, under a tree, in the beautiful weather..  It was so very lovely.

Post-naptime, we headed over to the Colosseum to check out the inside.   While marveling at the awesomeness (awesome like a hotdog) we ran into Carolyn, Signy, Jordan and Jared.  We all walked around, discussing the price of cheese in Vienna (not really), took a couple pictures, and then eventually headed back to the hostel to get ready for the pub crawl that night.   Of course, we girls took forever to get ready and I changed my shirt about 4 times (impressive on a traveling wardrobe) but we finally headed out.

We had dinner at a restaurant just up the street - originally it was just me, Care, Sig and Dubin bros, but Seve and Austin showed up, then Nick and Andy showed up, then Danny and Tyler showed up.  It's like we were all meant to be!  (said with over-the-top enthusiasm typically interpreted as mild sarcasm.)

The pub crawl was oh so very interesting...    Despite remaining the only sober one in the entire 100+ crowd of young travelers (or maybe because of it) I had a super fun time!   Met a bunch of people, mostly stayed with the group but met a bunch of friendly Australians, a weird Bulgarian kid, plus various people whose names and nationalities I don't quite remember..  The Aussies were particularly interesting, lol...  Things started getting a little weird at the end, but the group was ready to go - so off we went in search of transportation home!   We finally made it to the bus stop, got on the wrong bus, and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half trying to find our way through Rome to get home, with Danny "protecting" me from one of the Aussies.  Loved all the accents.     I do still feel a little guilty about that whole thing, though..

Honestly Rome is beautiful.  Especially at 2 AM when the streets are nearly silent.  :-)   There was dancing in the street, a bit of romance in front of the Colosseum, drunken battle challenges, in no particular order and not necessarily happening to me.  We'll leave the mystery open. 

I do have to say, Roman nights were quite interesting.  Certain details shall remain unseen in the Blogosphere, but suffice it to say, Roman nights are a lot more eventful than Utah nights.   And a lot more eventful than my Parisian nights, myself all holed up in my hostel because I was too scared to go out late by myself!   :-)



The next day was comprised of sleeping in until 10, saying goodbye to the Dubin brothers (sad!), then made my way out into the wonderful wide world of Rome (for alliteration purposes, read:  Wome) by my lonesome to visit a few must-sees such as the Pantheon, Piazza Navona - which I keep wanting to call Novano, the Trevi fountan, plus 5 or 6 random piazzas.  I feel quite satisfied with my piazza experiences.  I saw plenty of the big famous piazzas, plus a bunch of random tiny ones that don't really get shown on the maps but are beautiful in and of themselves anyway.   Sadly my pictures of said piazzas aren't very distinguishable from each other, but that's alright.


On my way back to the metro stop, I picked at random one of the numerous "bars" (which to Italians is really just a grab-n-go food place, usually with sandwiches or something prepared) and had an amazing piece of Margherita (cheese) pizza on the way back to the metro station.. and some fruit.  I was craving fruit a lot on this trip!   Oh and by the way, my cushy American friends, grapes = not seedless here..   We are so spoiled in America.  

Went back to the hostel and took a short little nap.  The rest of us remaining in the group had decided to have an easy night - grab some cheap dinner close by, then just have a night in at the hostel.  So what else do you do for dinner when you're in Italy?  Yep that's right - we got Chinese food.   Hey, don't judge.    You know, I'd never really pictured someone speaking Italian with a Chinese accent.  Go figure.

Queue gelato, hostel, a laptop and some Russel Crowe.  Add it all together and you've got yourself a beautiful relaxed evening!



Late that night we were all treated to the musical stylings of guy-whose-name-I-can't-remember-but-slept-above-Andy.  And by "treated" I really mean "suffered through" and by "musical stylings" I really mean the dude could rip a snore like none other.  Poor Austin, he was so mad!   But what can you do?  He did give us fair warning...   Poor guy.


Next morning, Andy left (sad!) and then it was pretty much just me, Care, and Sig. We went down to St Peter's basilica and walked around inside and outside for a while.  St Peter's was incredible..    I found out later that my dad and stepmom have performed there with their choir, among many other hyperfamous churches in Europe.   That makes me want to get back into choir..

So Carolyn, Signy and I got some lunch (after hunting for a while to find something cheap)  then it was back to the hostel, after getting some gelato of course.   But of course, they had to leave too, so I wandered around Rome some more in the afternoon, just taking in the sights and soaking up as much sun and atmosphere as I could. 


Oh, and dinner at the hostel that night was SO incredible.    I swear they were cooking it all day long, and I'm pretty sure it was the best lasagna I've ever had in my whole 22 years and 8 months.

Although my feet and ankle ended up hurting a lot over this trip, I wish I could keep walking for several hours a day (anywhere ranging from only 3 hours of walking to a full 8 or 9 hours of walking) here back at home. But the reality is, things are just too far to walk to.  I have committed to going hiking a lot more, though.   One can sightsee in nature just as well in a big historical city, don't you agree?


After a ridiculous day of traveling to get home - which included getting up at 4 AM, not sleeping on my flights, and missing my connecting flight in Houston - I finally made it home Sunday afternoon, and my dad must have been reading my mind while I was gone because they'd planned steak, potatoes, squash, and salad, all of which I'd been craving the entire time I was gone.   I never consider America as having "traditional" cuisine, but.. if you ask me..   steak, potatoes and salad with Ranch dressing is full-on American in my opinion.  The end.



One of the things I miss most about traveling (yeah, all 2 weeks of it) was that every day mattered.   Every single day, every hour was important.  It was memorable because it was different and full of, well, being alive.  Even sleeping was important.  This week since I got home has gone by really fast, in fact this morning when I woke up I'd forgotten it was the end of the week already.  It has blurred by because it's been the same ol' thing I do every week.

I know that every day of our lives is important - every single day can be made to count, the way it felt while I was traveling.   I want to get out into the world (as much as is possible in boring Utah) every day.  But I get home and fall back into my comfort zone, my all-work-and-no-play life that is just a bit anti-social.

I didn't necessarily feel this way in London and Paris, but in Rome there was such an incredible freedom.  Apparently when I feel the most free to be anything I want to be, when I can be anything and anyone - that is when I am free to just be utterly and completely me. 

Over the past year, my ever-present calm has been teetering on the edge of volatility.   Maybe I'm just coming up on my quarter-life crisis. Something needs to change.   I almost want to move out of state and start anew - brand new people, brand new job, brand new life where no one knows me or expects me to be anything in particular.  That would be awesome.


The whole point of all 11 of these posts:   this trip was amazing.


Fin.

(Until my next travels!)