Roamin' in Rome.

Thursday night I did laundry to prepare for my flight to Rome. In Barcelona, no one has dryers so I had to air dry all my clothes and it took all day. It was good that I had to stay up late waiting for my clothes to dry because I got to chat with Delphine, the host of my apartment. She came in around midnight... a little loud and stumbly but full of great energy. We talked for about half an hour about the Spanish, yoga, my ethnicity, her living situation, and the neighborhood. After assuring me that I would be safe walking to Paul's that night (we had an early flight the next morning), I left with my backpack to walk the 13 blocks to his apartment. On the way, a completely naked man carrying his shoes walked passed me.

On Friday, we got into Rome a little after lunch. We checked into Happy Days hostel and went to find some food. Then, we walk around the Vatican City walls and took the metro to the Colosseum, then we walked back to the hostel. We were able to hit most of the main sites of Rome on the walk home. It starts getting dark much earlie than in Barcelona. It was the perfect time of day to take pictures.

1st Stop: Colosseum & Arco de Constantino




2nd Stop: Roman Forum



3rd Stop: Mercati di Traiano



4th stop: Complesso del Vittoriano



5th stop: Fontana di Trevi



7th stop: Spanish steps



Meals: Ravioli with Ricotta and Spinach & Pizza with egg and bacon

We went back to the hostel where we shared a room with 6 other kids- 2 Australians, 1 English, 3 Mexicans. They were all globe-trotting.

On Saturday, We started our day back at the Vatican. Paul and I both agreed that we didn't want to pay for tours. Where does the money go to?... So we went to the entrance and took some pictures.

1st stop: San Pietro (entrance to Vatican City)



2nd stop: Piazza Navona



3rd stop: The Pantheon



We had unlimited public transportation for the weekend, so we decided to leave Rome to go to a small town outside the city, Ostia Antica. There's a huge complex of ruins. We spent hours wandering around in the sunshine and breeze. The weather was much better near the coast than in the middle of the stone city.



Afterwards, we came back to the hostel for a few hours and then went around the corner for dinner. Out of all the amazing things I discovered this weekend the true gem was our waiter, Mikal. Mikal understood that we were poor kids traveling on a budget, so he chose our meal and provided wine and lemoncello at the "non-tourist" price. After dinner, we met up with Mikal and he tooks us to a bar he frequents. We spent hours sitting outside drinking and talking to him. I learned a lot about Romania (where he's from) and about the Italians (whom he's lived with for years). I found out that the love of Asian women and cougars is universal. He made fun of the clothes I was wearing compared to his Calvin Klein T-shirts and $600 D&G shoes. We shared music- his Romanian rap for my Kid Cudi and as the night went on, he played some Britney Spears and Michael Jackson after spilling a full beer all over my skirt. Good times. We said our goodbyes to Mikal the next day when we stopped in for lunch before our bus back to the airport.



Meals: Fish and shrimp, antipasta, salad, and gelato. Spaghetti.