the rome blogs: day three

holy crap, this is a lot of reading. if you've kept with me through these rome blogs...god, i owe you something. leave me a comment saying that you've read them and i'll give you something.

anyway, here we are, day three. we (me, maddy, mal, chris, mike, janet) woke up early to get in line at the vatican museum, but when we got there around 845 am, the line was already probably a mile long. because the place closes at 1:30 or something (wtf? that's lame) and we had plenty more sights to see, we decided to ditch the museum and try again tomorrow morning, but get there even earlier.

we walked out of the country and into vatican city, the smallest country in the world (vatican city country jokes are SO funny). st peter's basilica--the pope's place--was gorgeous. you should see his view

the inside was expectedly phenomenal. of course it has to be the best--it's the pope's church! as none of us are particularly religious, we made lots of funny jokes about god and heaven. we all got separated inside the basilica, but when maddy, mal, mike and i (aw, man, i never caught on to the alliteration of their names!) met up outside, we decided to go up the copula (er however you spell that). though 551 steps to the top sign was a little frightening, we decided to save a couple euro (aka 1 gelato's worth) and make the journey up on the steps.

WAIT. one of the funniest stories happened in line before we walked up. we were talking about the trevi fountain, and mike goes, "yeah, if you toss three coins in, you'll get married." mal and i both gasped with excitement for no particular reason. "oOooooo get married??!?!?!" maddy and mike both gave us confused looks and we started laughing at our immediate, girly reaction to the marriage prospect.

anyway, back to the story. so we walked up a crapton of steps when we reached what we thought was the top...turns out it was really just the halfway point. my thighs were screaming a big "eff you!" but we dredged on. something weird happened. the further up we got, the skinnier the stairwells were. as we got up to the curved part of the basilica, we had to start leaning to accommodate the sphere shape. once i got to the top, i had to catch my breath. i caught eyes with this older woman, who also had that fatigued look in her eyes. she looks and me and goes, "gosh, look what we have to do to get into heaven!" lol. yeahhh that's totally what i was thinking.

oh, but if there is some sort of god, it's evident that he's here, because that view was amazing. it was a view fit for a god. the sun came out for the first time on our trip, which gave us a phenomenal view of two countries (no, v city jokes dont get old, like i said earlier).

on our way down, we stopped in the gift store. ooo, what to get to remember this oh-so-holy place? i had a tough time deciding, but once i saw it, i knew i had to get it--a vactican city shot glass. HELL YES i bought a shot glass in one of the holiest places on earth. i can't wait to consume some alcohol from that glass. even better, only nuns work in the gift shop (i think you have to be a nun to live in vc), so a nun sold it to me. mmmm sinning is so good sometimes.

after all that popey goodness we were ready for a meal, so we had lunch at our fave italian restaurant (well, we didnt know it was our fave at the time...it was decided a the end of the trip). mmm pizza. conversation flowed easily, no wine necessary. i love getting to know people because i get to know cool things...for example, one of mal's all time favorite movie's is jumanji. good choice, mal.

after that, we went down to the pantheon, which was actually open this time. i'm gonna admit something to you--i wasn't all that impressed. yeah, it's a really big building, but that's it. you even left a big hole in the top, so when it rains, water gets everywhere. lame.

our tummies wanted gelato, so we walked to my second fave gelateria, the one with 240957 flavors. they had a chocolate-peperoncini one! i tried it, but it was gross, so i passed. i went with pistacchio, nutella and blackberry. the nutella was a little bit richer than i expected, but delicious nonetheless. (btw, you may be wondering how, 5 days later, i can still remember my precise gelato combos. it's because i wrote them down on my special sheet of notes. yes, gelato is that important).

okay, this is getting freaking long and dull, so i'll try to leave out dumb details like why i remember the gelato combos. next on our to do list was make it to trevi fountain, which i had been preparing for all day. preparing, nicki? how? well, by thinking of what wishes to make, of course! but, once i got down on the edge with my coins in hand, i was so excited to flip them over my shoulder that i forgot what i wanted to wish for. sometimes i have the attention span of a child.

back at the hostel, after we showered and ate, we asked the front desk what sort of other things we should do in and outside of rome. this is when we met james. he was the hairy, roman guy working the front desk. he was helpful and god was he opinionated...and hilarious. he told us to visit lake bracciano, where he likes to go in the summer to see the girls with the plastic surgery (he made a boob motion on his chest). as he's looking through a list of tourist activities in rome, he mutters "bullshit...that's bullshit" to half of them. "oh, the colosseum? pay 11 euro, walk around for 10 minutes smelling piss and leave. bullshit." he also suggested this cheap but delicious gelato place 5 minutes away on a bus.

on james' advice, we tried to find the gelato place. we got a bit lost and couldn't find the place for about half an hour, but once we did, it was totally worth it, because they piled on the ice cream HIGH and for cheap. i got a crema and berry gelato. crema (like vanilla but a little sweeter) is my second fave gelato flavor...oh, man, i should've gotten a cinnamon/crema gelato. gosh, looks like i'll have to go back.

once we got back to the hostel, we tip toed around our room (of course our roomies were asleep) getting ready for bed. maddy and i did some yoga in the hallway and we all drifted to dreamland, resting up for day four.

the rome blogs: day two

my beer is only half done and i'm on a roll, so i'm gonna do this next one right now. i'm not sure if it's kosher to post two blogs right in a row, but here i go doing it anyhow.

we woke up early day two (luckily, our only rainy day) to meet chris's friend janet by the colosseum. she's studying at uc rome right now and i owe half the greatness of my trip to her expert tour guiding skills. we would have been lost/confused/doing lame things if she weren't there to point us in the right direction and tell us about the neatest roman things. so janet, if you're reading, GRAZIE!

anyway, we bought our roma pass and zoomed past a huge line into the colosseum. this was one of my fave parts of rome because it let me daydream about being in ancient roman society...knowing me, i'd be up in the nosebleed section, where the peasants sat, but whatev. i'd still be at the colosseum.


apres ca...i mean, after that (when i get back, please excuse my franglais...it's become a habit to mumble french words when i don't know what to say), we had lunch. i had a delicious lasagna...mmmm italian food. once we were done, we had one thing on our minds: gelato. pretty much the whole trip, our conversations consisted of three things: figuring out directions, talking about gelato, and talking about christmas. mal, aka mrs. claus, obviously had a lot to do with this. we walked down the street to frigidarium. even though there were only about 16 flavors to choose from, i was overwhelmed. the only thing that consoled me was the fact that we'd be enjoying at least 7 more gelatos (2 times/day), so i'd have plenty of time to try all the flavors. for my first combo, i had classic peanut butter and banana...and ohmigod, i love gelato. from my first bite, i knew i'd be eating too much of the stuff and gaining weight. i reassured myself that we'd be walking a million more miles so i'd be working all the gelato off, but i really didn't need another reason to eat the gelato. god, that stuff was delicious.

we wandered down to the pantheon with our umbrellas in hand and were minorly upset to find that it was closed. but no matter, there were plenty other sights to see and more time to get back to the pantheon tomorrow. so then we walked to the spanish steps, where chris and i drank from the fountain (after we waited in like behind 3 little kids, of course). i'm gonna be really honest with you right now...i have no idea why the spanish steps are famous. in the autumn/winter, when they don't have those flowers on them, they're so ordinary that i wouldn't have been able to tell if they were anything special.

we got back to the colosseum when janet decided she needed to get home to get out of her heels (heels on cobblestone? not for me, thanks), so she left us to roam on our own. we wanted some coffee, so we went into a place called, "coming out." yes, it's a gay bar/café. the waiter was friendly (as were many of the italians we met...maybe it's because their language sounds happy) and we were having a good time chatting with him. he seemed pretty gay, but we didn't think much of it...after all, we are in a place called, "coming out." BUT when i went back to the bathroom, he calls me back to the kitchen and hands me a slip of paper. as i start to open it, he goes, "no no no! my friends and i are going to a club tomorrow night. maybe we can get a cup of coffee. you have my number." wow, thanks, gay sam, but your a boy and i'm not...why are you giving me your number?

hostel allesandro downtown (which always had this fresh, welcoming shit scent wafting down the halls) offered free pasta weeknights at 7pm, so we hurried back to catch that. as we were enjoying our surprisingly yummy pasta, i looked up to see a familiar face sitting next to us. "mike?" i asked. holy geezis, it was mike from budapest, who i met at oktoberfest. he's the guy who blacked out and came to in a moving cab 150 euro poorer! i told maddy, mal and chris about him, and now he's here! small freaking world. we ate dinner and chatted with him, and he ended up joining us for the rest of his time in rome. good times were had by all :-D

after that, we needed (yeah, needed) to get another gelato, so we went to piazza nuovo and found blue ice, a gelateria recommended by some friend. i had my fave combo there--chocolate, cinnamon and cappucino. cinnamon was def my fave flavor, and with the cappucino, it tasted just like starbucks at christmas. mmmmmm.

satisfied by gelato #2, we headed back to the hostel and were greeted by wet bathrooms and poop smell. the ny girls, who were now in their rightful beds in our room, came home hours later at something like 4 am (i dunno, i was sleeping and probably snoring). but it was beginning to feel more like home and...well, now i miss it.

the rome blogs: day one

now that i've got my list of notes of funny rome things in my hand and my beer beside me (yeah, i'm drinking by myself, but really, i'm talking to you, so i'm not an alcoholic), i'm ready to share my roman adventures.

okay, i know i said before that i was gonna do this by category, but i lied. i just tried to do that, and it was awkward sounding because i wrote mostly at random. okay, that's not really different than usual. whatever, i don't have to give you a reason for what i do...this is my blog, not yours.

we (we=mal, maddy, chris, me) left for cdg airport around 230 on halloween and finally got on the rer after a few minor mishaps (we forgot to buy tickets...whoops). luckily i was still wearing my ears and black paint on my face, so people were really nice to us. we arrived at fumicino airport in rome that evening and hopped on the leonardo express without a hitch. we walked down the street to the exquisite hostel alessandro downtown, which we called home for the next five nights. seriously, at the end of the day, i'd be like, "guys, i'm tired, let's go home."

we walked into our room and met our first roommates. they were really friendly and outgoing and really excited to have us...on opposite day. they were these 2 hella awkward guys that didn't speak english very well and didn't seem excited that we came in.

anyway, we were starving because all we'd had on the plane was shitty plane food and free wine (ooo but that wine was so glorious), we asked the front desk where we could eat. they directed us toward a restaurant and told us to hurry because they'd close the kitchen in half an hour. we marched over there and ordered ourselves our first real italian meal. i almost forgot i was still wearing my costume until the waiter made this awkward, slow "rawrrrrrr" noise at me after i ordered. every time he came over after that, he sort of pawed at me like a cat and did that weird "rawrrrrrrr" thing in my ear. lol. after our delish meal, on our way out, the "rawrrrrr" waiter and his friends laughed at/with me some more. but he did give us our drinks for free, so i guess i can't be that mad at him.

exhausted from traveling, we went back to the hostel with the intention of just going to bed. but when we got back, the lights were off and those two awk guys were already sleeping. it was only like 1230 am. none of us have ever stayed in a hostel before, so we didn't know hostel etiquette...can you turn the lights on? should we change in the room or in the bathroom? do the roommates get to complain if we're too loud? we decided to roll our stuff into the hallway and change in the bathroom. as we were all finishing up around probably 1 15 am, we saw three girls wander down the hall..and go straight to our room. problem: there were already 3 people sleeping in there, 4 of us, and 3 going in...and only 8 beds. i'm no math major, but i think that's not enough beds. the girls (who were from new york and turned out to be a riot) went to the front desk to complain. they brought down a desk attendant--don juan--who must have been stoned/on some kind of drugs because he wasn't sane. he walked in the room to confirm that yes, there were not enough beds. one of the guys had gotten up to go to the bathroom, and on his way back into the room, don juan says to him, "you or your friend have to come to reception." it's 1 freaking 30 in the morning, and he wants them to go to reception. yeah, right.

anyway, the ny girls sleep upstairs, and we crawl into our beds. as we finally get settled, the guy sleeping on the bunk under maddy gets out of bed...and he doesn't have pants on. this sends mal and chris into a giggle fit, and their laughs do nothing to help me suppress my own. it was one of those cliché moments...we're all in our rented beds, sleeping on probably dirty sheets in a hostel in europe, and i finally fell asleep with a smile on my face even after the laughter died down.



check out the pictures of our sexy room. though you can't see them here, there were these wonderful blankets with tigers and dolphins and palm trees on them.

j'aime italie

i got home from rome safely (i know you were concerned). instead of making this one really long blog, i'm gonna break it down into related sections: hostel experiences, seeing the sights, eating and traveling...or something along those lines. i put pictures up on fbook for you to see and i wrote captions there. i'm too tired to give you any more interesting stories right now. traveling wears down my body, but lifts my soul. *barf*

i have the secret!

i figured out how to make the parisians smile and laugh: wear a dumb costume! i wore my mouse ears, all black, and painted a nose/whiskers on.

i walked by someone at school and heard him go, "OH YEAH! HALLOWEEN!"

in the metro station, i walked by a girl with a devil stick thingy. she and i both laughed.

i passed by at least 5 people who looked at me and genuinely smiled.

i ran into a group of 20 kids in the metro. two little girls looked up at me and had to hide a laugh.

two construction workers looked at me...i smiled back (duh, i'm wearing a dumb costume, i know that) and then shouted something like "happy halloween!"

THIS DAY IS WONDERFUL.

pre-rome giggles

so i'm looking up rome on wikipedia. this way, when i'm there, i'm not totally ignorant and ask where socrates' house was, and then get mad when someone calls me dumb in italian.

i'm in the "games and activities" section and the first line is this: The youth of Rome had several forms of play and exercise, such jumping, wrestling, boxing, and racing

jumping?!? I LOVE JUMPING. ((sarcasm)) come on, romans, you were smart people...jumping was a fave activity?

know what would be fun and ironical? if someone were to comment on this and go, "actually, nicki, what romans called 'jumping' was actually a highly strategic, complicated, physical game that would be too complex for us today. stupido."

oh, and happy halloween! i've dressed up every halloween of my life, and there's no way that being in paris will stop me. i'm a mouse today. yes, i'll be dressed up for class and on the metro. i'll tell you how that goes.

fat and poor

about a week and a half ago, i budgeted out all my money i have left for the trip. it scared the crap out of me because i have none. no, that's an exaggeration...but i just have a lot less than i'd want.

and then lately, i've not been running/working out as much. i've also started just dipping a knife into nutella and licking it clean. those two things put together have made me "fluffy*"

but you know what? who cares. i've got the rest of my life to get back in shape and become unpoor (yeah, i'm not banking on rich). i've only got 2 months left to be in europe. so here i got, getting fat and spending money, and loving every moment.