We're back! We landed at Dulles International last night around 7:15 after a bit of a delay in New York. I guess it's what you would call "bitter-sweet." We had such a great time in Europe, and want to go back as soon as we can, but it was also nice to see some familiar faces and not have to live out of a backpack any more.
In the next week I plan on writing a detailed account of our entire trip. Day 1 to day 15 should be covered very throroughly. I probably won't put it up here as a blog post, unless a bunch of you want me to. As of now I plan on just writing it as a word document and e-mailing it to the family, and the main purpose is to keep it for my records. My dad's side of the family has a bit of a tradition of keeping journals (and now blogs) when they travel, and it's always interesting to go back 20 years after the fact and read about all the fond memories.
So, that's about it for now with the travel blog.
However, I am enjoying this whole blogging thing. And, from what I can tell, everybody else seems to be enjoying as well. So, I think I'm going to start another little sports blog just to mess around with and talk about various sports topics. I have no idea if anybody will actually read it or not, but I'm gonna try it out. It's not going to be anything too extensive...maybe 3 posts a week for a while and see how it goes from there.
I'll provide a link to the sports blog on facebook once I get it up and running, and if anybody wants that detailed account of the trip (other than my family, I know you guys do) please let me know.
Welp, see ya later!
Mind the gap,
Mark
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Old Stuff is Cool
So, as most of you know, I tend to procrastinate a bit. Obviously, I didn't write anything yesterday on the 6 to 8 hours of plane and train rides that I had. I will write a bit about what we did today, and after I get done with that I'll get on Meg's computer and post some more of our pictures from Sorrento, Capri, and today.
So, today I started out arguing with Marriott (it all got resolved by this evening though, so it's all good). After that we got on our hour long subway ride (we made sure to mind the gap) to St. Paul's Cathedral. You may remember this name from the first time we were here. We actually toured around the outside last time, but we were recommended by some cool old dude on the plane last night to go in.
It was welllll worth it. They had a very modern guided tour on i-touches that led you all around the cathedral. We went every where and listened to every section we could about all of the history...it was quite enjoyable. We also made our way up some 600 stairs to the very top of the famous dome on St. Paul's Cathedral, and got some great pictures from up there. This was definitely one of my top 5 favorite things we did on the trip.
After that we walked outside and saw a policeman and a policewoman on horses. So, we went over and Megan started up a long conversation with the lady cop about all kinds of horse stuff (it sounded cool, but I understand Italian better then what they were saying). What I did notice, when the horse wasn't trying to bite me, was the other police officers standing beside the mounted officers. They were literally looking for tourists that seemed lost and asking if they needed directions around the city. If that wasn't enough, they also had about 15 cases of water in their van, and were handing them out to the tourists as the walked by. I'm not sure if this happens regularly, or if it was a one time thing, either way it was really cool to see.
After that we got back on the underground (we made sure to mind the gap, again) to get to the British Museum. It was cool. We got to see the actual Rosetta Stone, which had a lot of stuff on it I didn't understand. I'm not sure how you can learn like 15 different languages from it (I know I'm funny, no need for compliments later). Other then that though, nothing really stood out. Basically, it was okay, but nothing special.
We then went to an "English Pub." I put it in parenthesis because Megan and I have now been to 4 different "English Pubs" in London that were all quite a long distance apart, and they all had the same menu. I'm not sure why...I'm assuming they have the same owner, but the one we ate at today was probably 25 miles away from one of the ones we ate at last time with the same menu. They all have different names, and different historical plaques hanging outside telling the history of the pub. Basically, they all seem like authentic English Pub's from the outside, but then when you walk in they have a very similar beer selection and the exact same Menu. Anyway, we ate some good fish and chips and left it at that.
After visiting a couple of tourist shops we got back on the underground (carefully minding the gap, of course) and sat for about an hour in a car that was approximately 1,394,197 degrees...Celsius.
We then hopped on a bus back to the Marriott. We are now getting ready to grab our last dinner (tear) in Europe, and pack a bit before we head to bed. We'll then catch our flight early tomorrow morning and head back towards Amurica.
I'll save the "points of interest" section for a later date.
Cheers,
Mark
So, today I started out arguing with Marriott (it all got resolved by this evening though, so it's all good). After that we got on our hour long subway ride (we made sure to mind the gap) to St. Paul's Cathedral. You may remember this name from the first time we were here. We actually toured around the outside last time, but we were recommended by some cool old dude on the plane last night to go in.
It was welllll worth it. They had a very modern guided tour on i-touches that led you all around the cathedral. We went every where and listened to every section we could about all of the history...it was quite enjoyable. We also made our way up some 600 stairs to the very top of the famous dome on St. Paul's Cathedral, and got some great pictures from up there. This was definitely one of my top 5 favorite things we did on the trip.
After that we walked outside and saw a policeman and a policewoman on horses. So, we went over and Megan started up a long conversation with the lady cop about all kinds of horse stuff (it sounded cool, but I understand Italian better then what they were saying). What I did notice, when the horse wasn't trying to bite me, was the other police officers standing beside the mounted officers. They were literally looking for tourists that seemed lost and asking if they needed directions around the city. If that wasn't enough, they also had about 15 cases of water in their van, and were handing them out to the tourists as the walked by. I'm not sure if this happens regularly, or if it was a one time thing, either way it was really cool to see.
After that we got back on the underground (we made sure to mind the gap, again) to get to the British Museum. It was cool. We got to see the actual Rosetta Stone, which had a lot of stuff on it I didn't understand. I'm not sure how you can learn like 15 different languages from it (I know I'm funny, no need for compliments later). Other then that though, nothing really stood out. Basically, it was okay, but nothing special.
We then went to an "English Pub." I put it in parenthesis because Megan and I have now been to 4 different "English Pubs" in London that were all quite a long distance apart, and they all had the same menu. I'm not sure why...I'm assuming they have the same owner, but the one we ate at today was probably 25 miles away from one of the ones we ate at last time with the same menu. They all have different names, and different historical plaques hanging outside telling the history of the pub. Basically, they all seem like authentic English Pub's from the outside, but then when you walk in they have a very similar beer selection and the exact same Menu. Anyway, we ate some good fish and chips and left it at that.
After visiting a couple of tourist shops we got back on the underground (carefully minding the gap, of course) and sat for about an hour in a car that was approximately 1,394,197 degrees...Celsius.
We then hopped on a bus back to the Marriott. We are now getting ready to grab our last dinner (tear) in Europe, and pack a bit before we head to bed. We'll then catch our flight early tomorrow morning and head back towards Amurica.
I'll save the "points of interest" section for a later date.
Cheers,
Mark
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
We're not dead, I promise.
Hey Everybody!
Since the last time I posted we’ve been to Venice, Napoli, Sorrento, and Capri. That’s about all you’re going to get for now because we have to pay for wi-fi here, and we have a lot of packing/planning to do tonight. Yeah, there’s only 2 ½ days left and we still don’t have it completely planned out.
I will however continue my points of interest section quickly…
1) Capri is beautiful. Everybody needs to do a day trip like we did.
2) We thought Sorrento had the craziest streets in the world…until we got to Capri. Capri had straight U-turns all the way up the side of a cliff...not the side of a mountain…the side of a cliff. Not to mention the roads were about 7 feet wide and 2 full size buses were passing at the same time…on the side of a cliff.
3) We’ve lived in a trailer for the past 2 days.
4) Dudes wear half speedo, half thong bathing suits here. Gross.
5) Weiner dogs are the dog of choice in Venice (I hope somebody from the Cooper family is reading).
6) Don’t ever get directly off a train in Venice and say (I must admit, I said it), “Ohh, water! I want to eat on the water…let’s get something to eat on the water, 12 feet from the only place tourists come to Venice!” It will cost you 50 Euro (~$75) for an 8 inch pizza, a small bowl of clams/mussels, and 2 waters.
7) I’ll give you my entire life savings of $24 if you can map your walk from one end of Venice to the other, and not make a wrong turn while getting there.
8) You can get lemons the size of a large cantaloupe in Sorrento. Not exaggerating at all.
9) If you hit the back roads of Italy you can find bottles of wine for 1 Euro. We’re not cheap though, so we sprung for the 3 Euro bottle instead.
10) We live in a trailer.
Hope you’re all doing well in your homes that are connected to the ground, have air conditioning, and don’t have approximately 400 mosquitoes in them.
…I’m just kidding, we’re having the time of our lives! We wouldn’t trade any of this (including the trailer) for the world!
I’ll be writing my detailed blogs about each place we visited tomorrow on our trains/plane back to London.
Mind the gap,
Mark
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Austrailians are cool
Last night when we got back to the room we met our suite mates for the night. They were 4 Australians (2 guys and 2 girls) who were traveling for 10 months straight. Apparently that's pretty common practice in Australia after you graduate college. Anyway, we immediately hit it off and enjoyed a few drinks together and talked for a couple hours about the differences of Australia and America...it was really cool.
Then today we got up kind of late and got a quick lunch, but my stomach was hurting so we went back to the hostel for a few hours to take some stomach meds and hopefully start feeling better. I did around 5...so that's when we started touring Florence. It actually worked out really well because the city is fairly small (compared to London and Rome) so we were able to walk to everything we wanted to see, eat dinner, and make it back to the hostel by 10. I guess we're also able to do that because we don't actually go in to any of the places we're at for the most part. It's not that we don't want to, but when you only have a day to tour an entire city you have to move pretty quickly if you want to see everything.
My favorite part of it was as the sun was setting we went up to "Piazzale Michelangelo," which is on a big hill that overlooks the city. The view was awesome, and it was nice to just relax and take in the entire city while the sun was setting. I'll try to post the pictures on here, but sometimes it's hard to get them on here. Either way I should get some of them up on Facebook, so check there tonight or tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning we catch a train at 10:30 for Venice. We arrive at 12:30 and have exactly 11 hours to see everything we can in Venice, because the plan from there is to catch a night train down to the Amalfi coast that leaves tomorrow night at 11:30.
Interesting points from today:
-Footlocker is another company (like Pringles) who seems to be more popular over here then they are in the US. On our 5 hour journey today we saw 3 different Footlocker stores.
-Everybody loves McDonalds. In every city we've been to there have been McDonald's everywhere and lines bursting out of every one of their doors.
-German Shepherds are the dog of choice over here. I'm not sure if it's for personal protection or what, but it seems like about 50% of the dogs we see are big ol German Shepherds.
-Sodas are expensive over here. I haven't seen a sprite yet for under 2.50 Euro's...and when I order a sprite when we're out eating they're usually 3 Euro's a piece and they bring it to you in a can. Haven't seen fountain drinks here yet, which is kind of weird to me.
-The pizza is good here, but the biggest improvement in food is their ice cream or "gelato" as they call it. Megan and I have had it a couple times, and it is wayyyyyy better then anything in America. I got peach flavored tonight, and it tasted like I was eating a peach. Megan had some berry blend, and there were little bits of actual berries in the ice cream. It was awesome.
-We've seen like 2 SUV's the whole time we've been here. The most popular form of transportation is mopeds. It's actually pretty funny to see all the different types of people driving them (ladies in dresses and heels, 2 guys practically sitting in each others laps to fit on it together, people holding dogs, etc.). If they aren't driving a moped then they definitely have a little tiny car that gets really good gas mileage.
Well, that's about all I have for ya. Hope everybody's enjoying it, and once again, I'm not going to take the time to proof-read it...so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
Ciao,
Mark
Then today we got up kind of late and got a quick lunch, but my stomach was hurting so we went back to the hostel for a few hours to take some stomach meds and hopefully start feeling better. I did around 5...so that's when we started touring Florence. It actually worked out really well because the city is fairly small (compared to London and Rome) so we were able to walk to everything we wanted to see, eat dinner, and make it back to the hostel by 10. I guess we're also able to do that because we don't actually go in to any of the places we're at for the most part. It's not that we don't want to, but when you only have a day to tour an entire city you have to move pretty quickly if you want to see everything.
My favorite part of it was as the sun was setting we went up to "Piazzale Michelangelo," which is on a big hill that overlooks the city. The view was awesome, and it was nice to just relax and take in the entire city while the sun was setting. I'll try to post the pictures on here, but sometimes it's hard to get them on here. Either way I should get some of them up on Facebook, so check there tonight or tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning we catch a train at 10:30 for Venice. We arrive at 12:30 and have exactly 11 hours to see everything we can in Venice, because the plan from there is to catch a night train down to the Amalfi coast that leaves tomorrow night at 11:30.
Interesting points from today:
-Footlocker is another company (like Pringles) who seems to be more popular over here then they are in the US. On our 5 hour journey today we saw 3 different Footlocker stores.
-Everybody loves McDonalds. In every city we've been to there have been McDonald's everywhere and lines bursting out of every one of their doors.
-German Shepherds are the dog of choice over here. I'm not sure if it's for personal protection or what, but it seems like about 50% of the dogs we see are big ol German Shepherds.
-Sodas are expensive over here. I haven't seen a sprite yet for under 2.50 Euro's...and when I order a sprite when we're out eating they're usually 3 Euro's a piece and they bring it to you in a can. Haven't seen fountain drinks here yet, which is kind of weird to me.
-The pizza is good here, but the biggest improvement in food is their ice cream or "gelato" as they call it. Megan and I have had it a couple times, and it is wayyyyyy better then anything in America. I got peach flavored tonight, and it tasted like I was eating a peach. Megan had some berry blend, and there were little bits of actual berries in the ice cream. It was awesome.
-We've seen like 2 SUV's the whole time we've been here. The most popular form of transportation is mopeds. It's actually pretty funny to see all the different types of people driving them (ladies in dresses and heels, 2 guys practically sitting in each others laps to fit on it together, people holding dogs, etc.). If they aren't driving a moped then they definitely have a little tiny car that gets really good gas mileage.
Well, that's about all I have for ya. Hope everybody's enjoying it, and once again, I'm not going to take the time to proof-read it...so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
Ciao,
Mark
Friday, June 24, 2011
Plus Ferenzi!
I promise I'm not just blogging the whole day away, but we're sitting up at the terrace bar enjoying a glass of wine and making plans for tomorrow, so I thought I would take a quick second and tell you about our awesome hostel.
Plus Florence is where it's at. It's a hostel designed for backpackers on a budget, but they have all kinds of perks and accommodations that we just never saw coming. I mentioned already that we're out on their rooftop terrace bar, which is huge and has awesome 360 degree views of Florence, and above us is another area that's even higher up that's used for sun bathing, firework viewing (apparently that happens fairly frequently here), and even star gazing if you so choose.
They also offer all kinds of services for cheap...we're considering doing a 5 hour self-guided bike tour with an audio guide...so you bike to a bunch of different locations in and around the city, stop, and listen to a bit of history about what you're viewing. All of this only costs 8 Euro. Tonight we've got reservations for an open buffet with fish, pasta, bruschetta, and a free glass of wine for 8 Euro/person. After all the money we've spent the last 2 days in Rome, this is exactly what we were looking for.
They also have the "Basement Club" which is local club that is located in the basement of the hostel that is open from 11PM to 3AM every night. They have pool tables, dart boards, and and assortment of other bar-type video games.
If you walk past the club you enter the heated indoor swimming pool they have, yeah--indoor heated swimming pool. If you walk past the pool you can enjoy your choice of sauna or steam room as well. All of this just blew us away, especially considering we're only paying 44 Euro per night to stay here.
Anyway, just thought I would let everybody know how awesome this place was.
As for what we did today--not a whole lot. We walked around for about an hour and stopped for 20 minutes at a local park. It was quite relaxing to just sit down and watch the big fountain they had in the middle of the park for a while.
I'll continue my trend from last night and list some things that you might want to know, or just find interesting...
-Everybody here drinks in public. When we were walking around the streets and in the park today it seemed like every person we passed had a beer or a little plastic cup with wine in it. It's legal to drink in public until 2AM.
-Everybody told me Paris was expensive, but Rome about broke the bank account for us the last 2 days. It was a lot of fun, but super expensive.
-We still celebrate every time we see a street sign or a map in a subway/train station. Speaking of which, we missed one train this morning, and almost missed another one 30 minutes later because there were about 10 trains sitting at the station with absolutely no way of knowing where they were going or when they were leaving.
-Bring comfy shoes if you come to tour Europe. I'd say a conservative estimate is that we've averaged about 8 or 9 miles walking per day. Some are more, we've had at least 2 days where we've probably walked some where around 12. Some are less, today was an "easy day" because we've probably only walked 5 or 6 miles.
-Nike Dry Fit (sorry, still can't support under armour...but it's the same thing, haha) clothing will come in handy. Especially if you sweat as much as I do...cotton just doesn't cut it when you're walking long distances, carrying luggage, and trying not to lose 7 pounds in straight water weight.
Well gang, I'm gonna enjoy this view and continue planning tomorrow with Megan out here on the terrace. Hope you've enjoyed the post!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
Plus Florence is where it's at. It's a hostel designed for backpackers on a budget, but they have all kinds of perks and accommodations that we just never saw coming. I mentioned already that we're out on their rooftop terrace bar, which is huge and has awesome 360 degree views of Florence, and above us is another area that's even higher up that's used for sun bathing, firework viewing (apparently that happens fairly frequently here), and even star gazing if you so choose.
They also offer all kinds of services for cheap...we're considering doing a 5 hour self-guided bike tour with an audio guide...so you bike to a bunch of different locations in and around the city, stop, and listen to a bit of history about what you're viewing. All of this only costs 8 Euro. Tonight we've got reservations for an open buffet with fish, pasta, bruschetta, and a free glass of wine for 8 Euro/person. After all the money we've spent the last 2 days in Rome, this is exactly what we were looking for.
They also have the "Basement Club" which is local club that is located in the basement of the hostel that is open from 11PM to 3AM every night. They have pool tables, dart boards, and and assortment of other bar-type video games.
If you walk past the club you enter the heated indoor swimming pool they have, yeah--indoor heated swimming pool. If you walk past the pool you can enjoy your choice of sauna or steam room as well. All of this just blew us away, especially considering we're only paying 44 Euro per night to stay here.
Anyway, just thought I would let everybody know how awesome this place was.
As for what we did today--not a whole lot. We walked around for about an hour and stopped for 20 minutes at a local park. It was quite relaxing to just sit down and watch the big fountain they had in the middle of the park for a while.
I'll continue my trend from last night and list some things that you might want to know, or just find interesting...
-Everybody here drinks in public. When we were walking around the streets and in the park today it seemed like every person we passed had a beer or a little plastic cup with wine in it. It's legal to drink in public until 2AM.
-Everybody told me Paris was expensive, but Rome about broke the bank account for us the last 2 days. It was a lot of fun, but super expensive.
-We still celebrate every time we see a street sign or a map in a subway/train station. Speaking of which, we missed one train this morning, and almost missed another one 30 minutes later because there were about 10 trains sitting at the station with absolutely no way of knowing where they were going or when they were leaving.
-Bring comfy shoes if you come to tour Europe. I'd say a conservative estimate is that we've averaged about 8 or 9 miles walking per day. Some are more, we've had at least 2 days where we've probably walked some where around 12. Some are less, today was an "easy day" because we've probably only walked 5 or 6 miles.
-Nike Dry Fit (sorry, still can't support under armour...but it's the same thing, haha) clothing will come in handy. Especially if you sweat as much as I do...cotton just doesn't cut it when you're walking long distances, carrying luggage, and trying not to lose 7 pounds in straight water weight.
Well gang, I'm gonna enjoy this view and continue planning tomorrow with Megan out here on the terrace. Hope you've enjoyed the post!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
Florence!
Hello, again!
We just got to Florence and checked into our hostel. This is the first time we're actually in a true hostel setting. There will be 4 other people in the room with us tonight.
I guess we came on a good night, because this hostel's "birthday" is today (it's 4 years old) so they're having a big party. Also, there are fireworks about a mile from the hostel, and they have a great roof-top terrace type thing to watch them from. Once again, life is good!
We just had a delicious and nutritious lunch from a very fancy vending machine at the train station...so first thing on the list here is to find a good place for an early dinner while we explore the city a bit. This is also when we'll formulate our game plan for all of tomorrow's sightseeing activities.
Welp, we're off to wander this city aimlessly for a while.
Mind The Gap,
Mark
P.S.- Megan is feeling much better today, so she's got that going for her...which is nice.
We just got to Florence and checked into our hostel. This is the first time we're actually in a true hostel setting. There will be 4 other people in the room with us tonight.
I guess we came on a good night, because this hostel's "birthday" is today (it's 4 years old) so they're having a big party. Also, there are fireworks about a mile from the hostel, and they have a great roof-top terrace type thing to watch them from. Once again, life is good!
We just had a delicious and nutritious lunch from a very fancy vending machine at the train station...so first thing on the list here is to find a good place for an early dinner while we explore the city a bit. This is also when we'll formulate our game plan for all of tomorrow's sightseeing activities.
Welp, we're off to wander this city aimlessly for a while.
Mind The Gap,
Mark
P.S.- Megan is feeling much better today, so she's got that going for her...which is nice.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wine makes everything feel Fine!
Bonjouno!
We planned on waking at about 9 this morning to start exploring Rome. Of course we both woke up around 11 and had to start from there.
We started out by going to a bar right beside the Colliseo and having a panini and sprite (okay, Megan had a panini and a sprite...I had 2 panini's and 3 sprite's. You get the picture, though)
After that we went to the Colliseo and took a audio tour. This worked out perfectly for us because we got to do our own thing and at the same time get a lot of information on what we were looking at. As I mentioned yesterday, thinking about the events that took place at the Colliseo thousands of years ago just blows my mind. To say I was a little giddy, and in complete awe at the same time is an understatement. I felt like I was walking into an NFL game...except when people saw what I did thousands of years ago, the winner lived, and the loser died.
After that we hopped on the subway to get to the Vatican. I'm telling you though, they hate subway maps more then they hate street signs here in Rome. We wandered around aimlessly for about 20 minutes before just guessing a line. Once we got to the platform they had a map there. Seems like the most logical place, right?
Anyway, we got to the Vatican and were immediately stopped by a promoter for a tourist group. This was the best thing that could have ever happened to us--mainly because there was a really long line to get in and we showed up about 20 minutes before they stopped letting guests in.
We ended up with a really knowledgeable tour guide who was raised in California, and has lived in Italy for over 15 years studying European art. It was good because we could understand him, and it was even better because of all his knowledge of all the sculptures, paintings, and the overall layout of the Vatican.
After that we guessed a subway line and made our way to the "Fontana de Trevi" or the "Trevi Fountain" for those of you who don't speak Romanese as good as I do. It was very pretty, but once again there were no signs (go figure), so we took a couple pictures and headed on to dinner.
We ate at an authentic Italia restaurante, and I spoke perfect (terrible) Spanish to the waitress most of the night. It was very good though--we sat outside at this nice little Italiano restaurante on an old cobblestone road and enjoyed some pizza, pasta, and wine.
...I'll take a second to tell you how the title of this post got started. After we got to the restaurante Megan was talking about how much better her sinus infection felt. This occurred after a couple of glasses of wine, and you all know how funny I am...(figure it out, and if you don't I'm not sure we can be friends anymore).
Anyhow, after that we got a bit of Gelato (Megan) and a Peroni (myself) and guessed a subway line to make it back to our awesome hotel.
Now we're sitting on our terrace enjoying a 5 Euro bottle of wine that tastes like a $50 bottle of wine in Amurica.
Just a couple of side notes from Rome:
1) If you still have your student ID and you're under the age of 26...bring your student ID.
2) Pringles are what you eat in Europe. I saw Pringles vending machines in London and Dublin bars...and then in Rome I saw street vendors with massive amounts of Pringles...which made me realize how much European's love Pringles.
3) Apparently people over here hate baseball...I was in Rome and asked to check the Braves score...and I got the response, "Oh, you like the sissy sport then, do ya?"...so for all you "futbol" fans, life is good
4) After that we saw a lot...Life is good!
Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys it! Bonjourno!
We planned on waking at about 9 this morning to start exploring Rome. Of course we both woke up around 11 and had to start from there.
We started out by going to a bar right beside the Colliseo and having a panini and sprite (okay, Megan had a panini and a sprite...I had 2 panini's and 3 sprite's. You get the picture, though)
After that we went to the Colliseo and took a audio tour. This worked out perfectly for us because we got to do our own thing and at the same time get a lot of information on what we were looking at. As I mentioned yesterday, thinking about the events that took place at the Colliseo thousands of years ago just blows my mind. To say I was a little giddy, and in complete awe at the same time is an understatement. I felt like I was walking into an NFL game...except when people saw what I did thousands of years ago, the winner lived, and the loser died.
After that we hopped on the subway to get to the Vatican. I'm telling you though, they hate subway maps more then they hate street signs here in Rome. We wandered around aimlessly for about 20 minutes before just guessing a line. Once we got to the platform they had a map there. Seems like the most logical place, right?
Anyway, we got to the Vatican and were immediately stopped by a promoter for a tourist group. This was the best thing that could have ever happened to us--mainly because there was a really long line to get in and we showed up about 20 minutes before they stopped letting guests in.
We ended up with a really knowledgeable tour guide who was raised in California, and has lived in Italy for over 15 years studying European art. It was good because we could understand him, and it was even better because of all his knowledge of all the sculptures, paintings, and the overall layout of the Vatican.
After that we guessed a subway line and made our way to the "Fontana de Trevi" or the "Trevi Fountain" for those of you who don't speak Romanese as good as I do. It was very pretty, but once again there were no signs (go figure), so we took a couple pictures and headed on to dinner.
We ate at an authentic Italia restaurante, and I spoke perfect (terrible) Spanish to the waitress most of the night. It was very good though--we sat outside at this nice little Italiano restaurante on an old cobblestone road and enjoyed some pizza, pasta, and wine.
...I'll take a second to tell you how the title of this post got started. After we got to the restaurante Megan was talking about how much better her sinus infection felt. This occurred after a couple of glasses of wine, and you all know how funny I am...(figure it out, and if you don't I'm not sure we can be friends anymore).
Anyhow, after that we got a bit of Gelato (Megan) and a Peroni (myself) and guessed a subway line to make it back to our awesome hotel.
Now we're sitting on our terrace enjoying a 5 Euro bottle of wine that tastes like a $50 bottle of wine in Amurica.
Just a couple of side notes from Rome:
1) If you still have your student ID and you're under the age of 26...bring your student ID.
2) Pringles are what you eat in Europe. I saw Pringles vending machines in London and Dublin bars...and then in Rome I saw street vendors with massive amounts of Pringles...which made me realize how much European's love Pringles.
3) Apparently people over here hate baseball...I was in Rome and asked to check the Braves score...and I got the response, "Oh, you like the sissy sport then, do ya?"...so for all you "futbol" fans, life is good
4) After that we saw a lot...Life is good!
Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys it! Bonjourno!
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