Just Roman About

Yahooo!!! Rhfed (that's goodbye in Czech...actually it's not, but I'm sure that's how they'd spell it.) Oh wait! I found it, goodbye in Czech is "Sbohem" which probably sounds like "ss-bom".

Annie and I had to leave around 10 am to catch our plane to head to the land of wine and pizza. ROME!!!! ROME!! ROME ROME ROME!!! ROMEY ROME ROME! HONEY I'M HOME!!

You guys, I can not express how excited I was. Like I could not sit still or remove the grin from my face. I was finally heading to Italy. Italy, the place where they invented my favorite foods-PIZZA and PASTA. I know for a fact I was going to be eating extremely well the next 4 days :)
The whole airport experience was pretty calm, nothing happened to excite or embarrass us, I did see some people rollerblading through the terminal but other than that, not a lot of happenin's.
When we landed in Italy we had to catch the train to get into the city. We were extremely confused by the ticket booth and none of the italians were much help either. We winged it and bought tickets for two separate trains because the direct train service was more expensive than the train where you transferred. We got to the platform where the service employees told us to run to the train because it would be leaving in 2 minutes. Hokay. I love running with luggage in a foreign place, it's probably my favorite thing to do...right up there with cleaning the toilets. Yep.
We grabbed seats quickly and awkwardly had to squish our luggage between our legs since it was a packed car. I believe I could not feel my foot for the 1st half of the journey and my knees hurt really bad from being weirdly positioned for so long, and to top it off to bigger men decided to plop themselves next to and across from us, it was really cozy. Too cozy.
Annie made me read all the signs to look for where we needed to transfer, that would have been fine except I was sitting backwards and craning my neck was just not the best thing for a girl who is easily nauseated. Oh the blessings of having 20/20 vision. I found the right stop though and we deboarded from the train.

Annie for some reason gets really panicky while traveling which I have stated before, so I had to keep calming her down and reminding her, "it'll be okay. We will get there. Just breathe." I should really take my own advice sometimes.

Got the train. Got to Rome. Got to the hostel (without getting run over). Yahoooo.

Something I learned within 10 min of being in Rome. There are no traffic rules. None. If you wanna cross the street you just do. You don't, "WAIT FOR THE GREEN MAN!" you don't wait for a clearing in traffic because there never will be one. You just eye a driver and go. It's scary and I am glad we survived.

Immediately upon unpacking (which we didn't really do because we had to change rooms the next day) we changed out of our travel clothes into some more suitable attire, I chose a dress with sandals, Annie chose one of my shirts and her own jeans. It was nearly PIZZA time for me so that meant we were going to go find some FOOOOOOOOOD. I almost fell over with excitement.

Annie had been to Rome 5 years ago when she was studying abroad in London. She somehow remembered where a restaurant she had visited was...I have no idea how that is possible but she found it. We ordered bruschetta and pizza and wine. It was scrumptious. I was very happy. After dinner Annie suggested we go and see the Colosseum which was perfect because the sun was setting, the sky was looking rather beautiful and I felt like this would be a perfect photo opportunity!

Once we figured out the metro, we climbed aboard a car and off we went to see the Colosseum. Words cannot express how excited I was to see this landmark. We exited the metro station walked outside AND THERE IT WAS. Sitting all cool like it was just another building, just right in the middle of a busy street. I began laughing like a loon when we were walking around it. Mostly because I was delirious from travel, but also because it is just so OLD. How many people had come and seen this building before me...hundreds upon thousands upon millions. Wow. It was really impressive. I cannot believe I have actually witnessed it in the flesh.

WOWWWWEEEEEE

We wandered around the Roman Forum before deciding to head back to our hostel. Everything was locked up so we couldn't get inside the Forum so we climbed a little hill to this adorable church and I took several more photos. Oh and cats. Lots of Roman cats just hanging around. Heavennnnnnn.

This arch is one of four remaining arch's in Ancient Rome. Really old.

My favorite thing to do when I travel is to wander the streets and little back alley ways. It's part of the adventure and honestly I feel like I get more out of the city when I wander.

I have no idea what this building is but I know it's really old and it's probably something important. I just liked the lighting of how this shot. COOL.

So romantic.

Just another pretty street in Rome.

We had a goal with our wandering this time, and that goal was: gelato.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD GELATO LIKE ACTUAL GELATO FROM ITALY. IT IS BEYOND ANYTHING I HAVE EVER TASTED. AND ITS SCRUMPTIOUS AND I AM SO GLAD WE LOCATED A SHOP AND THAT THOSE KINDS OF SPECIAL TREATS EXIST IN THIS WORLD. Wow.
Anyways.....
We hit the hay rather quickly after returning to the hostel. Our room was stuffy. The city was humid and basically I did not sleep very much. But hey, when in Rome.