Sunday, October 24th

outside of our bungalow 

ROME!!! Wow this city is beautiful! I had a 4 am wakeup call and a taxi to catch at 4:45. Not exactly my prime hours of the day, but it’ll do. My senora got up to make sure I was all ready and help me carry my luggage to the elevator. She is so sweet.

My flight was only 2 hours long. I slept the majority of it although the stupid flight attendants were on the speaker the entire time trying to sell different gadgets. I thought about killing them, but I figured that wouldn’t be the way to start my vaca.

Once in Rome, I had basically no idea how to get to my hostel. I ended up taking a shuttle bus to the city center (20 minutes, 4 euros), a metro ride (20 minutes, 1 euro), and a bus ride (15 minutes, free).  All in all, it took 2 hours from when my plane landed until I got to the hostel. Kinda stinky.

one of the beds

Once at the hostel I tried to check in, but the lady told me I had to wait until noon – just over an hour. So I found a park bench and went through my camera and deleted lots of photos so that I could take more on this trip. I’m trying not to clear my memory card before I go home, so that in case my computer crashes, I still have the pictures somewhere, but I’m getting a little concerned. So far I’ve taken 1,547 pictures and I can take 1,655 more. I’m half way through my trip so this may work, but I’ll be cutting it close!!

So when I finally could check into the room, I did. It’s very small, but cute and clean. We have a private double for the two of us with our own bathroom. The “bungalows” look more like little trailers to me, but it was super cheap, so we can’t complain. All in all I think it’ll be 40 some euros a piece for 3 nights – That’s AMAZING considering we have a private room. What stinks though is that it’s pretty far away from the city center, so we’ll just have to plan our outings well because it’ll be difficult to come back to the room.

waiting on my room

After getting my things settled in, I tried to get a hold of Luke again. Thank goodness he was online this time! We got things all settled and I gave him directions to the hostel. His flight doesn’t get in until 9:45, so I don’t expect him until about midnight.

By this time I was basically starving, so I set off to find the Italian carbs I’ve heard so much about! Since it’s considered the winter season at the hostel (which is why the rooms are so cheap), most of the facilities are running on limited hours. So there isn’t anything open for lunch on site. I crossed the footbridge over to the super market to see what I could find. There was a little shop attached to the supermarket that had a sign for pizza. I was sold. The guy ended up only charging me 2,50 for a slice of pizza and a glass of coke. I definitely want to go back because the pizza was fabulous! J Definitely a good start to the trip.

While over there, I decided to look for some hand soap since there wasn’t any in our room.

beginning of the all
carb diet ;)

After my little lunch escapade, I went back to the room and crashed for a solid 3 hours. I didn’t really want to do much without Luke since I’m sure he’ll want to do the same things tomorrow when he gets here.

When I woke up from my slumber, I grabbed my lap top and headed to the pool area. I put my suit on just in case the hot tub was working. It wasn’t. L And I didn’t realize you have to use the pass code each time to sign on the internet so I couldn’t get online either. Fail.

So I gave up on the internet, and went back to my room and worked on my blog and some homework. Pretty lame vacation, I know – but like I said, I don’t really want to do things without Luke. Besides, after my 3 hour night of sleep, I need the afternoon to catch up.

For dinner I went to the restaurant in the hostel. I felt like a totally loser saying I needed a table for one. At least 3 people came up and asked me if I was all alone. Seriously?? Oh well. Two guys I’d met earlier walking around the hostel came in and asked if they could sit with me. It was nice not to have to eat all alone. They were really sweet. They were 20/21, business majors from the states. They decided to take the semester off from school to travel around!! How cool is that? Anyways, we talked about different places we’ve traveled and compared traveling tips/where to stay/where to go/etc. I ate lasagna and we split a pitcher of water. It was fabulous!

After dinner, I straightened up the room since I’d totally trashed the place! Then I went and sat on a patio outside the restaurant so I could update my blog. Now I suppose I’ll head back to the room and shower up and do some reading for class. I don’t really want to check out the club all on my lonesome! Can’t wait for Lukey to get here!! J