Rome Days 1 & 2

Alright, last time in our adventures together, I left off at a bad night's sleep on the train. That combined with all the hiking from the previous few days resulted in one very tired Steven during that day. All I really wanted to do was find a place to sit down and read for a while. I started wandering around with the map I had gotten from the hostel and I couldn't find a park bench anywhere! I ended up walking all the way to the colosseum where finally I was able to buy an overpriced panini and just park it for a while. It was really crowded at the colosseum, so there were people selling all kinds of little trinkets that nobody needs but everybody thinks are cool. I tried to read, but it was really hot and I was really tired, so I took a nap for about a half hour while I was sitting on the grass. I woke up to the sound of a huge pine cone that had fallen from the tree above me. I actually woke up a few seconds earlier than when it hit the ground, but I saw something huge falling from the sky and I thought it was a huge bird turd. I tried to get out of the way of the splash, but it didn't make a sound like a bird turd. It sounded like... a pinecone. Anyway, some girls got really freaked out because it landed really close to them. I kind of sat up for a while and read some more. 20 minutes later, I saw this little kid come over and pick up the huge pine cone and he got a look of accomplishment as he walked away with his new prize. Anyway, afterward, I made my way around the Circus Maximus, which is a huge oval shaped track where they used to do chariot races. I decided I wanted to go look at the river, because I remembered how peaceful it was by the river in Switzerland and how the water was really blue. I got to the river in Rome, and it was pretty much a dump. It was really brown, and when I went down next to it, there was nothing there except for some "houses" of homeless people and a bunch of trash. Not very impressive after what I had come to expect rivers to look like. After that I went back to the hostel to actually check in and get my room. I got there, and it was actually pretty nice. There was a sink in the room, and my bed was pretty comfortable. Also, I think someone left their plug convertor in the room, so I think I'm going to snag it before I leave because I left mine in Paris. So after checking in and seeing the hostel, I took my laundry to the laundromat and went somewhere to relax. This time I found a park bench about 5 minutes from the hostel. After sitting there for about 15 minutes a guy came up and asked if he could sit next to me. I said he could, and he started a conversation. He couldn't speak English very well, but he was very nice, and he tried. His name was Omar and he was from Iraq. He was very friendly, and he wanted to share everything he could with me... including his cigarettes. I had never tried one, so I decided to accept his offer. Just kidding (don't worry mom, I didn't smoke). I politely declined, but everything he took out, he offered me one from tissues to gum sticks. I think the middle east is more of a sharing culture than America. Anyway, showed me his passport, and I showed him mine. From that, he got that my name was Horne, and he assumed that was my first name. So whenever he started talking about something, he always said, "So Horne..." It was pretty amusing. At the end of our conversation, he asked for my email address, and I gave him one of my McDermott cards. I'm looking forward to a nice email from him, but whether or not I'll be able to understand it is a different story. After that, I had some really good tortellini and went back to the hostel for the night.

The next day, I felt much better, but it was drizzling slightly all day. I had wanted to go to the supermarket to get some cereal for breakfast, but everything was closed. It was really confusing to me because I thought everything would have been open on Monday. I walked into the city, and there was a parade going on. I figured it must have been some holiday there. It turned out that it was Italy's Independence Day. I thought it was pretty cool that I happened to be in Rome on the Italian Independence Day. Anyway, there was a bunch of soldiers everywhere and I saw a procession of jets fly across the sky with orange smoke coming out the back. It was pretty cool. Because of this, most things had shut down early, but I went and looked at a bunch of things including St. Mary's Basillica, the Repubblica, the Castel di St. Angelo, the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain (which was really cool), and the Piazza del Popolo which had a great view from up high of most of the city. After a long day of walking, I bought some gelato (italian ice cream - to die for... I've had 18 scoops so far this trip) and some pizza. I also bought my overnight train ticket to Austria for tomorrow. I leave at 7:10 pm and get to Vienna (or Wien as the Austrians call it) at around 8:15 am. Hopefully it will be better than my last overnight train trip. Today was a trip to the Vatican, but I'll post more about that tomorrow. Talk to you later!