Oh geeze... I know I called this correctly when I started up this whole blog thing:/ I dont know where time is going! I really dont. These weeks are flying by. So anyways, last week...good grief, I really should be blogging more cause I cant even remember what happened. I guess last week was Valentines, which was nice. I wish I was on the same continent as my Valentine, but soon enough I suppose:) We made several dinners, and didnt really do anything super out of the ordinary that I can remember. And then over the weekend, we went to Rome, which I do remember so I can elaborate a little on that:)We woke up early on Friday and caught a train out of Florence. Before our train we went to McDonalds, I know I know. How could we? It had to be done:) A cappuccino and a brioche for 1.90? That is the greatest price Ive seen thus far. And you know what? It wasnt the worst cappuccino Ive had since Ive been here. Then we ran accross the street and bought our tickets. Its so simple here. You just punch in the time you want to leave, and it prints your ticket, and then the ticket is good for pretty much any trip that is the same price, as long as you validate it before you get on the train. Theres a good story that goes along with the ticket validation, but well get to that later:) So then we got to Rome like 4 hours later. And Shelby, Madisons friend who is studying there, picked us up and we went to her apartment. On the way we ate our first Suppli, a traditional Roman dish, basically a friend all of rice with cheese and red sauce, only the most delicious and fattening thing youll ever eat. Shelby studied in Rome for a semester last year as well, so she knows a lot about the area. She took us around on our own little tour, we saw the Pantheon, The Four Rivers fountain, Vittorio Emanuele (typewriter), Roman Forum, St. Peters, and the Trevi Fountain. The typewriter is a massive white building in the middle of Rome, that the Romans call the typewriter because its so big and clunky in the middle of everything. It also isnt ancient like the other ruins, it was finished in the 1930's so its just kind of out of place. But nevertheless, pretty sweet. So after that busy day, we got a little bit of sleep and got up the next morning and went to the Vatican Museum. Holy Cow. So many tourists. Have I mentioned how badly I HATE tourists. I dont know if its just me, but I have this amazing skill. I can look down, at my phone, at the cobblestone, and still see whats in front of me you know what Im talking about? Peripheral vision. LOOK WHERE YOURE GOING YOU RIDICULOUS ASIANS!!! Oh ive never been so frustrated with my own species. So Sally and I pushed and shoved, litterally, I was shoving people to get through and see what I wanted. Which included the Sistine Chapel, twice:) Yes twice because the Vatican Museum is like Ikea. They make you walk through everything before you can see the Sistine chapel and whatever is before it.
After the museum, which took a while. We got the most incredible gelato. Three flavors, on a huge cone with whipped cream. For two Euro!! I got coconut and coffee and nutella flavors. So delicious. While we were sitting on the corner eating our gelato. We watched a local drive up and squeeze his tiny car into a tiny spot and squeeze out of his car and get the same gelato that we got and then drive away. For a local to brave the traffic and park and get gelato and go home? Thats a sign. Get on a plane. Eat this gelato.
That night we made dinner, well Shelby made dinner:) Risotto with veggies and chicken and sausage. Sooo good:) The next morning Sally and I went to St. Peters in attempt to go in, however. It was Sunday. Why did I not think of that? On the plus side, we got to see the end of the Sunday service and....drum roll...see the Pope!!!! He blessed us and the other 2 million people squished in the square. It was pretty awesome. So then we headed to the train station, left in plenty of time to catch a bus to the train station. Ps if you ever buy a bus ticket or metro ticket, and put your money in the machine and then nothing happens, check the slot where the money would be spit back out if there was something wrong. People put cigarette butts in the slot so that it catches the bill and confuses me so that I leave thinking the machine is broken. And the bums that rig that, gain the 10 euro bill that I slid in. Luckily Shelby caught it:)
So anyways the bus took forever, we arrived at the train station with literally 7 minutes to purchase our tickets and get on the train. We are running. Sprinting, we buy all of the tickets and run through the crowds to our train, which of course, is the farthest possible point away from the train station entrance. Great. Were sprinting, pushing more ridiculous people. Crying, cursing, laughing. Long store short, we miss the train. Awesome. However, and heres that story I was talking about earlier. We were in such a rush that we didnt even remember that we needed to validate our ticket. If we had gotten on the train without the ticket validated, we each would have had to pay a 60 euro fine. So it was such a blessing in disguise that we missed the train:) We wasted some time, went to McDonalds and ate a Baci McFlurry. Delicious.
We made it back to Florence in one piece. Its so funny how much I miss Florence when were away. Rome was great, it was beautiful but it felt like such a big city. Florence is more quaint and lovely:)
So now, good grief Wednesday is already almost over. We leave for Paris tomorrow. I feel like such a little traveler:)
Last night, I made a lasagna for our weekly group dinner:) It was pretty good, I dont wanna toot my own horn but it was pretty dang tasty. There was none left in the pan so Ill take that as a good sign:)
So anyways, I have to go to class now. I dont want to go to Creative Writing. Ok im going im going. Ciao blog peeps!
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