Roma

I've been meaning to write a post about Rome, but I never got around to it until now. Let me summarize the trip in bullet point format:

Friday 12/12
- Yeah, the flight is only 2.5 hours, but Ryanair flies out of Santander (a 1.5 hour bus ride away) and into Ciampino (a 40 minute bus ride away from the center of Rome), so altogether, we spend about 8 hours in transit. Whew!
- We meet the hostel guy (Vinnie), who is Brazilian. He recommends places for dinner.
- We stuff our faces and it is DELICIOUS. I wanted some wine, but I was not about to pay 5 euros for a glass of it!

- We wander to see the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and some random piazzas.

- Vinnie takes us to some jazz place. Turns out smoking in bars is illegal in Italy, which is awesome. Let's hope that fabulous law spreads (to Spain).
- SO EXHAUSTED. Sleep time.
- The next day, the other girls tell me there's some guy in our room who makes the weirdest noise when he's sleeping. We dub him La Rana (the frog).

Saturday 13/12
- It's sunny!!
- We find a breakfast place and eat yumyum pastries arghwoeualg drool
- We walked to the Colosseum, where we were instantly attacked by people selling tours to unwitting Americans. We are persuaded by a girl named Becky, who I hated in my heart, but who let us haggle her down a few dollars on the tour price. We had a terrible first tour guide who was ancient and spent half the tour showing us pictures of the Colosseum in a book. I'm like, "IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF US LET'S JUST GO IN THERE" Ugh. Eventually we do, but then my camera dies WHYYY. I make a solemn vow to charge my camera every night on vacation. Lesson learned.

- The second tour guide took us around the Forum, Palatine Hill, etc. He was much younger, and from New Zealand, so I felt I got my money's worth after his portion of the tour.
- At lunch, we met a guy who used to teach at my high school and now lives in Tampa. El mundo es un panuelo, for real.
- Went shopping and I finally found boots that fit!!!
- Ate our first gelato. I know I keep saying this, but it was...so...delicious. No complaints about the food at all.
- A guy in our hostel who smoked too much invited himself to dinner with us. We loved the restaurant! It was family run--adorable. Antipasti! Lasagne! Wine! Almond cake! I ate myself into a new state of mind.
- We went to a bar where Dorothee thought the beer was too fruity (she's got the most credibility on beer, being German). We tasted grappa, which was too strong for us.
- On this night, La Rana moved beds and was sleeping directly under me. GRRR. He didn't keep me up for long, but I did hear the sound. It's indescribable. According to WebMD, weird frog-snoring is the first sign of AIDS.

Sunday 14/12 Last Day in Rome =(
- Milenka made us tea. Thanks!
- We went to a Sunday market which was neverending! There were deals, steals, and unreals, as a friend of mine used to say. I haggled the price of a dress down to my satisfaction. My haggling skills got a real workout on this trip.
- We lost Dorothee for 2 hours, but eventually find her munching an apple. Not having a cell phone makes coordination difficult.
- Saw Vatican City and San Pietro's basilica. Really cool. Unfortunately, we missed the Sistine because it was closed on Sunday. OH WELL we'll just have to go back, then.
- Roopa and I tried to find a museum, but ended up finding a lovers' lane and feeling awkward.
- Had my second gelato and Roopa's first. Three flavors for only 2 euros! I don't care how cold it is, I'm eating ice cream.
- Saw the Pantheon!
- Had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant that looked sketch from outside, but turned out to be delightful.
- We take a taxi back to the hostel as we are too bloated and tired to walk allll that way. The lesson here is: eat dinner near your lodging.

Monday 15/12
- All customer service people on this day are jerks to us. We're thinking they just had a case of the Mondays. We tried to find out where the bus we needed was, but the guy at the info booth wouldn't tell us unless we bought tickets from him. Wth?
- The Ryanair flight crew on the way back was really desperate to sell us useless crap. Yes, you get a cheap flight, but know that you pay in many ways. One of them is having to listen to a steward drone on and on in several different languages over the loudspeaker about special one-time only Ryanair deals on designer perfumes.
- Home!

General note:
- Rome is so touristy. I couldn't escape the American accents. I've never seen such crowds gathered at attractions, snapping photos. I enjoyed seeing the sights, eating the food, etc. myself, but if this is Rome off-season, it must be horrible during summer. The weather wasn't too bad, so I don't feel we missed out by going in winter. Maybe that's just relative, as I do live in Bilbao, literally where the sun don't shine.

What's up next:
- Today is supposed to be a big fiesta in Bilbao, so a bunch of us are going to that this afternoon.
- Tonight at 8, Katie, Jaron, Kyle, Olga, and I leave on our Holland/Belgium/Barcelona trip!

Mini-Break: Salamanca

I went to Salamanca with Dom on a bit of a whim this past weekend. Here's a picture of our first look at the city. It's the bus station, which was located in the HOOD.














Our gracious host, Sam, came and rescued us from the bus station, however, and took us to the nicer part of town, where he lives.














He made us some delicious pasta for dinner. I don't know what he put in the sauce, but it was magic. Here's Dom going at it.




























Yes, that's right. This is definitely a picture of two Englishmen making tea for me! I won't lie to you, that was probably the best cup of tea I've ever had. The English undoubtedly have a touch when it comes to tea.














We went out that night with some of Sam's Dutch friends, who were very sweet. I wore my precious cardigan that I had bought not a week before. You can't wear a sweater while you boogie, so I put it with all the other coats on this couch at the bar. At the end of the night, everyone else found their coats/sweaters, but mine was nowhere to be found. I even went back the next day, but the bartenders hadn't found any stray cardigans. Ugh. I'd like to think it wasn't stolen, since this country seems to be relatively free of crimes like that, but what am I to think? Who would steal a plain, black cardigan? I'm just mad because I had JUST bought it.

I think I'm in love with Salamanca. The people were good-looking and more open than up here in Bilbao. There are also more students and immigrants, which always gives a town more interest. There aren't any confusing Basque words on any of the signs. It just looked like how I imagined "Spain" would look. Here are some pics:
















































































The break was just what I needed. I'm having another mini-break this weekend, as I've already mentioned. I'm only posting this to procrastinate on packing, actually. We're leaving for Roma at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I'd better get packing and get to bed. Goodnight!

A good day!

Today was a great day! Why, you ask? Well:

- The sun shone for a solid half an hour today, so that was a nice surprise. I'm getting so used to artificial light and heat that the other day when the sun came out, I thought, "WOW, it's like an outdoor radiator!" Warped. Seriously, if you're in Florida right now, I hate you.

- I ate a delicious pear. Pears are always a gamble. I can never really tell if they're ripe, but firm, or completely unripe. This one was my last one, and I was hoping it was good because it was all I had for lunch. It's the little things!

- I had a great class. It was composed of about 14 girls, who I hadn't met before, so they asked me questions about the US. What fun! I got to use the phrase, "(upside down exclamation point) Que puta!" ::translation: "What a slut!":: They love it when you curse.

In other news, I'm dying of excitement because the weekend after next, I'm going to Rome! I'm thinking it'll be a bit cold, but at least it shouldn't be thronged with tourists, and maybe I can actually enjoy the sights. Also, this coming weekend is four days long for some reason, so I'm looking forward to maxin' and relaxin' all cool (i.e. recovering from the week).