Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Rome

Hey!
This weekend I went to Rome for the first time. It was really unexpected because we only planned to go to Pisa and Florence, but our hostel mates in Florence convinced us that we MUST go to Rome, and so we did. Eileen and I bought some cheap train tickets friday morning and took off for Rome. Our last minute Hostel was better than we expected and passed the "bed bug" check. We were able to walk to the big monuments and landmarks such as the Trevi fountain and Colosseum. We shared our room in Rome with a girl who went to Tufts (Boston area representing), a guy from London, and their friend from Scotland. It is always a little strange staying with people you don't know and trusting they won't do anything weird in your sleep, but when you travel you kind of have to push that out of your mind. One of my favorite teachers in high school said something to the gist of, "Travel while you are young. When you're young you'll sleep on a park bench to see Paris." I've embraced that mantra and it's helped me whenever I book a hostel. In the case of Rome, the weirdness paid off because our bunk mates were awesome. We played a few card games and had a "picnic" on one of the blankets in the center of the room. Rome was fantastic and absolutely worth visiting more than once. While in Pisa we also saw the leaning tower. We were good tourists and didn't take any tacky photos with the leaning tower and just admired it. Saturday night in Pisa Eileen made some ravioli in our hostel so we could save some money. It turned out really delicious. Italian super-markets are more like American super-markets, which was a pleasant surprise. By Sunday morning Eileen and I were ready to return to Madrid. I forgot what it felt like to hear another language all around me and have no idea what anyone was saying. It really reassured me in my Spanish speaking skills.
Hasta luego, I'll leave you with some photos of my travels.
-Jenny

Me and my ticket to Rome

Inside the Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Would you look at that full moon!