I forgot to give this a title! ROME!

Ok, so this will be the first big update. The long flight went well, I was sitting behind christian rather than next to him, but whatever. I watched True Grit (the recent one) and then Brick, and was suddenly inspired to be a badass. Neither of us got enough sleep on the plane.

We got into Rome around 11 yesterday and found our way onto a bus that went into the city to Termini Station. The WiFi at the airport didn't work, which is a bummer because we needed to get the address of our Hostel. We got to the train station hoping there would be WiFi there but there wasn't, so we were screwed. On the bright side they were giving away free nestea iced tea! So, we went out into the city, using our finely attuned senses of direction to guide us to the general area we remembered it being in, hoping to see a sign.
We didn't. We couldn't find any free wifi either, even at the rediculously fancy McDonalds. We walked for a few hours, in a big circle, and then up and down the same streets several times. At first we were encourages by the plethora of hotels in the area. But we didn't find it. We tried to ask some hotel receptionists but they didn't know, nor did they care.

While wandering, though, we stopped into S. Maria Maggiore, a fancy church near the train station.

Exhausted and sweaty, we finally we discovered Tourist Information at the train station, huzzah! We finally got pointed in the right direction...the opposite side of the station from where we'd been looking.
So we went to the area that had been circled on our brand new handy tourist map and....hmmm.

Where was this fabled place? We asked the guy at one of the hotels and he, disappointed that we wouldn't be staying with him, waved generally at the opposite side of the street and went beack into his building. So we walked around, and were accosted by a man asking if we needed a hostel, which in a sense we were. We told him we had reservations at a particular one, the Two Ducks, and miraculously, he gave very specific instructions: end of the street on the right, 4th floor, #19, Cool. I'd love to show you what we saw, but uploading takes forever and my connection is not exactly solid. Another time, we might do a big photo dump.

Just a little bit hidden away. We got our keys and were showed to our room, which had four beds, two of which were already taken.

So we relaxed and took a nap. The other people in the room were both girls, though they were not together. One is from....somewhere, waiting for her friend to get done with...school or something, the other was maybe Chinese and didn't talk much. She left today. Now there is some middle-aged woman, who only ever says "
"Caio," whether in greeting or departing.

After our nap, we walked around again, we had dinner at a little pizzeria and then we made our way to Trevi Fountain, passing some other fountains on the way; Fontaine della Repubblica and Tritone. Trevi fountain was ludicrously crowded, so we just snapped a couple pictures and left. Went back to the room and went to bed.

the next morning we got up around 7 and made our expidition to the Forum. We saw the Column of Trajan and some various ruins, and down the street the Colloseum loomed. Or, should I say, the Flavian Ampitheater, its actual name. So we headed to that, and paid to go in, there was a bit of a line, but not much, when we passed by in the afternoon the line was many times longer.

The ticket also let us into, I guess, the Forum proper. There were signs all over for the Mostra Nerone, but though we folled the first few, we couldn't find it; the place is like a giant maze. We walked all around it, but we were quite tired, so my favorite attractions were the benches in the shade. There are some great pictures though. We did find the Mostra Nerone eventually, and got to see some frescos I guess. I kept trying to go to the Circus Maximus, but we hit dead ends all over the place and eventually were too exhausted to do anything. We couldn't find the exit, either, like i said, it was a maze.

 Close enough, right?

 When we escaped we were too tired and immediately made our way to the hostel, only remembering the Circus Maximus once we were already too far away to feel like retracing our steps. We got some Gellato to refresh us on the way back. Unfortunately, when we got there it was being cleaned! So we couldn't rest yet. We went back to the train station, where we discovered the batrooms cost a euro. The great news though, was that they were still giving out free Nestea! So we got some and then explored the station, got some more nestea and then Christian had the brilliant idea to head to the Fountain of the Rebublic (screw italian, haha) and stick our feet in to kill some time and rest. So we did that.

Side note, there is a theme park outside Rome called Rainbow Magic Land, which is a fantastic name.
Now I am back at the hostel, but soon I will probably be at the National Library, where I hope to get on the internet and post this to the blog.

NOPE, there wasn't. Nor did the McDonalds hotspot work, now I'm on a random street sitting in the sidewalk using a random WiFi connection!

Last night we had some Beers with our roommate and her friend up on the balcony of the Hostels 5th floor section. The building is shared by several people and more than one hostel. We're on the first floor, the 5th has more bathrooms and less people and a big balcony, grr.

So, today we went to the Vatican, didn't go in, because the line was too long. Made our way along the river south, a nice shady walk, sat in the shade at the circus maximus, ate lunch, went back to the Hostel to rest, then began this frustrating journey to find internet. Oh well. We found it. No pictures, because I haven't moved them onto this computer yet and I'd like to wrap this up because I'm writing this sitting on the sidewalk. I'd love to post a better update, but I need to find a more comfortable hotspot that feels more legal.

Until next time, Ciao!