Living With Caroline: Part II

I'm trying to convince Caroline to do a guest entry. One of my biggest regrets when Old Man Pete came to visit was that I didn't have him do a guest entry, so I'm not letting the opportunity get away this time. Until I crack her, here's a quick update.

Saturday night brought the Caroline in Dublin reunion tour. Caroline had spent a year in Dublin five years ago, and was anxious to return to some of her favorite haunts. She listed off names of her favorite clubs, pubs and bars and I secretly Googled them to make sure they were still around. Hey, I wasn't going on a pub crawl and finding that  O'Whatevers had turned into a Centra (the Wawa-esque convenience store that I mentioned earlier). They were, so we set off. Our first stop was The Barge, which Caroline described as a great place to dance. Well it would be...if they had music. Apparently Thursday is dancing night. Oh well, they still had beverages. It was still a very nice hang out bar. We continued on to Portobellos, which she warned would have a "knacker" crowd as she described them.  Lets just say I saw a woman with a mullet...and her hair was down to her waist. Think about it. Plus side, alcohol here got cheaper as the night went on. I didn't question it, all I know is that by the end of the night I was paying 4.50 for vodka and lemonade, when anywhere else in the city I would be paying at least 7. I made a mental note to return. This bar also brought my favorite interaction with a Dublin guy

Dublin Guy: So you guys are friends?

Caroline: Sisters

Dublin Guy: *pause* Biological?

heh. 

After our interaction with Dublin Guy, Caroline turned to me and said "lets go get some food". I'm game! So we went across the street to her favorite late night food joint. Which used to be called something else, but was now a kebab place. This didn't faze her. We looked at a menu and she decided that we HAD to have the garlic cheese fries. Those are three things that I'm pretty sure my sister hates. Whatever. So we get them, and it's garlic mayonnaise and shredded cheese on top of fries. Disgusting enough. Then Caroline comes over with packets of vinegar, ketchup and salt to pour over them. Wow. My stomach is in pain just thinking about it. In Caroline's defense I was rooting her on. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We scarfed those down in record time and decreed that they were "Perfect" even though we both knew full well that they were not. 

Sunday continued the eating adventure with a trip to O'Neils for a carvery lunch. A carvery lunch is basically a base of meat, and then tons of sides that you can pick. It led to this humorous exchange while waiting in line for food. 

Me: Hey, what are those

Caroline: Where

Me: Between the potatoes and the mashed potatoes

Caroline: More potatoes

ohhhh Ireland.

We watched a soccer match while eating our delicious grub, and planned to leave at halftime. Halftime came, however, and it was snowing. Well, as much as it can snow in Dublin, which isn't much. But the fact that it was cold enough for snow to form led to us deciding to stay and watch the second half. Plus it was snowing in the game as well, and that was just hysterical. While it was just raining once the match ended, we still wern't in the mood to stick around so we went back to my apartment and watched movies. nice.

On Monday, Caroline walked 11 miles. Here's how that happened

I went to class like a good person. When I came back the two of us walked into the city together. This is the first 2 or 3 miles of Carolines 11 miles. We stopped by her old apartment which really just made me hate her. See, my apartment is student housing on campus. It's.....crap. Caroline's former apartment is in a gated community of row homes. There are freshly mowed lawns and flowers everywhere. I felt nothing but anger the minute we stepped onto the grounds. I hate her. Did I mention she walked 11 miles, because she did...she'll probably tell you next time you see her.

We continued into the city for some exploration. I just asked Caroline what exactly we did because I couldn't remember, and truthfully I was bored just listening to her recap our day. Basically we walked. It was nice. We stopped for some lunch, it was good. We bonded. But then I had to get back to school for my second class. I took the bus because I'm not crazy like Caroline...who walked 11 miles. I'm not exactly sure what Caroline did in the city after I left, but when she came back she had food! So I let her in. She then collapsed on my bed...you get tired when you walk 11 miles. 

On Tuesday Caroline went down to Bray and Dun Laoghaire. I went to class. Everyone else gets to skip class when friends and family come, but my sister makes me go to each one. If Caroline would write a guest entry, then you would be able to hear about how great Bray and Dun Laoghaire were. Unfortunately all I can tell you about are classes. Which were good. We discussed "A Love Divided" a hokey drama that we had to watch about Catholic and Protestant intermarriage. When we both got back from our days, we headed out to town for happy hour and dinner. Caroline took me to her favorite happy hour joint which offered 2 for 1 drinks from 5-10. It was 4:50 when we got there. I made Caroline walk to the end of the street and back because "It's never good to be the first at happy hour". While we were still the first, much to my dismay, at least we didn't sit there awkwardly refusing to order until 5, like she planned to do. After drinks we went to Wagamama, which is a noodle house chain. If you're in the UK/Ireland area (or Boston apparently) I highly suggest hitting one of these up. Massive amounts of delicious food. After dinner we had a fight about where the nearest bus stop was. Turns out we were both thinking of the same stop, but using different terminology. I said it was at the bottom of Grafton St. She said it was at the top of Grafton St. Turns out we have different definitions of "top". Hers is at the bottom of a hill, whereas mine is at the TOP of a hill. 

The night ended with us hanging out at school at a birthday party for one of my friends. 

Today she made me go to class again. She mysteriously disappeared into the city and did stuff. She has not yet officially calculated the amount of miles she walked, so I'm sorry but you'll have to wait for the final number. She came back just in time to make me and my roommates dinner! Perfect timing. She's getting packed up for her trip to London tomorrow. She'll be making a brief reappearance Saturday night before heading back to the states on Sunday. 

Official number is in. Caroline walked over 8 miles today. Making her total 24+ miles. Make sure you congratulate her next time you see her, this is sure to be one of her talking points for the next month. It should be noted, however, that she is currently standing next to my heater desperately trying to aid her stiff legs. What a weakling. I'm going to go eat some cookies now in celebration. 

Living With Caroline: An Ongoing Series

It doesn't matter whether she's in Philadelphia or Dublin, my sister is ridiculous. Within the first 24 hours of being here she 

1) Made me clean my room "Look, I'll help! It will be fun and go quickly!"

2) Tried to hail a bus like a taxi "Oh look, there's the 10! Hey! Hey! Why didn't it stop?" "You need to be at a bus stop..."

3) Broke into my apartment with a mop. 

Wait...what was that last one again?

We had returned from a shopping trip to Dundrum, which is a mall nearby. We had started to make chili when I realized we didn't have any milk. Not that we needed milk for the chili, but it's one of those things that I think should always be in the fridge, just in case my bones start to feel a little weak. 

So I tell C-dawg that I'm going to run to the small Wa-Wa-esque store on campus to grab some milk. C-dawg ponders staying behind and decides to come with me at the last minute. As I'm paying for the milk it hits me...I didn't bring my keys...my roommates aren't home...it's Saturday. I turn to Caroline, "I FORGOT MY KEYS" I exclaim. She smiles, "whoops" and giggles. I stare at her "No...I forgot them, they're inside, we CANNOT get in". She seems unfazed. I don't think she realizes that this is not an American university. You can't just call public safety to let you in. "I'll climb through the window" she tells me. We walk back up to the apartment, yea...not even she could fit through the opening in my window. To make matters worse I can see my coat on the sofa next to the window. My keys are in my pocket. The window on the opposite side of the room is open! But I can't reach the jacket. "Oh well" Caroline says "We'll just wait in the hallway". Who is this person and what did she do with my sister. Oh well is not usually in Caroline's vocabulary. I run down the walk to find my friend Will who is enjoying an illegal BBQ. Will tries to call my roommates, none of them pick up. I announce that I'm going to go try and find an RA, everyone immediately packs up the BBQ and heads inside. I'm a total fun killer. I failed to find an RA and instead return to my apartment. Caroline and I stand outside my window starring in. "On the plus side" Caroline says "You've proven it's fairly impossible to break in to your ground floor apartment". Thanks C-dawg. Will comes by to inspect the situation. In a moment of brilliance Caroline asks if he has a mop and a large hook. Well...half brilliance. Will says that he can help with the mop part and runs to grab one. Together the three of us then shimmy the mop in through the open window and use the head to tap open the other window. Will and Caroline then take over as I anxiously look around, convinced that the Guarda is going to come out of no where and take away my residency for breaking and entering. A voice calls out of a window "Hey! What are you doing!" I whirl around ready to defend myself with my life. Luckily it's my friend Becca laughing rather than some concerned citizen. Eventually Caroline, proving to have a disturbingly rational idea of how to handle the situation, has Will  flip the jacket off the sofa, and sticks her hand through the window to grab it mid-air. She pulls it out, grabs the keys and says "Right then, that went well". After a few moments of standing there muttering "wow....wow.." Will heads back to his apartment and we head back to make our DELICIOUS chili. 

This is what happens when Caroline is around. 

Commenting

My sister is here, hooray. Tonight at the pub we were discussing our favorite topic, my blog and how funny we both think it is. She revealed that she had sent the link to numerous friends of hers, which I was happy to hear. My mom has also said that she has passed along the blog to friends, and friends at UCD have told me that they have told their friends. So I put my readership count somewhere higher than Perez Hilton but not quite as high as Stuff White People Like (if the world were fair this would be true). Yet on average I get about 2 comments per entry. 

This does not compute.

I am not getting paid to write this blog, my payment comes in form of feedback. I'm not lying when I say I check this blog multiple times a day to see if anyones commented. 

Even if I don't really know you, say hi! I now present "Marianna's Guide to Acceptable Commenting"

1. Positive vs. Negative

It's ok if your comment isn't positive. Think this was a subpar entry? Let me know! Think my fashion choices for that day were silly? Let me know (also let me know if you liked what I was wearing, a la Ch'nel)! Somewhat offended by my actions? Let me know! 

On the flip side, positive comments are AWESOME!

2. Name

Its ok if you don't want to put your name on the internet. Come up with a nickname that you and I would understand. My dog apparently keeps commenting and, unless my mom's lost so much control over him that he now has full computer access, it's pretty safe to assume he's not actually the one writing. 

3. Content

The comment doesn't even have to pertain to the entry, maybe just a little note saying hi, catching me up on the local gossip. I know I'm usually pretty self centered and don't like to hear about anything that isn't praising me...but I kinda miss you guys and would like to hear what's up. 

I can EASILY withhold the last month and a half of blogging from you if you don't start leaving comments.

Thats a lie. 

Finishing the Italian Adventure

Daily Update: Went out to the movies last night with my friends Griffin and Olivia. The movie theater a couple of towns over was having student night which meant 4 euro tickets. Even by American standards thats cheap. This is the second time I have gone to the movies in Ireland and I've noticed that they have very nice movie theaters. Both theaters had areas for you to sit and hang out with friends, ample seating and were immaculately clean. We saw 27 Dresses, which was cute, recommend it to anyone looking for a nice chick flick. 

Unfortunately we've reached the end of our Italian adventure. This will be the last entry about Italy *tear*. Never fear, my sister Caroline arrives on Friday, so I'm SURE hilarity will ensue, most likely at her expense. Look forward to reading about that next week!

Thursday

We've been bombed. That's the only possible explanation for the hostel shaking boom that just woke me up at 1 am. Nick, Steve and I jump up screaming expletives. Liz continues to sleep. Another crashing boom. Across town my friend Pinky is convinced the Vatican is being nuked. The room is pitch dark, the booms continue every thirty seconds or so. Liz is sound asleep. After a minute of silence I hear Niagra Falls outside my window. I lie back down...wow. Now THAT was a thunderstorm. 

Our friend Sarah was going to be touring churches in our neighborhood that morning with her class. She invited us to join her and we eagerly agreed. An excellent decision as we were led to some fascinating hidden gems right in our area that we never would have thought to visit. We also stopped for a coffee break and I discovered Italian hot chocolate. Now I despise hot chocolate...but this was gooooood. 

Sarah had to get back to her school for another class, so Liz and I decided to go inside the Colosseum. For days we had explored the exterior, but it was time to take the plunge and go inside. After standing in line for about 45 minutes we reached the front. I tried to get a student discount but they would only give that to EU citizens. Note, when I open a national monument to myself, only American citizens get student discounts. I then gave the ticket teller a 20 for an 11 euro ticket. He asked me for another euro so that he could give me a clean 10 back. Everyone wanted to do this in Italy. They HATED making change unless they could give it to you in bills. I did not have a euro on me so I said "sorry, I don't have a euro". The man starred at me and said "Everyone says that, you're lying". I hate the Colosseum. After getting change we walked in. It was raining and I was bitter so my first thought was "eh". After the sun came out and my mood brightened with it, I could fully appreciate the Colosseum. It is quite awesome. 

We went over to Sarah's after that to make dinner and hang out. We stopped at the supermarket and picked up a Roma soccer easter egg. In Europe they have these giant chocolate eggs around Easter. These eggs usually have toys of some kind in them. We were extremely excited to get a Roma one. After cooking dinner we cracked it open to discover it came with a paper model of the team. Too cool. Pinky and Julia joined us and we had a nice evening catching up and watching America's Next Top Model. 

Liz and I returned to the hostel. I havn't seen (or heard) hostel guy around lately...I hope he's alright. 

Friday

It was a beautiful day when we woke up. Absolutely gorgeous. "Let's go to the beach!" we cried! So we gathered the troops, packed a picnic lunch and set off on the subway....which took us to another subway...which took us to a tram....which took us to the beach! By the time we reached the beach the sky was a murky gray. The wind was whipping everywhere and it was beginning to rain. We were dead set on reaching the beach, however, and we were going to have a picnic if it killed us. We hunkered down on the beach as the sand covered our food and whipped into our faces. Failure. 

After declaring the picnic over we ran back to the tram. Once safely back in the city we grabbed some gelato before heading back to our friends apartments. Another delicious meal was cooked and we reflected on our time in Italy. 

Liz and I returned to the hostel and found Nick and Steve packing up, they would be leaving tomorrow as well. After talking for awhile Nick dropped this bomb on us "hey, did you hear? Hostel guy was taken to the hospital the other night! Didn't you hear him running up and down the halls cursing, appendicitis or something like that". He's ok, to our knowledge. Sounds like it was quite a scene though...my inner horrible person is sorry I missed it. My outer (and inner) good person asks everyone to hold him in the light for a quick recovery. 

Saturday

Time to pack up and leave Sandy's. Hostel guy has been replaced by a member of his multi-cultural posse. I never explained, HG was Polish, ran the place with his sister (I think), and had this multi-cultural posse of people who did random jobs around the place, I'm assuming in exchange for free room. I think it adds to the character of the place.

Anyway, the new guy checked us out and told us we could keep our bags in our lockers until it was time for us to leave. Liz and I went to walk around a little bit before our train left for the airport, but it was raining, hard. I'm pretty sure it always rains in Europe, thats what this whole abroad experience has taught me. After becoming fully soaked we decided maybe we should go back to the hostel and head out. Great...this will be a fun trip home.

The trip home went off almost without a hitch. Liz bought too much stuff in Italy and had to check her bag because it was overweight. She told me to go ahead through security and "hold up the plane" if she was late. As the boarding time got closer and closer I began to worry. I'm clearly capable of hold up a plane....but how to do it without losing my flying privileges forever? I was already on thin ice thanks to Dublin Airport security incident. Luckily she made it. I still havn't mastered the art of flying Ryanair and ended up being the last person on the plane. Which meant I got the last available seat, which actually wasn't bad at all. I sat in the aisle seat of the front row, which was definitely an experience. I've never sat that close to the front before....lots of leg room! If I knew Italian I would also be able to have gotten all of the flight attendant gossip, but alas, I don't. 

As the bus back to UCD drove through Dublin I was happy to be back, but I couldn't help but pine for Italy. An amazing two weeks I won't soon forget.

It looks photoshopped.....but its real
The sun is deceiving you...it was sooo not there the whole time
It was impressive
These guys were EVERYWHERE
ROMA ROMA ROMA!
My loves 
The Beach
That bag was being held on by the wind
Good times were had by all in Italy!

Roma days 3-5

So we had daylight savings yesterday here in Ireland. It was very disorienting as no one was sure if their electronics had automatically updated themselves or not. As a result there was a period of time in the morning of trying to figure out the correct time. My electronics have creepily picked up on the fact that they are in Ireland and corrected themselves. I am seriously disturbed by this. Also, because of daylight savings it's now fairly light out until after 8 PM. Which is freaking amazing. 

Back to Rome!

Monday

Today was fairly low key. Liz and I did some more sightseeing, checking out the Renoir exhibit at the Capitolene Museum, very nice. The museum had a lot of information on modern Italian history, including an incredibly informative video on the education system of Italy in the early 20th century. Oh yes, we watched all of it...and it was long. 

The museum is part of the Vittorio Emanuelle monument, which is MASSIVE, so we explored that as well. Think Lincoln Memorial on steroids. 

We then set out to visit Foro Italico, which Liz's MTV Europe guide called "totally dope". Foro Italico is a facist era sports complex/Rome's main sports complex these days. Unfortunately we're bad at following directions and ended up....in the middle of no where. We took "train 2" instead of "tram 2", whoops. We saw a little market and walked towards it. As we walked along we noticed that they only sold flowers...odd...oh and gravestones...oh....we were at a cemetery. Might as well go inside! Glad we did, absolutely gorgeous cemetery. Umbrella pine tress gave cool shade to a sprawling park like setting overlooking Italian farmland with the mountains in the distance. Cool. The day was finished with a trip to the gellato shop and people watching at the Trevi Fountain. Good times.

Tuesday

VATICAN DAY! We made sure to get up extra early in order to get into the Vatican quickly. We got there at around 8:30 and still had a 45 minute wait just to get tickets to the museum. Once inside we began the trip to the Sistine Chapel. The museum is ironically the closest thing I can imagine to hell. Imagine being jam packed with every tourist in the world (it didn't help that it was Holy Week) walking down a never ending series of hallways. I'm serious, it took a good hour just to navigate the hallways to the Chapel, and we didn't stop to look at any of the exhibits. To pass the time Liz and I pretended we were on MTV Cribs: Pope Edition. We're going to hell. We did stop and have a blasphemous laugh when we realized that one of the tapestries in the tapestry room looked like a paparazzi shot of Jesus. He had a surprised look on his face....maybe you had to be there. 

The Sistine Chapel was impressive, I cannot deny that. One of those places where you just sort of stand there and marvel that someone took the time to do that. In our fast paced 21st century world, the idea that people would take the time to paint such a room is an impressive thought. 

We left the museum and went to the "Tomb of the Popes" sweeet. I was enjoying a leisurely stroll through the tombs of dead popes when all of a sudden I hit a wall of people and a man yelling "NO PICTURES" ah, helllllllo JPII! Scored some grandma points there, I think. He has a very nice area, decorated with flowers...I wonder if the other popes are jealous, they don't have flowers. 

We wandered around Vatican City for awhile after that. We even found a movie being filmed! I've always wanted to stumble onto a movie set. Towards mid-afternoon we were tired so we went back to our hostel for a siesta. We were awoken two hours later by hostel guy bringing in our two new roommates (Fernando had left earlier in the morning, much to our disappointment). I stared at them groggy eyed and they introduced themselves. I immediately forgot their names and instead named them Nick and Steve. Nick looked right off of an episode of the Real World...in fact I'm still pretty sure he was on the Real World at one point. Steve was his quiet little buddy. They were both grad students from Florida taking two months off the explore Europe. Cool, I could deal with that. Liz and I left to go pick up dinner but ended up returning to crash at the hostel shortly after. We are the epitome of lame. 

Wednesday-SOCCER DAY!

We were awoken at seven in the morning by Nick yelling "15 minutes dude, 15 minutes" at Steve. We would learn over the next few days that they enjoyed their schedules and had chosen today to visit the Vatican. Nick had no time for laziness. They would sadly find out later that the Vatican was closed for no apparent reason. Ha. 

Anyway, this blog is about me. Liz and I got up a few hours later and tried to go to Foro Italico again. This time we found it, but it was closed because there was a "match" of unknown sport that night. More on this later. So instead we took our picnic lunch that we had packed down to the banks of the Tiber. Excellent decision. It was sunny and about 70 degrees out, perfect. I even got a sunburn! We began to walk back to center city Rome along the Tiber....or so we though. The mountains in the distance began to get closer and we realized that we were walking away from the city. Nuts. So we walked back and caught the tram. 

We then met our friend Sarah because we would be going to a SOCCER GAME THAT NIGHT!

Now the soccer game really deserves it's own entry, but I'm too excited and couldn't wait any longer to talk about it. 

Together we left Sarah's apartment and went towards the stadium, to our surprise it was AT THE FORO ITALICO! That was the "match" that was going on and the reason we couldn't go inside. Oh well, we still got to go! The match was between Roma and Lazio, the two major teams of Rome. Think Yankees-Mets...on steroids, crack and any other illicit mind altering substance you can think of. We arrive at the stadium and the first thing i notice is that we are 3 of roughly 7 girls attending the game. hmmmmmm. We enter the stadium and are hit with a wall of sound. We're sitting on the Roma side, not in the crazy people section, but just to the right of them. Still pretty rowdy. Everyone's singing and having a good time, flags are waving, its pretty cool. An announcement is made over the intercom, I ask Sarah, who speaks Italian, what was said. She says she couldn't make it out but it was something about fireworks, we assume "Please don't set off fireworks". WRONG! about 15 minutes before kickoff the crowds really get going. Smoke machines, fireworks and other totally unsafe devices are set off in the stands, people are yelling and dancing. It's AWESOME. Perhaps the funniest thing was once the game started everyone sat down. Apparently its not cool to stand during a soccer match, total soccer faux pas. Roma scored the first goal and there is no way I could ever convey the amount of energy that went through the room at that point. It was absolutely amazing...and it was only one goal! The game was a great one to go to, the teams were tied 2-2 in the final seconds. Regulation time had ended and we were in penalty minutes when Lazio tipped a goal in. The entire stadium went silent. Both Roma and Lazio fans didn't know what to do. I'm not sure if you've ever been in a stadium with 60,000 or so silent people....but it is the most terrifying thing ever. You don't know whats going to happen. These people are so emotionally charged that they could crack at any minute. As the Lazio section burst into cheers after about 3 seconds, the Roma fans, every single one of them, stood up in silence and without saying a word walked out of the stadium. Silence. I kept looking straight ahead, eye on the tram, don't slow down, don't make eye contact. Most terrifying, yet exhilerating 5 minute walk of my life. 

The bus ride home that followed was awful, taking about an hour of being crammed against a window. When I got off I was literally carried off of the bus by the crowd, my feet didn't touch the ground. After checking to make sure my wallet, camera and kidneys were still there, we ascended Mount Sandy and settled in for the night. Someone had left American gossip magazines in the hallway so we set about reading those. Nick and Steve arrived shortly after, having also gone to the game. I learned that Steves real name was Drew...I continued to call him Steve. I feel asleep reliving the greatest sporting event I have ever witnessed live, chuckling to myself at the realization that I really do enjoy the idea of soccer.

Me atop the Vittorio Emmanuelle momument
I'm not sure if this picture conveys how massive this statue was...and it was only a small part of the monument
View from the monument
"Give me your best 'we meant to find a facist sports complex and ended up in at cemetery look'"
My look
Trevi Fountain
Throwing a coin in so that I'll come back
Line outside the Vatican
St Peters
Movie set

ROMA v LAZIO!
awesome
The game
The concessions guys did their job for about 2 minutes then sat down to watch the game

ROMA!

As I was about to board my train to Rome I noticed a shinier, more regal looking train next to mine. Turns out it was the Orient Express! It was classy, to say the least.

The trip to Rome was a bit boring at first. The first 3 hours were basically the same trip I took from Florence to Venice but in reverse. It took great strength not to hop out when we reached Florence and return to my precious city, but I restrained myself. The last hour of the trip surprised me with its beauty. I had assumed that the length between Florence and Rome would be fairly developed, but it was actually filled with pastoral landscapes and pretty impressive mountains. Heyyyyy, pretty cool!

I reached Rome and went to meet my friend Liz at our hostel. heh....ohhhhh our hostel. I was told to walk 7 blocks from the train station until I reach a black door. Sounded shady, but I trusted Liz. When I reached "Sandy's" as our hostel was called, I pressed the buzzer to be allowed in. I was greeted with a hearty "WHAT?!?!" oh this will be fun. I entered the building and realized it was just an everyday apartment building with families in it. They must have been THRILLED when the hostel moved in. I began my ascent of the 5.5 flights of stairs that I would get to know very well over the next few days. Huffing and puffing I finally reached the top, knocked on the door and was greeted with the hostel owner, a kid no older than my sister wearing a faded Sesame Street t-shirt with the words "We're All Friends!". Again he greeted me with "WHAT!?!?!?" I stood in the stairwell for a minute and considered my options before answering....do I really want to enter this place? Liz then appeared and I decided to risk it. The hostel was fairly small as hostels go, only about 6 or 7 rooms of 4 beds each. It offered free internet and, in a twist of irony, a beat up game of Yahtzee. After checking me in the hostel guy returned to his office muttering a string of American curse words....he lovvvved those American curse words. 

Before heading out Liz said, "Oh, by the way.....kilts". IT WAS A SIX NATIONS WEEKEND AND ITALY WAS PLAYING SCOTLAND! Which of course meant Scotland fans were all sporting kilts. I like to think that was God's little way of saying "hey, thanks for coming to Rome during Holy Week". 

Liz, who had been there for two days already, began to show me around the neighborhood. I was delighted to see that coffee was much cheaper here than it was in Venice, I would be able to support my new habit. After walking 2 blocks Liz said "alright, now look to your left" expecting to see a man in a kilt...which i did...but I also found myself starring straight at the Colosseum. Well what do you know!

We met up with our friends Sarah and Julia from Bryn Mawr, who are studying in Rome this semester. They took us to their favorite restaurant and gelato place. 

Lets take a moment and discuss this gelato place. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! You pay 2 euro and get a giant cone that you can get up to three flavors. I found that gelato cost me anywhere from 1 euro to 6 euro, so this was on the cheap end...plus they give you a TON! My favorite combination was banana, blackberry and biscotti flavored. Banana being hands down the best gelato flavor available. Liz and I would continue to go back to this gelateria EVERY day. My favorite time being "hey, are we near the gelato place" "no" "want to go anyway?" "ok!"

Back to day one. Sarah had to get back and write a paper after gelato, but we went out with Julia and her friend for drinks. Liz and I couldn't get over how cheap alcohol was compared to Dublin. Also we had to laugh that we got to the bar at 11 and it was considered "happy hour". Liz and I returned to our hostel and it was then that I met Fernando, our 18 year old Argentinean roommate. Awesome kid, more on him later. After figuring out how to get up onto my bunk bed we fell asleep to the sounds of hostel guy wandering the halls cursing. The ultimate lullaby. 

Day 2

Liz and I had great plans to explore the city today. We even mapped out a plan. Unfortunately the Rome marathon got in our way and ended up dictating what we saw. Liz and I attract sporting events wherever we go, it appears. I'm not going to lie, though, I really enjoyed the marathon. I would sometimes make Liz stop just so that we could watch and clap. Something enjoyable about standing still while watching other's exert themselves. The clapping really adds to it as well, such a trivial gesture that makes you feel like such a supportive person. Meanwhile the runners give you looks that are one level short of "oh come on, eff you!". Well, that gave me joy. We hit up all the main spots, Spanish Steps etc. and, of course, bought some gelato. 

We went back for our midafternoon nap, which would become a tradition. When we woke up we found Fernando in the room, and invited him out for some pizza. He became our puppy, following us everywhere. We tried to buy him a beer but ended up buying him non-alcoholic beer by accident. Whoops. He was less than pleased. So we walked around the city together and Fernando told us the story of his life. He was studying in Germany for the year, doing an extra year of high school even though he had already graduated back home. He had lived in the US for a year when he was 12 (and still had his middle school ID in his wallet to prove it). The things he misses the most about the US are Macaroni Grill and free refills at Burger King. I had forgotten about free refills and became oddly homesick at the mention of them. We had to get back to the hostel though, Fernando wanted to go to sleep so that he could get up early and go to the Vatican. As we walked back I had to laugh when I realized Liz was humming ABBA's "Fernando". 

Man in kilt at Roman ruins...ultimate in kilt pics
Well thats snazzy
Ruins
Our hostel
Looking down the staircase at our hostel
Man in kilt at Rome marathon throws his tam into the ring for best kilt pic
Liz at the marathon
Best. Gelato.Ever
Blurry, but our only picture of Fernando. 

VENICE!

Daily Update: In class today my professor told us "Many medieval royal families believed themselves to be descended from a woman and some regal animal...say a polar bear". I am seriously wondering if I have picked up a drug habit and just not noticed because every time I go to class crazy things happen. In my other class today, one of my professors said "Marianna, what can you tell us about Irish economic policy in the 1960's" and then chuckled when I starred back with my mouth agape. For the record, this was NOT a class on Irish economic policy.

Also, last night I went to hear Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, speak. If you ever get the chance to hear him talk, definitely go. Insightful and witty, it was an excellent hour and a half. 

Lets travel back to the simpler days of last week. Come with me as we head to VENICE!

Venice: Day 1

I had left my friends the night before claiming that I had to get up early for my trip to Venice. I had thought my train was at 9....it wasn't until 11. Oh well, still early for me! When I got to the train station my friends were there as well as they were planning on heading to Pisa. One of them said "Didn't you say your train was leaving early. I chuckled and quickly changed the subject. 

The train ride to Venice was good, one can never get enough of the scenery of Italy. Coming out of the train station in Venice one is face to face with the grand canal. The sun was out in full force and after 5 days in rainy Florence I was definitely excited to see it. I couldn't remember my hotels address so I popped into an internet cafe to look it up. Here was my first warning of whats to come. In Florence the internet was free at my hotel, or if I needed it while I was out only a Euro for a half hour. In Venice it was 2 Euros for 15 minutes. Ohhhhh balls, Venice is going to be pricey. I check my e-mail and find out that the hotel I'm staying at is LITERALLY 3 doors down from the internet cafe. I step outside and shake my head. Ohhhh Marianna, wayyyy to go. The giant sign outside of the hotel did nothing to quell my feelings of stupidity. 

I check in at the hotel, no adorable Italian boys at this one. My room is fine but the lights don't turn on. Oh well, I think, this problem should solve itself by tonight (I seriously think this way...don't judge me). 

I head out to explore. I decide to walk down the main pathway until I reach St Marks Square, the main area of the city. Unfortunately I chose to follow the signs to the square rather than consult a map. Unfortunately the people of Venice are jokesters and have put up fake signs to the square hoping to attract customers to their restaurants instead. After turning down numerous alleys I finally realized that all of the official signs had the same look. I made it to St Marks and was immediately overcome with shock and awe....at the amount of people there. I was in Venice when I was 12...in November. I don't remember too many people being there. HA! It was a United Nations of tourists. One of the biggest attractions of St Marks are the pigeons which will land on you if your offer them food. When I was 12 I thought this was the coolest thing ever. When I was 12 I came home from Venice with a mysterious rash that covered my entire body and stayed for 2 months. I did not feed the pigeons.  The "cool" thing to do, however, seemed to be to run through the throngs of pigeons and frighten them. Alright, I see how this is entertaining, except when one runs through pigeons then scatter, totally not caring for whatever is in their way. Meaning I would occasionally be enjoying a nice walk through the square when dozens of terrified pigeons would come flying my way, leading to me screaming and ducking to the ground. Meanwhile honeymooners laugh hysterically because clearly there is nothing more enjoyable in life than making a pigeon fly. I glare at them and wish that every pigeon in the square decides to use them as a toilet. 

Wow, this just got very hostile, very quickly. 

Anyway after wandering the streets I decide to head back to my room. On the way I stop at the supermarket to pick up some water and dinner. The supermarket was supercrowded and with everyone pushing I became flustered and grabbed whatever popped into my head in an effort to get the hell out of there. When I left the market I realized that I had bought myself beer and Oreos. I stood there pondering the ridiculousness of the situation and all I could think was "well...this will be one of those stories you tell for the rest of your life". It got better when deciding I needed an actual dinner I stopped at the Panera Bread-esque place across from my hotel because they advertised a "salad bar'. Having been deprived of vegetables for so long I eagerly ran in. The Italians and I have differing opinions on what a salad bar is. So this night will forever go down in history as the night my dinner consisted of Oreos, beer....and a bowl of cabbage. I went back to my hotel room and discovered that my lights still didn't work. Thats odd...usually things fix themselves when I don't do anything about it. So I tell the lady at the desk about it. "Well did you use your key?" she asks. What? She comes upstairs with me, takes my key and sticks it into a slot in the wall....the lights come on. Oh.....why didn't I think of that. 

Venice Day 2

The desk lady at the hotel suggested I take a tour of the islands of Venice. I had originally scoffed at the idea, saying 'well I'm only here for a day and a half, I want to get all I can out of the city, I won't have time for boat tours". After spending the morning practically punching my way through the crowds of tourists I decided a boat tour would be fantastic. When I met my tour group that afternoon I had a silent chuckle to myself to see that I would be joining 7 middle aged couples and a man that looked uncannily like Ben Franklin. But he wasn't the real Ben Franklin, I'm 99% sure. heh heh. 

Anyway, this boat tour is hands down the best decision I've made on this trip. First we went to Murano, where the famous glass is made. We watched a demonstration and then explored the show rooms. Very nice. We then continued on to my favorite part of the trip, Burano, which is famous for its lace. Stepping off the boat onto this Island immedately took my breath away. All of the houses are painted in bright colors to make them stand out. Laundry waves in the breeze as children run around the town square playing soccer. It is right out of a movie. We are given forty-five minutes to explore the island and it's lace shops. I am quickly waved into one and have to undergo numerous sales pitches. The lady tries to get me to buy a lace tablecloth. Ha, I laugh, "I don't even own a table". I continue to chuckle, the lady looks offended. We drop down a degree to table runners. Sadly again I try the table joke, again it fails, surprise surprise. We finally reach the doilies, which she half heartily tries to sell me. I am about to wave her off when suddenly a vision pops into my head. A vision of the most beautiful Easter basket at the annual blessing of the Easter baskets. One covered in handmade Italian lace, purchased in Italy. HA! It' the ultimate trump card. For anyone who's confused, I wait all year for the Saturday before Easter when we bring our baskets to church to be blessed. For some it's a religious experience, for me it's the ultimate competition. Nothing makes me happier than having an old lady look at my basket, then look back at her basket with a dejected sigh. I need this lace.

(Also, I nearly typed basketball 5 times over the past paragraph)

I figure its also good to have so that years from now I can yell at my children "HEY! Be careful with that, it's handmade Italian lace!" Always good to prepare for the future.

After buying my lace I continued to explore the island. I didn't have a watch so I just made sure that Ben Franklin was in my sightline at all times. By the end of the time he began to notice and was creeped out. Hey, you decide to fashion yourself off of a historical figure you're going to have to deal with creepy situations. 

We then continued on to Torcello which was more rural than the other two islands. Much of the island is farmland, except for the oldest church in Venice. A very relaxing walk. 

We went back to the main part of the city as the sun as beginning to set over Venice. Very beautiful. I began my walk back to my hotel, stopping for another bowl of cabbage. Hey, I said it was ridiculous, but it was also delicious and cheap. Unlike everything else in Venice. 

My time in Venice was short, but worthwhile. Highly recommend it. Tomorrow my journey to Rome.

Venice
Obligatory canal with bridge shot
St Mark's
Feeding pigeons
I thought it was nice
Thats just AWESOME
Enjoy your rash, buddy!
This guy made a glass horse in less than 2 minutes
Ahhhhh, Burano
Children playing soccer in the town square...awesome

Sooooo pretty


Torcello
It's easy to love life while watching the sun set over Venice