Roma

Hola, here is an article I tweeted last week from Buzzfeed about things you appreciate about America when you've been living in Europe. I would say about 80% of these apply.

My sight seeing around Barcelona has slowed down. Since I've been traveling on the weekends I have been spending Monday to Thursday afternoon on school and Thursday to Sunday on traveling. I will be spending my last weekend in Barcelona, so I will be able to check everything off my Barcelona Bucket List. Also, school is slowing down now until the last week (which happens to be the week of my 21st birthday and the 4th of July), so I plan on hitting the beach, eating lunch in good restaurants, and drinking cervezas, sangria, & some cava. I've decided that I like my house mom's food more than the food in restaurants. When I compare her patatas bravas, tortilla, paella, etc. to that I've eaten in restaurants, her's wins.

On another note, I promised I'd post about Rome 2 weeks ago, and I never got around to it. I have taken a trip to London and Prague since then, but I'll start with Rome. It was a really great experience. I traveled with my roommate, Ben; his sister, Emily; and her roommate, Katie. I am happy I have been able to visit major cities since this is my first time in Europe. Rome was different from other cities in several ways. One is that the metro system is not nearly as developed as those in many other cities. I was told by a tour guide this is because there is so much archaeological history underground that it takes years and years to analyze it and dig out the metro lines.

We flew RyanAir to Rome. If you have never flown with them, then you might want to keep it that way. It was a flying experience unlike any I've ever had before. Here is a pretty good representation of RyanAir.

Deplaning the old fashion way. Not much different
than Wichita Falls Municipal Airport

Once we got there we got scammed out of 20 Euro to take us 2 blocks (lesson learned) to our hostel. We stayed at the Yellow Hostel, which was made for young travelers and was really cool. We met some awesome people there (and some not-so-awesome) and had a lot of fun. There was a bar and restaurant which was really convenient. Our first meal was at a restaurant next door, where I had spaghetti carbonara.

Friday, we started at the Colosseum. I was pretty much enamored the whole time at how huge it was. It was also pretty incredible the Ancient Romans were able to build it in under 10 years. We also walked around the Roman Forum, which was really cool. After a late lunch of pizza we explored some of the other sites Rome had to offer, including the Trevi Fountain. We walked a ton this day, with several gelato breaks, and eventually made it back to the hostel. After a shower, we went to dinner at an awesome restaurant across from the hostel. We drank good wine, ate great pasta, and had interesting conversation. I almost felt Italian. That night we hung out in our hostel and met quite a few people from around the globe.

Panoramic of the Colosseum

Inside arches of the Colosseum

Roman Forum

Crazy & highly entertaining tour guide talking about the
Roman Forum

Trevi Fountain

Throwing in my coin & making a wish

Around 2 a.m. Saturday morning I went with some people on the hunt for pizza. Luckily, there was a pizzeria two doors down from the hostel. Perfect, right? Not so much. The guy working inside was absolutely nuts. I honestly don't know if I have met someone with a personality disorder this bad. One moment he was nice, the next minute he was yelling expletives. He made friends with the girls from California in the shop, kissing them on the cheeks and inviting them into the kitchen to dance. At one point he was standing on the counter where he prepped the pizzas dancing to a Bollywood song. It was so weird. Here are some pictures I took of his erratic behavior when I saw him on the street the next night:

On Saturday we spent most of our day at the Vatican. We purchased tickets online and had reservations for 1:00, but got there a little early. Thank goodness we did because the line was extremely long. I think we heard the line to buy tickets there was over 2 hours long. Regardless, it was worth it. The Vatican Museums were incredible. The detail, especially in the Sistine Chapel, was unbelievable. There were so many pieces of art by famous artists throughout the museums in the forms of sculptures and paintings. The Sistine Chapel had panels that depicted stories from the Bible throughout and was a site unlike any other. Sadly we couldn't take pictures in there.

The ceilings are incredible 

Not a great picture, but this is a mosaic, made out of many
tiny tiles.

Outside St. Peters

Inside St. Peters

After our visit to the Vatican Museums we went over to St. Peter's Basilica. It was another incredible building, both with its architecture and art inside, and it's considered one of the holiest places in the Catholic church. It is crazy how many people of all religions and ethnicities visit the Vatican. There were thousands. We took a quick siesta after the Vatican and went back to the same restaurant as Friday for dinner because we thought it was so good. We went to a few bars in Piazza Campo De Fiorri with friends we made in the hostel.

We wrapped Rome up on Sunday with a visit to the Spanish Steps and caught our flight back to Barcelona. It was funny how much it felt like I was headed home as I was on my flight back to Spain. It was really growing on me at that point. My first trip to Italy proved to be a success though, thanks to great sites, great food, and great company.

Bottom of the Spanish Steps

View from the top