Rome if You Want To

SO, Rome. It's a pretty cool city, no? Yes.
Unfortunately for me, this was the last big trip of my stay in Europe. Bittersweet, to say the least. But it's nice to know I won't have to keep asking myself, "do I wanna take advantage of every moment I have in this city, or do I want to get some sleep and not be tired all week?"
But, it was prolly the best trip yet. I went with Angela, Amanda Hillman, Stephanie McGrane, Elizabeth Martini and Katie Adams. It's good to travel in even numbers.
Let's see... We started off the trip in Sevilla. We took a train ride in the afternoon (2 hrs.) to Malaga. We passed the most incredible sights on the way and Malaga was gorgeous. It took us a while to find the bus stop of the bus that would take us from the train station to the airport (30 min. ride). (We did a lot of trains and planes and cabs and buses this trip because it was significantly cheaper than taking a direct flight to Rome).
When we got to the airport, we realized we were very lucky for having decided earlier to give ourselves a lot of extra travel time during the day, because all of our transportation was taking longer than it was supposed to, Angela forgot her boarding pass, we had to wait in the longest, slowest lines of all time and we weren't moving fast in general.
When we got to the airport, we realized we weren't as lucky as we'd thought. Our flight was delayed. Two hours. They did not, however, communicate this information to whoever updates the boards that indicate which flights leave from which gates. So, when we were left with 15 minutes till takeoff and the board said, "Now Boarding" for our flight, we were a little freaked out that there was still no gate listed.
The six of us hung out in a random terminal right by an Upper Crust (a random restaurant with, what we found to be, a hilarious name). We then annoyed some Germans by slaughtering their language while joking around and trying to read the signs written in German that were all around the airport. So awkward. So worth it.
Miracle in terminal A28: I only had to go thru the metal detectors ONCE during the security checks for this trip! Yet, my contact solution did not make the journey. I half-heartedly argued with the woman that said I couldn't bring it.
"It's medicine."
"It is??"
"Well, I mean, kinda...!"
I was just upset because it was almost completely full, but I had another in Spain, so it wasn't my last container or anything.
On the plane, we all actually managed to sit really close to each other, after a few slight adjustments and this ALL does not include Katie (she was about 6 rows ahead all alone). We had some FREAKY turbulence. I was worried. It was the roughest ride I've ever had on a plane.
The WHOLE plane situation freaked us all out the WHOLE TRIP though. We'd heard nothing but horror stories all week about people getting stuck in random countries because their flights were canceled as a result of the volcano eruption. So we assumed, that, ya, that's pretty much our kind of luck. We were almost certain we'd get stranded somewhere on our way back.
We landed in Rome late. I think it was midnight. We were supposed to take a train to a station that was literally a two minute's walk from our hostel. We were warned to be cautious with our things, that the gypsies were big on thieving.
As a veteran in the pick-pocketing world, I was walking around the station with my bag pressed straight against my chest, with empty pockets and darting eyes. I don't think any of us found it strange that we were alone in the station until about 5 minutes later. The station had closed.
Cool.
Because when combined, our Italian vocabulary summed up to about 14 words. We left the station to find a man with taxi's behind him, that seemed to be waiting for us. He told us he could get us a super cheap taxi directly to our hostel, and it would only cost 2 euro more than the train. Sweet.
NO. Not sweet.
I was already feeling sick from the bumpy flight to Rome, and now this man had put me into bat-outta-Hell cab.
Three of us were in this cab and we were all very nervous. We couldn't even take in much of those first sights of the city because our eyes hardly left the needle on the speedometer. He was FLYING down the streets. And we were never quite sure of which lane he was a part of.
But, we made it. Our hostel was in a decent area of town and the men behind the desk were more than accommodating, knowledgeably and kind. We were walked to our building (there were 3 of them) and then to our room.
And what a room it was: clean sheets (that we didn't have to rent), new carpet and paint, TV, MINI FRIDGE!!! We couldn't believe it. Once he left the room we just paced around the room geeking out for about 5 minutes. But, we were starving (which makes sense considering it was about 1am) so we went to a pizzeria between our hostel and the main building.
The man who worked there seemed to think we'd seen his menu before arriving, because from the moment we walked in, all we heard was, "Yes, what you like? Now you! You like? What you want?"
PUSHY
We thoroughly enjoyed our food and drink and discussed the two day tour we'd signed up for that night. According to the men at the front desk, we could see everything in just those two days.
Then, we crashed into bed.

We had breakfast the next day in the main building of our hostel and got to take showers in the PRIVATE bathrooms on our floor.
Our tour started at 10, so we didn't even have to get up super early. The tour guide's name was Bob. He was the physical equivalent of my youngest brother Evan, but stretched out and aged a few years.
Bob loved history. He was also Irish. Bob liked to pretend he hadn't given this same tour a million times before. So Bob would pretend to search for words to describe things, when he already knew what he was going to say. This got old REALLY fast.
There was the six of us, a Malaysian named Danny, a Brazilian named Paula, and a Brit named Lisa. We all got on very well, except for Danny, the only guy, he was really quiet.
We followed Bob like little ducklings through the rolling, winding streets of Rome as he gave his awkward, yet intelligent shpeel. When we were in front of the Pantheon, a little boy that was part of a large group of young students grabbed Amanda's butt!
He just gave her a devious little smile as she tried to get over her shock. When she told me about it, I looked over my shoulder searching for the perpetrator.
"Oh, I see him. Look at him. So smug, acting like he didn't to anything wrong."
"He didn't. Cece, that's not the right kid."
"I bet he learned that from his father, girls. Just imagine how bad his dad is!" (Bob)
We took a break after seeing the Forum, Mary Major, the Colosseum, Pantheon, and many other hot spots, to have lunch at a place Bob picked out. The waitress was again, very pushy, but somehow really nice at the same time. Our tour was technically over, but Bob kept walking us around and telling us about the things we saw.
Later, we went shopping. I needed face wash and not knowing Italian made this errand take about 15 times longer than it normally would have. The lady that worked at the shop kept handing me some product by Garnier and I kept saying, "NO, for. my. face!"
I DIDN'T KNOW THEY MADE STUFF FOR YOUR FACE TOOoo
The rain had let up in the afternoon and it was actually pretty nice out. We got free pizza at our hostel for dinner (threw some bows to get it), went grocery shopping (where I saw a man pocket a mini-bag of chips and leave. random, but ok.), then we hung out in the room all night.
Saturday was the day we saw everything else that was a "must-see". It was rainy again but we were mostly inside anyways.
When we got to the Vatican, we had to wait in line to get it. But, while in line I saw something SO CUTE, I had to write it down so I'd remember to mention it:
There was a group of teenage-ish boys that were in line, but a little ways away because they were trying to get a picture. I didn't think anything of it at first, because EVERYONE was taking pictures haha. But they caught my eye again a moment later because the boy getting his picture taken was holding up a sign. It said, "Be my date to prom? -Max" I almost let a girly squeal out, it was so sweet! hahah How original! With the Vatican's dome in the background and everything.
The Vatican left nothing wanting. It was beyond incredible. Just amazing. I wanted to lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling for weeks. There are no words.

We had lunch again, but without Bob. We went to the Vatican museum (the only place we had to pay to go into... We were lucky enough to decide to go to Rome on a national holiday weekend, so every other museum was FREE!!)
We saw the Sistine Chapel, but couldn't take pictures. Lame.
Not to be a snob, but I actually almost didn't like it. The colors were inconsistent, the women in the paintings were SO masculine and other than the fact it's the Pope's private chapel and it's so famous, I didn't find it special.
We went to the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain and other things on our own. This rounded out everything we'd wanted to see while in Rome and we still had more than a half a day the next day. So, we went on a pub crawl that night.
Fun FUN FUNNN!
The people who worked there were SO nice, we me the most interesting people and danced the night away. Then, PIZZA (for free)!
The next morning, I had an awkward encounter. After waiting for a bathroom to open up for several minutes, I decided I should wait directly outside of them so no one could jump in front of me.
TEN MINUTES LATER, I was still waiting and another girl walked up behind me. She left but came almost immediately back. She was fat. She was foreign. She was in her underwear.
I took an immediate disliking to her.
Few minutes later, I heard a bathroom door opening. I slowly started standing up and saw the fat girl jump in front of me.
Oh, no. Not THIS morning. It was ON.
As a girl exited the bathroom, I looked at the fat girl standing between me and my well-deserved prize for waiting SO patiently, the bathroom, with annoyance.
She looked at me and I frowned back. My expression asked the obvious question, "What do you think you're doing?"
"You see," she said with her accent, "my friend was in here before you, so I'm going to use this one. You can use the next one when it opens.... [my expression didn't change] Do you understand?" I think she was asking in a way that doubted my English speaking.
"NO!"
"Well," we said as she moved half of her huge ass into to door frame itself, "there is one shower on this floor for each room on this floor."
"There are 2 bathrooms and 4 hostel rooms. No."
"Well, I've been waiting so long... And I'm in a room of four..."
"I'm in a room of SIX! And I was here long before you."
[She gave me a look that told me there was nothing I could do to change her mind. She gave me the eyes of a person that knew they were about to really piss someone off, but didn't care enough to keep from doing it anyway. ]
"Whatever."
When the other bathroom opened it was Amanda who walked out, so I loudly told her the audacity of what had just happened. I think I steamed up the bathroom more than my shower's hot water.
I then repeated my story to my roommates loudly, with the door open. I recall mentioning her size and the fact in the end I, "feel bad for HER, because SHE has to go back to her stupid country and I get to go back to the United States of AMERICA!"
The looks I got from her friends during our free breakfast told me she'd heard me ranting. I'm still unsure whether or not I feel bad about this yet.
Angela, Stephanie and I went to the zoo for fun and had a great time afterward at lunch too. I had a glass of red wine that I really didn't like...
Later that day it was time to leave Rome. We were a little late leaving the hostel and missed the first train to the airport. Great.
Another one came a half hour later though.
We ended up making it to the plane on time and I'm pretty sure all of us slept, because we were in for a long night.
The security check at the Rome airport kept us laughing all night: a little boy had thrown up in the lines for the metal detectors. His mother must have been too worried about her kid's health to let any of the airport staff know, so that they might get it cleaned up. All she did was place a white little napkin (completely unfolded, almost sheer) over the pile of vomit. Much to my disgust, we all then had to pass it and take caution to not roll our suitcases through it or step in it. I guess the people behind us weren't paying enough attention to notice any of this had happened, so they didn't know to look out for it. Person after person. Line after line. People strolled through the puke without the knowledge of its presence. We were too far away to warn them, but close enough to laugh until tears filled our eyes as we watched the line progress and the throw up get smeared farther and farther down the aisle. A little while later, it was still hilarious, and people were still oblivious. Until, a foreign woman with beautiful strappy sandals looked down at her feet and said, "Ooooh! Es vomito!!"
We were rollinnnnnnnggg!

In an effort to save money, we'd decided NOT to buy a hotel or hostel room in Malaga for the hours on Monday morning between 1am (when we landed in Malaga) and 6am (when we left for the train station.)
This left us with 5 fun filled hours in the airport shanty towning it.
We hung out by Upper Crust, rode the moving sidewalks the wrong way, and did a bunch of other little things we've always wanted to do but never had an empty airport to ourselves to do it in!
When we finally left, the guards at the door looked really confused. It was just the six of us leaving and no planes had landed in hours. They asked Katie where we'd come from. Katie looked nervous and then at Stephanie. Stephanie and the other girls were in front of me and none seemed able to speak. I stuck my head in and said, "Roma," and pulled my head back.
They asked us when we'd landed. We said about 5.5 hours ago, but we'd been hanging at Upper Crust.
They seemed to understand.

We called taxis and got a text from the company a few minutes later saying they were there. We looked around but didn't see them. I'd been very specific on the phone about where we were. We got nervous and ran up to the "departures" area to see if they were up there. We could see from that third story level that our cabs were pulling up. To keep them from leaving us, we sprinted back downstairs to get to them. We made it.
We got on our train, got to Seville, took our buses to our apartments and went straight to class.
Great trip