Ancient ruins, bitchy rose vendors, and hostel bar madness...

So I had to get up early for my flight for Rome today, and it didn't help that a new hosteller in the bed right below me started snoring louder than anything I've ever heard in my life. I was eventually wide awake and could hear everyone else rustling too. I could feel their energy sayin"somebody tell im to shutup!!" I tried earplugs but the actual bass note of the snoring was reverberating through my bed. Eventually, I turned on my light, reached down from the bed and poked the jerk. He was some chatty Aussie dude in a midlife crisis or something staying with 20-somethings in a hostel. Some new girl a few bunks over from Austin, Texas warned me that he was chatty and that he snored...nothing I could do though. Witholding my rage, I poked him and said "HEY STEVE." "...Huh? What? Yeah"? He said, startled, mid-snore. "Your snoring is keeping a room of people awake, you have to stop. This can't go on" "Oh, sorry mate, ya it's just that this is my first night's sleep in a long time and blah blah blah..." "Yeah well, you have to stop." " Yeah I reckon I can go downstairs now, you think they'll let me? I'm rested enough..." I sensed that this was a problem that he's dealt with before. "What time is it?" He asked. "It's 430 am."Ya I'll just go down then." "OK..." And with that, he put on his shoes and left the room. Thank the LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, I can sleep. Victory! I'm glad I dealt with it this way as I was having darker thoughts about dealing with the problem...I've clearly been watching too much Dexter at home...

Headed off to the Metro, dropped off some postcards on the way. Made it to the Airport with plenty of time to spare, though I didn't eat any breakfast, so I spent 7,90 euros on a double "Mugaccino" and some yogurt at the only cafe near the gate. I had 60 euros left to  my name as it's been over 2 weeks without the possibility of withdrawing cash from an ATM. Let's hope Italy is different...

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It's hot in Rome....my bag is ridiculously heavy, why I decided to have a back pack on this trip I have no idea, I lift heavy shit all the time at work and now every day on my vacation I'm carrying my 50 lb backpack. I use wheels to carry shit at work all the time...why did I have to take "backpacking around Europe" so literally...

Found my hostel, Alessandro Palace. Very cool old building. Super nice people at the desk, showed me to my room with SEVEN other beds...uh oh...but it was empty right now. Went to do some laundry...and turns out they do it for me! I had a coupon from the hostel and it only cost me 6 euros and they washed and dried everything for me...awesome. Good start. Next priority, get food. Found a cheap kebab and a beer. So delicious...but I'm predicting many a-kebab to be eaten in the near future for sustenance...like 3,50 plus 2,00 for a beer. Wicked. Then the moment of truth...went to the bank machine, and like the 20+ times I tried to withdraw money in Paris, I put in my code and expected the same message to pop up...then I heard bills flipping...HOLY CRAP! IT WORKED!!! SO friggin relieved...some Aussie man and his son were standing right there and caught the moment and I explained to them...they were laughing as I must have looked so relieved...

Then I had my first experience with an Italian guy. With a my wallet now slightly padded, I sat down at cafe and thought to look through the menu to order some fancy coffee...but I really just wanted a normal one (even though the normal ones in Italy are tiny espressos, FYI), and I tried out my rusty Italian. "Il menu, per favore" Then he suddenly went on about why I needed a menu; imagine this rambling but in italian and really quick with lots of hand gestures :" A menu? Why do you need a menu? It's a cafe! Why don't you just order coffee if you want coffee, look around everyone's drinking coffee, she's drinking tea, they're having a beer, why do you come to a cafe and want to see a menu, this isn't a restaurant...." etc etc...So hilarious. I love how direct he was. I laughed and of course just had a coffee.

So my first night in Rome was awesome. I met this Asian-Aussie girl named Saet (like "say it with flowers) who was in my room. We got there the same day so we decided to hang out together. We decided to take the big red tourist bus tour of Rome to check it out; this may seem really touristy and it is, but it's a great way to see everything at least in a short amount of time, you can hop off anytime and restart the next day even, and you can figure out where you want to go later when you have more time. It was also good we were together because she had a terrible sense of direction. Sorry Saet if you're reading this...actually I can't find her email so I doubt she is reading this...

So far I've ordered food, asked for directions, bought stuff all in Italian. I'm pretty impressed with myself so far, considering it's been 7 years since I've used it. Saet and I went for dinner near our hostel and had pasta and pizza and cheap wine...god I love Italy and Europe for that. We met up with some Americans in our room and went to a bar at another hostel called Yellow Bar; freepour cocktails woo! One of the americans worked for Kleen Kanteen stainless steel bottles and I told him I had one and I loved it so I was his best friend. Pretty chill night with some chatty Americans and Saet.

The next day we got off at St. Peter's Square and hung outside the Vatican, then wandered down to the Spanish Steps. Bought a little gift there, tons of artists like Place des Tertres in Montmartre in Paris. Some sketchy guy started talking to me and shook my hand and I was sure he was trying to distract me from something, so I kept checking my pocket and backpack...paranoid? Maybe. But it happens. At the bottom of the steps was some classic Idian dude with a bunch of roses who tried to give us one. I know their game; they see a guy and a girl together, assume they're romantically involved (could be related), force a rose into her hand and say it's free, then chat the guy up and eventually get money. Well, silly Saet took the damn rose then he started talking to me "where you from?" etc. I said right away "no thanks, forget it." And then he lost his smile and cussed me out in hindi. Hilarious. 

We walked down to the famous Trevi Fountain and took some pics. We walked to another major plaza and had some pizza and gelato...mmm...then we tried to catch our bus but just decided to walk to the Forum Ruins after all. Saet was tired so she went back and I went into the forum with just an hour and a half of daylight to spare. Whipped out my 50mm lens and got some neat shots. So cool, the layers of rock and marble excavated over the years. Walked all the way back to the hostel and grabbed a kebab on the way. Went down to the bar to find some friends. Cool little bar, lots of anglophones of course. Met a couple cool Colombian chicks too. Later we went to the Yellow Bar again with the Americans. It was closed from the outside so they started banging on the door as they had been drinking a bit more. I thought it was a lost cause, but someone actually came around and let us in! We got inside and the place was nuts! This is where it got...interesting. Immediately there's a hot girl in her bra dancing behind the bar alternating with the bartenders. Some other really drunk girls stumbling around. It was insane...Felt a little uncomfortable as some of the guys well knew that they were hammered out of their minds as they were "dancing with them". Didn't take long for topless girl to lose the bra and start dancing out on the floor with everyone else...then a little later it didn't take long for her to be on the floor and some friends tending to her condition. I met some cool guy from Surrey though, he was half Puerto Rican or something so he had a bunch of latino buddies. It was a fun but crazy night; I didn´'t stay much longer after and went off to bed.

There was this hilarious overweight Argentian dude named Ezekiel in our room who was at the bar and was dancing with one of those girls, and then got all pissed off when one of the americans "took his girl". It was so funny how angry he got "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him in his sleep." He spoke english really well but when he spoke, he kinda yelled and was really intense, so everything he said souded like a threat even if it wasn't one.

I was the first one back in the room but they all came in after, most of them drinking. I kinda wanted to sleep but we ended up all just talking and laughing most of the night. Ezekiel was really drunk and kept sayind "De floor is movink" And he couldn't say Saet's name so he called her "Sand". Saet would make fun of him and had a hilarious laugh. It was pretty cool; 7 or 8 of us all in the room from all over the world having just met, laughing hysterically. Arty, a nice guy from Daytona Beach said we were the best bunch of hostellers he ever met. Wasn't one bad apple in the bunch.

The next day I got up and went to the Colisseum with the Columbian chicks. I've seen it before but it was really cool to see it again. I got in free with the Spanish guided tour as I had a ticket already from the ruins and just followed them. I headed back to the hostel, and had to switch rooms cuz I hadn't actually booked a hostel, so I paid more for a 4 bed room. Met my 2 American hosteller roommates, and headed to the train station. 

I was headed to Albano, then to Ariccia just outside of Rome. The sun was low in the sky and the orange light lit up an ancient aquaduct that ran along side the traintracks...so cool. Looking forward to seeing my old roommate Corinna from Paris. The last half of my year there I lived with her, we met at school and pretended to be a couple so we could rent the 1 bedroom plus den apartment in Chinatown in Paris. It came down to that, it's so hard and expensive to find a good apartment there.

Corinna is so great and caring, like a big sister/ fake girlfriend. Can't wait to see her.