Roamin Rome

This was the joke Ali told about 20 times the day we left for Rome. If I had known how true it would be, I still would have gone, I think I just would have gotten some of those gel thingies for my shoes. I'm slightly ashamed to say it, but the first thing we did when we got to Rome was go to McDonald's so I finally was able to get a Big Mac-about halfway through said Big Mac I started to remember again that I don't like hamburgers. But the fries were good and so was the milkshake, since I also haven't had one of those since mid August. We stayed at the Nazarene Church for the first three nights, so on those nights we made our own pasta because it was cheaper than going out. The four nights, three were spent at a hostel, which offered free breakfast and free pasta dinner, and the last night was spent on the airport floor, because it saved us 24 euro. Things we saw: The first day we spent pretty much trying to find our housing and then we went out at night. The first night we saw the Spanish steps-still trying to figure out what the big deal is about them. We also saw the Trevi Fountain-the one girl with us who had been to Rome before went running ahead, the Trevi is her favorite, only to find them cleaning it. Apparently someone had thrown red paint into it. But on the bright side, we got our very first gelato that night, which was amazing. The thing I found interesting about gelato places, and we went to enough of them since we got at least 1 gelato everyday, was that the servers would be astonished if all you wanted was one flavor. Certain sizes got certain amounts of flavors, so if you said one flavor, they would say 'and'. The first few times I was so shocked that I just pointed out other flavors, then after that I just said 'nope that it, just that flavor' Any guesses as to what that flavor was? And surprisingly, since I know this would be the number 1 guess, no it was not chocolate. On our first full day in Rome, we were taking the bus to the center of town, there were no seats so we were just standing in the middle part of the bus. All of a sudden a man gets on with his guitar and comes and stands right next to me and starts 'serenading' us, quite energetically too, since I almost got hit in the face with his guitar at least 5 times, what a way to start off our day. That day we saw a pyramid in the middle of Rome-again, have no idea the significance, but it was sort of shocking to see a pyramid in Rome. On Sunday we went to the Nazarene church service-seemed only right since we were staying right above the church-but the whole service was in Italian, so none of us understood a word. But at one point the pastor asked us to say something about ourselves and our visit to Rome, which was interesting. That afternoon we went to an old church-it seems everyday we went to an old church-but this one had a crypt underneath that had five rooms decorated entirely with human bones-4,000 people worth of human bones. One of the creepiest things I've ever seen, and photos were not allowed-so I bought a postcard because I didn't think anyone would believe me when I told them. On Monday we moved into our hostel, we were put on the fifth floor- and the staircases were pretty but a pain in the butt to climb. They had an elevator, but next to the elevator on every single floor was a sign that said 'This lift is faulty, we are not responsible for your safety if you decide to use it' so I decided not to use it. The rest of the week is sort of a blur on what we saw when. We did see the Trevi when it actually had water in it, and it was cool. We went to Vatican city on the day that the Pope speaks, and I was right next to the fence that he drove by, so I was about 3 feet from the Pope for about 10 seconds. We were also stupid enough to go to the Sistine Chapel that day-when everyone else was at the Vatican City to hear the Pope speak and would naturally go to the Museum while in that area as well. It took forever to get to the Sistine Chapel, and it didn't look the way I had pictured it in my mind. Maybe that is because the room was crammed with people and was a lot dimmer than I thought it would be. We saw the Colloseum, which was really cool even if only 20 to 30 percent of it is original, all the rest is restoration over the years-one of the many facts we learned on our guided tour. We went to the Pantheon-also crammed full of people, but I'd hate to see it at the peak of tourist season. At one point we went to a National Museum which was interesting but it was also at the end of a really long day, so most of us were exhausted. In between all of these things we saw about 8 more really old churches- including the oldest church in Rome dating back to I think 341 AD, and a ton of fountains. It was an amazing trip that I'm glad I was able to enjoy. I hope to post pictures later today.