Roma: "Hey Look it's The Colloseum!"

Rome! Well we figure out transportation pretty easily before we arrive at our next hostel at 11pm.... A Tent. Yes. We are staying in a tent for the next three nights. and when I say tent, I literally mean four fabric walls with a zipper window.

It consisted of a linoleum floor and a bunk bed with two little lights attached to the wall, and one blanket and pillow each...

Now this would be fine if it was over 50 degrees out and/or not rainy... one could only dream for such weather though.... So we head to our tent in the freezing cold while the rain starts to drizzle.... This is going to be a very... "unique" experience to say the least.

But we drop our things off before grabbing a bite to eat at the campground restaurant before heading over to the campground bar. Here we just hung out when all of a sudden mobs of people come in dressed in either togas or as Oompa Loompas. Literally. This was, well.... it was weird. I mean oompa loompas? what is going on. But then the ooompa loompas started grabbing people and dying them orange from all the paint on their bodies... Me included in this category. One came up from behind and started rubbing my face. I just stood there in shock not sure of what was really going on....

But what made the night even more interesting was when the owner of the place turned off the music and turned on the lights suddenly and started yelling at the mobs of drunken teenagers... But then all of a sudden he stops yelling, grabs a girl onto the bar and starts dancing and the music starts again?! What?!!!! oh well...

So we knew we had a big day ahead of us, so we headed back to our tent where I was nervous I wasn't going to wake up due to hypothermia. I slept with 2 pairs of socks on, 4 layers of tops, 2 pairs of pants and leggings, and a scarf. Even then I could still see my breath and woke up not able to feel half my limbs... The running joke of this was whenwe went to bed, I look at TK and say, "shut the tent, you're letting all the hot air out." Now this obviously was a joke since it was probably warmer outside of the tent...

But it's Easter!!! Off to the Vatican of course! Now you think Easter, and you're supposed to think Spring. With Spring you think nice weather with the breeze blowing, sun shining, birds chirping.... well our day consisted of pouring rain, mobs of people trying to push into the vatican, umbrellas nearly poking out our eyes from every direction, and freezing cold... but we survived and made it!

We were in the Vatican where we saw Easter mass and saw Pope Benedict! A once in a lifetime opportunity. So cool to actually experience... but then mass ended so we went to wait for our bus home... and we waited, and waited, and waited some more in the freezing cold pouring rain... the bus never showed though? We became very hopeful with every passing bus, but never did ours come... This is where Kelley pronounced, "I love the feeling of rejection." Yes.

So we then hop on a tube and another bus to get back to our campground for lunch only to discover the chef had just quit and there would be no more food. Oh this sucks. So back out we go, where we grab a bite at a McDonalds seeing everything else was on Ciesta... again.

But the day started to improve - we went and found the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain where we made our wishes, grabbed some dinner and then came back to our... Tent. Here we all just hung out and tried to think of anything to help keep us occupied... including camping games. wow.

Ok So Monday, April 5, 2010. The weather has improved~! We saw the sun atleast today!! Although there was a lot of overcast, a huge improvement from the past couple days! So today we continued our adventures by going to the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, and Capital Hill.

Now the Colloseum. Ok it is a big circle with arches. Yep thats it.

Ok. It was cooler then that, lets be real... its the Colloseum! It was enormous and just to think about how old it is and how they managed to build it and how well it's "preserved" so neat... But like the Eiffel Tower, it appeared everywhere!

I know Rome and the Colloseum are synonymous with one another, but come on. Every street corner we would turn around and there it would be! So the running joke of the trip then became, "Hey guys did you see the Colloseum???" Because it is near Impossible to miss.

So after we saw the Colloseum from EVERY angle possible, in and out, we headed across the way to the Roman Forum where we are given a free tour by famous actor, Aaron Eckhart (2-Face from The Dark Knight). Ok well it wasn't him, but might have well been!! and he gave a nice, short, sketchy tour where he repeated, "This is a free tour if anyone wants to join..." 15 times. Literally. We counted.

Then it started raining. again. Ugh this has got to stop. So we go back to our campsite... again. Another night of feeble attempt at entertainment in our tents before bed...

Today must have been a day for the Gods! SUN, WARMTH, HAPPINESS. So with this, we head over to the Vatican Museum where we waited fr 2.5 hours, kicked a person out of line, and paid way too much to get in. But we made it, so we walk around, explore all the statues, artifacts, etc. and then decide to head for the Sistine Chapel...

Well 34 rooms later, we finally get to it! When you get in though, they yell at you to be quiet, no pictures, and to move quickly. So it was really neat to see, it was big; but not the size I was expecting I guess? Still amazing to see one of the most famous paintings in the world!

So we are rushed out and explore the rest of Rome... Headed over to St. Mark's Basillica, hung out in the middle of Vatican City, and then grabbed some more food and some more gelato.. surprise surprise.

But we ended up heading over to see the Spanish Steps, the Trevi, the Colloseum, and the Pantheon because of their fame for how they look at night... Well the Spanish Steps looked the same, The Trevi was awesome, and the Pantheon was under construction.... Wow. We fail at this whole timing issue.

But after the most walking we have done this trip,going for roughly 14 hours. Wowza... No worries because tomorrow we head out to Greece!

Cannot wait for sunshine and gyros!