America 1 + America 2 take a trip: DAY 19: Roma, Roma, Rooomaa = love, love, looovee

Even if all things weren't relative, this would have to be one of the best places ever. Our morning started extremely early, due mostly to all of the things that Katie described in the previous blog. To add to it, I definitely saw a hooker snorting drugs off a table that a man—presumably her pimp, maybe just a helpful fellow—was providing for her. Also, I take 100% of the blame for choosing the place without properly looking at the reviews, a combination of excitement at only 8 euros per bed (should've known), relative nearness to our previous hotel, which had gotten good reviews for being in the non-touristy part, and just a wee bit of stupidity. So thank god nothing worse happened. And like I said, no one actually accosted us, though I was definitely planning our getaway and back up plan when we stood outside with our luggage whilst waiting for someone to buzz us in.

So, early morning. Don't think either of us got more than 2 hours straight sleep, and we both froze to death from lack of blankets. Result: very keen to go. We were attempting to get out by half 7 anyway for our 10:45 flight, and all things considered, it was a good move. After dropping the keys at the front desk after no manage person could seen, save a sleeping body snoring on a hastily made cot in the corner of the main entrance “room”, we bolted and made it through the relatively quiet streets (druggies are late risers; makes sense) unscathed and took the metro to Syntagma, where we awaited the connection to the airport. Sadly, we could not fit with our luggage onto the one that arrived concurrently with us, so we decided to wait for the next one. The message board said the next train in 5 minutes was to a different place, so we waited for the one after that...which was also to that other place. Waiting another 5 minutes to see if the next train would be the one to the airport, we were foiled again. And again. Basically, we watched about 4 or 5 trains come, all on the same track as the airport one, but none of them going there. So, we decided to push our way onto this other one, which we found out (after cleverly looking at the Metro map) stopped two stations before the airport on the same line.

So off we went, cutting it a little close. We had shoveled down some Museli (literally) in the station, but had no real food in our haste to flee the den of iniquity and were getting fairly hungry. However, by the time we made it to the station, it was 10:00 and we just got our tickets. We meandered towards the gate, passing the lovely breakfast and coffee stations with tears in our eyes. The security was on the other side of a plastic border from our gate and we could see the line forming at the opening, but no one was moving though. Timing was clearly perfecto. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes (could've gotten food!) before boarding. Because of this, we both caved and got breakfast/lunch on the plane. And Oreos, because we could. And, I must say, they were three of the most fantastic Oreos that I have ever had. And that's saying a lot for generically processed junk food.

I got the window seat and made the most of it, not even sleepy for the flight. We flew over the top of the Peloponnese and I got to see the canal and the Acrocorinth from the SKY—ridiculously excited, though I managed to keep it inside. We crossed the various islands in the Adriatic and flew over Italy, which looks like...any other place with fertile valleys between hill/mountains. But blue skies made it even more lovely.

Touching down, we high-fived (a tradition of ours after anything done particularly successfully well—i.e. surviving mental drivers, mountain roads with sheer drops, and unexpected druggie riff-raff encounters in this case. Deserved of a high five, at the very least)) and went to get the Metro train from the airport to the bellissima Roma. After a depressing result of 14 euro each, we were on the train and off! We reached the bed and breakfast in short order and lugged our suitcases up the stairs of this apartment complex with a very rickety, minute elevator (the kind where you can see all the mechanics of as you walk up the stairs. I do not want to see the ancient winding part; I want it to work and be blissfully ignorant that it might kill me). We met Rene, a (we've surmised) French man living here with his family, who speaks English very well, is definitely not Italian, and a relatively lax guy. He was very helpful and gave us a map and suggestions and led us to our room, which looked like Nirvana after the night before. (Sidenote: it still looks gorgeous today also).

I hadn't planned anything in our itinerary for the afternoon, not quite sure how to plan for post-travelling. But, both of us were ready to go out and about, which we did around 4. We used our handy map and began wandering the streets. The whole time we've been here, we've been referencing how much better Rome is than Athens, and we marvelled in the fact that we felt completely safe wandering around here. Of course I managed to stumble upon the sketch part, but that is an unavoidable personal talent, and even this version of sketchy is nothing compared to the night before. So we wandered until dinner, me attempting to keep us away from the Forum area, where we would be going the next day. We ate at a little restaurant on the sidewalk outside and enjoyed the evening warmth, which was amazing. I had pizza with pineapple (thin crust was amazing) and Katie had some fantastic ravioli. Post this, we treated ourselves to waffle cones with 3 types of gelato in them each (we kept excusing going out AND getting dessert by saying it was making up for the last Athens night): I had strawberry, mango, and flori de leche (flower of milk-obvs-which is cream like) and it was fantastic, while Katie had lemon, strawberry, and cream-flavors with whipped cream on top, which she also scarfed down. We walked while we munched/slurped and actually came out next to the forum, which was so so so cool and overwhelming. We saw Trajan's forum and column too, and continued up into the old city part to find the Trevi fountain, which took awhile since I refused the map and tried to do it by previous Google mapping sessions. Overshooting slightly, we stumbled upon the Spanish steps and the Keats and Shelley house/museum (another really cool thing!) and wandered back after taking pictures, following a slight panic when Katie moved away (she's says I moved; movement is relative I say) and I couldn't find her for a couple seconds. We basically spiralled around the street the Trevi fountain was on (I KNEW it was in that little square area) and once we found it, we each duly threw a coin into the fountain, also stopping to mock the other tourists by imitating their ridiculous picture, as demonstrated by Katie.

And there's the pose..

This accomplished, we returned to our rooms, pleased with how the day had turned out. Having already showered in the afternoon, Katie sat down to blog and I to rest (this being 9 pm). I passed out and Katie, as is seen in the previous blog, was nice enough not to wake me when she finished writing. All in all, one of the best first days in a new country that we have ever had (of all three so far).