Day 6 (3/27/11)

Today we woke up bright and early a 5 so we could be the first in line to drop our bags off and get through society. After going through all that mess, we found some very comfortable couches where we slept till our gate was posted. This was a dangerous maneuver, as we only woke up in time to walk over and get ready to board! The flight was another semi-empty one; I had my own aisle seat/window seat combo again! Unfortunately there was the most obnoxious little kid on the flight; he just sat there screaming nonsense at his parents while they chuckled and did other stuff. I slept for the entire flight except for the times when I could hear the yelling through my music…ugh. However it was a glorious power nap and I was refreshed and ready to go when we got to the Rome.
We got off the plane and took a train to the baggage area, and from there went to exchange some money. After we were all set we took a real train from the airport into Termini station, which was cool and surprising at the same time. The landscape was what I expected, but the rag-tag assortment of houses and the amount of graffiti everywhere was much different than what I had pictured. Nevertheless, we got off the train and walked a few blocks to our hostel!
The hostel is absolutely amazing; it is very pretty on the inside and extremely clean! After paying and storing our luggage, we set off for lunch across the street at Alfredo’s. We got complementary champagne, which tasted fantastic, and I ordered the spaghetti carbonara, so I could compare it to the meal from London. It was very good, but I actually thing it was better in London; but that doesn’t matter because it was official here! After dinner we walked around the city and saw some pretty cool stuff. First were ruins of an ancient fountain complex that had been taken over by cats (KITTTTYYYYYY!), and next we stopped to look at the Coliseum and the square around it. After we enjoyed the sun and the view for a while we walked back home, stopping once to see Santa Maria Maggiore, which we will have to go back to because it was beautiful.
Finally we made it back to the hostel where we met up with the rest of the group that is staying here (15 of us in two rooms). After unpacking and getting my life in order I took the most amazing shower ever! I could think that because of the 2 days since the last one, or because of the 2 square feet of cold shower we had in London, but I’m not sure… Anyway, after that I sat down to type these up until we decided on dinner!
For dinner we decided to head over to a small pizza place, which was pretty great. We are starting to adjust to the concept of time here; everything is much more relaxed and slowed down than we are used to, to the point where we sat around after dinner for so long we had to ask a random waitress for our check. But its ok, I enjoy the pace and I enjoy the atmosphere here, everyone just likes to chill and have fun. Anyway after dinner we walked home, repacked and went to bed!