Catch up/bad news

Yesterday was insane. We woke up super early because Dan Dan (crazy girl) wanted to be out of the hostel by 8:30 am. Fine, grand, evs. I got up at 7:45, took a shower, at some breakfast. Breakfast at this hostel is some cereal, yogurt, bread, swiss cheese, this kind of soft bree-like cheese that you can spread on toast, and loads of coffee. It's wonderful. We ate and left for the hill. I really don't know anything about Palentine hill. I should do some research before I try to talk about it, but it's really cool. There is the Via Nova which is awesome to walk down at dawn. All the domes and arches and those chariots on top of that building look amazing. I feel like Rome is just a city of layers. That's how I like to describe all the roads and alleys and from somewhere a little higher up it just looks like it's going to go on forever with layer after layer of buildings. Oh but the tragedy of this day was that my camera wasn't fully charged for some reason. And it was half alive when we started out in the morning. So I was seriously conserving energy. Instead of taking ten thousand pictures of every ancient stone on that hill, I was jotting down notes. And of course these girls were asking me constantly "what are you writing?" Leave me alone bitches. Ya'll can know my notes though.

Palentine Hill: 9AM--morning, sunny, misty

Via Nova--forum, chariots, domes, arches

layers, pigeons on heads of statues

terra cota

clear pool

Neronian cryptoporticus. "it's just a dark hallway." stfu bitch.
I really don't think that bird was trying to kill you.

AVLAM PALATINAM

oval, windows, columns fallen
I feel like they may have placed some of this stuff to make tourists happy.

DOMVS AVGVSTANA

I want to break the rules. Never travel with a group again. Check out your split ends while you wait for people.

The forum was supposed to be next, but Kelsey and I basically got ditched. Dan Dan went ahead with two other girls we met at the hostel. They texted to say they were leaving the hill for the forum so we said alright fine, we'll follow you. We thought we had to leave the hill to get to the forum though. You don't have to do that. By the time we had walked around the corner passed the Colosseum they said they were leaving the forum and heading to the colosseum. I was so angry. If we left her she would just curl into a ball and die on the side of the road. We followed this arrow though thinking we could get in and see it really fast or something before they got to the Colosseum. Instead we went into this really cool and empty church. It was also seriously creepy because a little girl is burried there--glass walled tomb. Really freaked me out seeing little girl skeleton in a wall.

So, no Forum for now. The Colosseum is cool. I may have just been in a bad mood at that point, but it wasn't like I wanted to drool or sit there and stare at it for a hundred years, but it's definitely cool. They had to block off part of it because there was woman there who went over the fence and was just sitting on the edge of the wall and talking to the fuzz. They got ambulences there and the fire brigade and there was helicopter hanging around for a while. It was crazy.

Lunch at some little restaurant. I got canaloni. It was delicious. This place gave you cheese in a dog dish with a huge spoon. Awesome.

We met this other girl in the colosseum that's staying in this hostel and she hadn't done the Forum yet so I went with her to see that while the other girls went back to the hostel because Dan Dan was having camera memory card issues. Bummmmmer.

The forum is cool. I feel like some kind of tour or other information would make it a little cooler, but it's amazing to just be there and see something for real that you've seen so many other times only in books or on tv or whatever. There's a tiny little exhibit that from the entrance just looks like a bunch of heads on sticks. Apparently that's all that was left of these statutes they found.

On the way to meet up with everyone else this other girl--her name is Rachael--and I came across the Vittoria Emanuelle II building. It's awesome. Massive winged chariot peoples on top of this building and enternal flame things going on and guards with real guns. It's so cool. A really big white triumphant building.

We regrouped at the Pantheon. The Pantheon is the shit. I think it's so cool. It was my favorite of the day. The ceiling blows my mind. I know it's supposed to, but seriously. It's poured concrete, and there is no ribbing or rebar or whatever in it. How does that work? How did they get it up there? How does it stay there without the keystone? So far, the Greeks win the statue contest, but the Romans have their domes figured out. I didn't know that Raphael was in the Pantheon. Really, I didn't know where anything was in Rome. I'm getting the hang of it though.

After that we saw the Trevi Fountain. It was fun finding this one. It kind of comes out of nowhere, but when you get close you can hear the water falling. It was exciting. It's really beautiful. We got there right around dusk too so it was even more perfect. I through a coin over my shoulder. Just one. I guess that means that I'll be back someday. That's what I was told anyway. I don't think it would too terrible to swim in. The walk anywhere afterward would be terrible.

Spanish steps are cool too. After the first few at the bottom they are all in groups of 12 steps. Kelsey was counting them. I really like the fountain at the bottom though. The church at the top is class too. This guy handed me some roses and I said no, but then he just kind of put them in front me. I didn't want to move though because I was just standing at the top of this mountain of steps and taking it all in and being chill. I thought he would just leave if I ignored him, but they are persistent. He asked me if I had a husband. Then he was gone again for a few minutes. Then he asked me for money. I gave him a Euro. He gave me a rose for real. I didn't want the freaking rose. What am I going to do with a rose? Just walk around with it? Luckily, we went into the church after that. I'm used to the candles being everywhere and the money boxes and all that, but this cool church also had vases of roses. Perfect. Kind of. For the wrong reasons, but oh well.

After that we kind of all wanted to chop our feet off, so we headed back to the hostel. We really didn't know what we were doing though and kind of just backtracked all the way down to the Colosseum again. It was great though because we saw the Forum at night down this little side street thing and there's huge random church right across from it where we took some seriously dorky photos.

Yesterday was Vatican day. Sistine Chapel, lots of statues, some Egyptian stuff, modern catholic art. That was kind of weird. A big tapestry of the last supper. Lots of Raffael. It was cool--huge long corridors covered with paintings or maps or tapestries. There's a really cool globe with all the astrological signs and constellations. The Basilica though. That's definitely around the top of the list of cool stuff I've seen. It's just so huge. If you pay 5 Euro you can climb however many, 500something, stairs to the cupola. It's so cool. Best 5 Euro I've spent so far. You're going up tiny spiral staircases and ramps and when you get really high you know you're in the dome because the wall is slanting toward you and you have to kind of walk leaning to the side. And the view from up there is ridiculous. It doesn't look real. I felt rushed up there though. It was just the crazy girl and I and the others were down there sitting somewhere waiting for us, and when we were coming down they sent us a test that they were going to eat each other soon and we needed to hurry. That kind of pissed me off. We're all adults right? You can leave.

We were leaving the Vatican when we came across nice and cheap postcards. That's when I realized my card wasn't working. I have my Irish debit card too, and it only had like 20 Euro on it or something, so I could pay for my cards and stamps, but we went to an ATM right afterward and I couldn't do anything. So, I had no money--no cash whatsoever either. The nice girl bought me lunch though. I'm going to make her dinner when we get back to school because apparently she doesn't cook so she just eats random stuff all the time. That's awful.

But when I got back here to the hostel I got online and was waiting around for peeps to get online. I didn't have any skype credit to call someone, but Adrianna got on and she is so thoroughly wonderful that she put skype monies on my account for me. So I called the bank and they transfered me to the fraud department and this girl was talking to me and she sounded super bored and was reading off some charges that were iffy to them. She didn't say anything about Rome though. Like, you have two charges from Rome. Are you in Rome right now? No it was like there's a charger from some restaurant and she spelled out the name of the place. Yes that was me. And the only other thing was something she called "chickoria." And this I'm still not sure about. She said it was "like a movie ticket, or show, or cinema, something like that." And I know I didn't try to get a movie ticket, but I did try to reserve tickets for the Borghese museum the night before. I don't know why it would say other shit like that though. When she read that off I said no I definitely didn't do that, but I was thinking about it later and maybe I did. But I don't like to think about it now because it just pisses me off and there's nothing I can do about it anyway. Anyway, my card was "hot listed" and canceled and I can't use it anymore it's worthless. They are sending madre another one in the mail that will get to Bremerton in 7-10 business days and Ireland who knows when.

In the mean time, things haven't gotten much better. I called the bank was asking what my options were or if I even had any. And tshe told me to go to Western Union because they do international wiring stuff. So cool, Madre got online and looked everything up in English cause everything I was looking at was in Italian. Found a place that was right where we were going--Camp de Fiori. I calmed down a bit, everything was going to be fine. I got there this morning and it didn't work. They said that they couldn't do it from the bank, it had to be sent from a person. Fuck. They told me to try a different place down the street. So I walked up and down Corso Vittorio Emanuele for about an hour. Apparently working at a Tabbachi shop is a woman's job and I asked two old Italian woman and they didn't speak English and they were not happy with me. Even though they had wester union stickers on the windows of the shops...really annoying. Anyway, I came back here, and have been chilling. Talking to Adrianna, waiting for madre to be on, thinking of what I could do for free. Thinking if eating is really that important. Maybe it's overrated. But I think it's okay now. Adrianna was going to give me money. I said no for about an hour and then she was talking about pizza and gnocci which I haven't had yet, and artsy things, so okay. But Madre is back now so I think we're all good. I don't have to feel as guilty about being a pain in the ass.

Anyways, once this is figured out I'm going to the Chiesa del Gesu for sure. Then up to the Piazza Navona for some artsiness. Keep going up all the way to the Piazza del Popolo. And if my feet don't wear out by then I'll see if I can find the Parco Gianicolense. I don't know how it is at night. If it's freaky or sketch or whatever, it's close to the hostel. No big deal.

We're getting blessed by the Pope tomorrow. Should be fun.