My Roman Holiday

Typing that is so weird. Saying that is weird. Currently everything except what I’ll need for today and tomorrow is packed. We have to go through our food and clean our room. It’s so weird. I’ve been trying to imagine what it will be like going back home and I can’t, really.

I’m going to miss my roommates. The independence. The public transportation. The crazy weather. The guys at the fruit stand who actually stopped being creepy. Our apartment with the balcony and the stupid door that is never quiet. The grocery store. Actually using cash. Wait-no, I won’t miss that part. I’ll miss the people, though. And the languages. And the history and the museums and everything that makes Rome Rome.

I’m excited to have a dryer, a toaster, a microwave. I can’t wait to see my family, my friends, my books, and my pets. It will be nice to pay for everything with my debit card, to not have to convert everything to euros, to leave my passport at home. I can’t wait to drive and sleep in a bed that doesn’t feel like rocks and see signs in English.

But I will miss so much. I only just met a guy that I could really like (already do), but I wil probably never see him again after tonight. I will miss Romina, who has a job here in Rome after her graduation in a few days. I will miss Stefanie and Lindsay and Ashlyn and the random AUR friends I’ve made.

It’s just such a bittersweet moment, right now. I wish I could stay in Rome for the rest of the summer. But I know it wouldn’t be enough. I want to go home and see everyone I love, but I want to stay in Rome with all the new people I love, too. It’s confusing and irritating and depressing and exciting and now I’m going to cry because I don’t want to go.

Well, I guess now is a good time to plan my trip back. I think December is probably appropriate, yes? Yes.

I have been a busy little bee studying for all my finals this last week. (Lies.) But I did manage to find time to go to the AUR farewell beach party. It was on the beach, and there was a buffet with seafood, and music. It was appropriate, considering my shoe broke on my way to the bus, so I barefooted it (and got all the weird looks, but I mean really, BEACH PARTY. No shoes needed). Awesome party. Met a guy, jumped in the ocean, didn’t have a hangover like everyone else because that happens when you don’t drink. Successful night? I think yes. Which is good, because I spent the rest of the weekend doing nothing productive at all.

So only a few days after I sent Mama Kell on her merry way back to the states (I hate dropping people off at airports, I always cry), I was on my way to Dublin. Alone. At 3 in the morning. Only to be ripped off by the cab driver and have to wait outside Ciampino because that stupid airport doesn’t even open until 5:30am or something. Argh. But, anyway, Dublin was awesome. It was definitely weird being in an English-speaking country. I mean, I think they were speaking English. With their accents, they were more difficult to understand that Italians speaking Italian. It’s part of their charm.

My hostel was actually really nice, and I’m sure it’s pretty easy to find when one is not sleep-deprived and starving and slightly directionally challenged (like me). Nevertheless, I eventually found it and finally heard a real Irishman say “top o’ the morning to you.” At which point I started laughing hysterically until he gave me my key. Really, though.

The people in my hostel room (all 17 of them) were pretty cool. I met some really nice Danish girls, some Canadian girls, a random German guy, and a bunch of French people. There was also a smattering of USian in there somewhere, but I can’t quite remember where.

Traveling alone is kind of nice, because I got to do everything on my own schedule. I got to wander around and do nothing the first night, and then pass out early like a grandma (just not my grandma, ‘cause she doesn’t go to sleep till 5 in the morning). Saturday I took a free tour of the city and met even more people (they’re everywhere, it’s hard to escape them). So we hung out afterwards with our insanely attractive tour guide (yes, I got his Facebook. no, I will not share). 

I also took a tour of Trinity College, which was absolutely beautiful and when I am rich I will build a time machine and go back in time so I can go to college there, before seeing the Book of Kells. Now, before I saw it, I can honestly say that the only thing I knew about it was it shared my name. So, naturally, I told everyone that it was a book about my famous ancestors. Sadly, no one believed me. But the book was pretty awesome, managed to sneak some pictures because f*** the police. (Sorry, mom.)

After that was just food and waiting for the plane. I spent so much time in airports that weekend that I am officially okay with never setting foot in another airport ever again. Seriously, a 7 hour middle of the night layover in London with a probably-drunk, lonely British lady following around will do that to you.

Basically, I love Dublin. I love Ireland. I’m going back. Probably moving there.

We stayed in Manarola for 2 nights and Vernazza for one night, but we managed to see all five towns during our stay. The trains were so handy because you just hop on one and 5 minutes later you’re in the next town. (It was also nice that no one checked tickets, so we didn’t ever really buy them.) The towns were absolutely beautiful - so colorful and vibrant and gahh I loved them.

Mom and I walked the trail from Manarola to Corniglia on our second day, which was definitely an experience. The trail that follows the coast was closed because of a mudslide last year, so we ended up taking the trail that goes straight up the side of a cliff and then straight down the side of a cliff. The information says it should only take 40 minutes to walk between these two towns. I say this is a lie. We took 4 hours (technically 2 because we stopped a lot for breaks, pictures, and a nap at one point). Corniglia was definitely nice, but it was the walk that was most impressive. Beautiful views of the ocean and the two towns. The pictures are amazing and if Tumblr decides to start working again, I’ll post them!

Our third night we stayed in a really nice place in Vernazza. It was raining, but for some reason that seemed appropriate in this town, which was my favorite. The church was gorgeous and it was just so…I don’t even know but I loved it. There wasn’t much to see so we mostly walked around by the water and ate, but it was definitely fun.

We saw Monterosso and Rio Maggiore on our last day. Didn’t really spend too much time in either place, just checked out the beach and the towns before we were done. The fun part was our boat ride from one to the other (Monterosso and Rio Maggiore are the furthest apart, so it was about 30 minutes long). I forgot how much I loved being on a boat, and mom got some pretty nice pictures.

After that was our never ending train ride home and then all of the public transportation back to my apartment, where we promptly passed out. (Necessary.)

Having my mom visit me here was so amazing and I’m so glad she made the trip. Ideally, it would have been her, my dad, and both my brothers (plus Annie)…but that would be a lot of plan tickets, so mom worked out just fine. It was crazy being able to show her around and actually knowing what I was talking about when we were in front of a particular building. I also managed to introduce her to the wonderful world of Italian public transportation without either of us getting fined!

Mom is such an easygoing person that having her here didn’t really change my routine at all. When I went to class or was too tired to do something, she grabbed a map and was out sightseeing all by her lonesome. (Yes, yes, I’m a terrible daughter, I know.) We did manage to fit a lot into 10 days, though. We did the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, an AS Roma match (pretty damn awesome), the main sights in Trastevere, the four (five) Altars of Science, St. Peter’s Dome, Cinque Terre, and other random stuff around Rome. It was a pretty packed trip, even with me taking days off because of an ill-time cold.

I’m so glad she got to spend time in Italy, because she rarely goes on big trips and she’s only spent a day in Rome before. Especially since her birthday was the day after she got here (happy birthday, mama kell, you da best). Hopefully, it was a memorable and enjoyable trip for her too!

Margherita Pizza. Naples. ‘Nough said.

Actually, not enough. Naples was kind of nasty. We were really only there to get lunch before driving back to Rome. So the pizza was awesome (and by awesome I mean heavenly.) We tried the typical dessert of Naples, called ‘struffoli,’ which is basically fried dough made with flour, sugar, eggs, lemon, rum, and completely soaked in honey. Not really my kind of dessert, but glad I tried it.

Hmmm, so we last left off in Capri, yes? Yes. Well after Capri there was Pompeii. Which was, y’know, kinda cool. It’s not like it was an entire city that was wiped out by a volcano or anything.

I did learn that when a volcano erupts, the lava is not what kills you. It’s actually the noxious gases that are released looooong before the lava even makes it down the side of the mountain. (So all the movies where the lava is speeding down and covering everyone and all the people are running - false. These people would already be dead from the fumes and lava actually moves like molasses.) Which was nice to know because I was always under the impression that these people were covered in lava and had a horrible and painful death; compared to that, suffocation by toxic fumes doesn’t sound too bad.

Anyway, Pompeii, very old city. I kind of tuned out the tour guide because she got off on very long tangents and I was more focused on all the adorable puppies. There were so many puppies. And when I say ‘puppies’ I really mean ‘dogs the size of me that are so fluffy I want to die.’ Just so we’re clear.

It was pretty cool, we got to walk around the town and see all the old frescoes and the awesome view of Vesuvius (I climbed that!). The roads were stone and actually had indentations from the carts that were wheeled around constantly. And in the every once in a while there were these stones across the road connecting one sidewalk to the other, because apparently when it rained, the road became a giant sewer and no one wanted to walk in that shit. (Literally.)

But did I mention the puppies?

So you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in about a month. Several reasons for this. First and foremost, Tumblr is being a stubborn little shit and freezes my computer every time I try to post something here. (I know, so fun!) Until I figure out why my computer insists on betraying me in this fashion, I’m just going to update you without pictures. Hopefully text posts will actually work!