End of Spring Break

Spring Break was great, and we had seen a lot of things on our BIG day in Rome. But we were ready to go home, to our own rooms, with our own beds. So we got up early that morning, and got ready.
We dropped off our luggage at the train station to hold, and we stood in line for our train tickets to the airport forever. The customer service at this train station was horrendous!!! So we finally got our tickets and went out shopping. We headed out to do some last minute shopping. We left on a Saturday morning and, things weren't really open yet... So it was a little frustrating trying to shop, with 1 or 2 shops open.
There was something really funny. There was a Kebab shop, and the sign was spelled wrong..

 We got back to the train station with tons of time to spare. We got on the train, and got to the airport an hour earlier than we needed to, but we were ready to go.
We got off the train and went to the board with all the flights on it..and our flight wasn't on it. The airport that we had come into, WAS NOT THE AIRPORT WE WERE LEAVING OUT OF!!!! GAHHH!! How had I overlooked this!!!??? lol. It was an instant panic, so we pretty much ran outside of the terminal, and jumped in the nearest taxi. He told us that he'd have us there in 40 minutes. We told him we needed to get there as soon as possible, and so the taxi driver drove 100 mph on tiny little roads, tailgating people!! It was insane!!!!
We were about 5 minutes into the ride, when it was like the subtle, put on your seat belt after a fast turn.....lol.
We got there 20 minutes later!!!!!!!!!!
It was crazy!!

We got in the airport and got through security, jumped on our flight to POLAND!! lol. yes Poland. Ryan Air didn't do a direct flight that day, so we went to Poland for our connecting flight.

We got into Poland and got our bags, then tried to re-check our bag. Now the guy in Rome had been really chill and let our bag go in for 17 kg when it was supposed to be 15, but this girl didn't let it fly. So we had to figure out a way to take out 2k. So that was interesting.....lol.

We had to wait 2 hours or so before they would take our bag, because we had a long layover. We went to dinner in the airport, but we had a nice dinner. The polish dollar/currency is worth about a 1/3 of an American Dollar....so that was fabulous!!!

We got a few souvenirs, and whatnot..then went and dropped off our bag.
We got through security and waited at our gate....
While we were waiting, "Wedding Crashers" was on the TV. It was translated into Polish, but there weren't different translators for each character, or for even male or female. It was one single monotoned man with NO inflection in his voice, doing the voices for all the characters. The translation was hilarious.
Our flight got delayed 2 hours so needless to say we got to finish the movie....

We flew to Edinburgh, and then took a taxi home because our flight got delayed we definitely weren't making the train home....

But we did get to ride in a super nanny taxi...so that was cool.

All in all, spring break was amazing. We saw everything we came to see!!
We Came, We Saw, We Conquered.

Day 2 of Rome on Spring Break

Our second day in Rome we got up bright and early and headed for the Roman Forum.
It is located right next to the Colosseum, and it was the city center for the ancient Romans.

It was very cool, lots of old ruins and whatnot. There were still some really big columns up, which gave a sense for how tall the buildings were.

After the Roman Forum, we headed for the Pantheon. This was not one of the stops on the bus, but Amanda really wanted to go there, so we did. The Pantheon is an old temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa, for the ancient gods of Rome. It's a circular building with a cool front. So we did that pretty quick.

Then we headed to the Vatican, but first we stopped for lunch. We ate lunch at this little restaurant with outside tables and it was adorable. I think I ate spaghetti, but I remember it being great!

We did a little bit more shopping along the way and then we made it to the Vatican. Now I always thought that the Vatican was super secure and you needed to cross the boarder and have your passport yaddah yaddah yaddah, well no. Not even close. We just walked on up to St. Peter's Basilica.

funny sign for amy

This was a rather funny moment. Allie is probably the most innocent and sweet girl alive, and she had decided to wear a dress to the Vatican. She wanted to dress up and be nice to go there.

Well when we got there they told her that her dress was too short ( because it was above her knees) by like an inch. So they were going to tell her she couldn't go in. Allie was so sad she almost started crying, and they told her to just hold her jacket around her waist, so her knees weren't showing. Well then I had an idea, Amanda was wearing a long, jacket, and so Allie put that on and it covered enough.


 So we were calling Allie a harlot the whole time, when she was just trying to be respectful!! It is funny now, it was not funny in that moment. So we went and walked around there, we saw the catacombs, of all the dead popes. That creeped me out. There were just marble boxes that said "John Doe X II" It was creepy. So we did that, then we went and saw the Chapel inside the basilica.

We were able to take pictures and it was GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! -Churches aren't really my thing, but this BLEW MY MIND!!! ( It is also the church where the Angels and Demons took place, where the bad guy runs down the stairs to where the old popes are buried. Well they weren't allowed to film in the actual place itself, but they did it in a replica! But it was a very well done replica. It was GORGEOUS!!!!!

So after the Basilica, we decided to find the Sistine Chapel. To do so we had to walk around this wall until we found the entrance to the Vatican Museum. We did a little bit of shopping before we got all the way around, and got some gelato as well.
We got to the Vatican Museum, and it was really cool. It wasn't just the Sistine Chapel, but lots of other things. So to get to the Sistine Chapel, you have to walk through other things to get there, other hallways, galleries etc.

 I thought since we had paid to get in there, that we should take the long way and see what there was to see before he Sistine Chapel. If it's good enough to be in with that, then it must be good. So we walked through painted hallways, painted rooms, hanging artwork, it was great.

Then we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, and it was dark. I suppose that's to help preserve the paint, but it is dark and there are guards in there telling people not to take pictures, when no one is listening, and not to talk. and NO one listened to that. So I decided probably one of the worst jobs in the world would to be the shusher at the Sistine Chapel. Talk about no one listening to you...hah.
I didn't take any pictures in there, it was dark....

I have to say it was cool, but I feel like I have been amazed more with other work. I know that's not what people are supposed to say, but It was cool. I'll give it that, it was very cool. But I wasn't like OMG when I walked in. But I expected to feel amazed, and then it was like, Oh, This is it? But anyways. So we continued through the maze that it the Vatican Museum, and found the statue garden/exhibit. We checked it out and found that Hagrid had been put in the museum! lol.

After the Vatican Museum we caught the bus and got off at the Trevi Fountain. On our way to the trevi fountain, we found something else amazing! THE ROME DISNEY STORE!!!

Very cool. I went in and found a Rome Disney mug and an Italian flag vinyl. So I bought them. haha. Then we were off again in search of the Trevi Fountain. It took some searching but WE FOUND IT!

The Trevi Fountain was what I had been looking forward to ALL DAY!!! possibly because of the Lizzie McGuire Movie, or other reasons. But it was AMAZING!!!!

We hung out there for a few minutes, and omg it was beautiful.

After the Trevi

There was also a pretty fountain at the Spanish Steps.

After the Spanish Steps, we went and caught the last bus back to our stop, and went back to the room.
My feet had NEVER hurt so bad, but we saw soo much!
I don't even know how we saw all that in 1 day!!! It was very cool though!!!

Until next time.....

Off to Rome!!

Thursday morning, we got up bright and early and headed out to the train station. There was actually a bus that picked up from the train station to take us to the airport.
So Brandon got up with us, and made sure we got on the bus okay. It was hard because I was excited to go to Rome, but really sad to leave Brandon again.
But I was on the bus and going to Rome, so we got to the airport, and jumped on the plane for Rome.

We flew into Rome and made it by 11. The airport that we landed in was connected to the train station, and so we walked over to the train station to catch a train.

There is a direct train to the train station by our hotel. So we jumped on and were off to Rome!! We got in, and headed towards our "hotel". Where we stayed was called the Caildini Inn, advertised as a Bed and Breakfast. We went down Caildini st, which is more like a block and there were only two things on this street. They were both residential, and intercom system on the outside where you could buzz someone. We passed this and walked on the street behind it, looking for this place. No one knew where it was, and that was rather concerning. We were smack dab in the middle of Rome's Chinatown also...lol. So that was interesting.

We got the address of it and went back to that residential intercom board, and see in tiny print "Caildini Inn". GAHHH!!! So the lady comes down and gets us, takes us across the street and up to the "inn". AKA an apartment she converted into three guest rooms. It was not the worst place I've ever stayed in, but it was interesting.

We dropped our bags and got ready to go out and find dinner. We had purchased a hop-on hop-off bus pass for 48 hours, so we decided to take that to find dinner.

We took it to the Colosseum, and got off. Allie had seen some restaurants across the street from the Colosseum, so we headed in that direction.

We decided which restaurant to eat at, and then got some food.

After lunch we went to the Colosseum, and oh my, it was amazing!! Very cool!!!
This Colosseum is the largest in the world and often referred to as THE Colosseum, there are actually a few, but this is the largest and most amazing! It was used as an arena for entertainment. Sometimes they would flood the bottom and have ship battles! This one also housed gladiator battles, but more went on in the Verona Colosseum! It literally blew my mind.

We hopped back on the bus and rode it around the rest of the way. Learning about the Vatican, Trevi fountain, palaces, fountains among other things.

The Vatican

When we got back to the stop closest to our hotel, we went and found dinner. I got amazing pizza and we did a little shopping.

After dinner and whatnot, we walked back to our hotel. It was just after dark, and ALL the worst people in town decided to congregate on our walk home. We were nearly running home, it was insane. We made it safely, though.

Until Next Time...