Roma, no podré olvidarte!

In case anyone is wondering, the title means, "Rome, I won't be able to forget you!" And that's the truth. I must say that cities like Rome and Paris will constantly have me coming back, begging for more. I haven't felt that way with other cities like Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam, Prague, even Budapest. But with Rome and Paris, there's always something else to see. Which is why I will always be back.

I wasn't super excited about jetting off to Rome after only being in Granada for three full days. But hey, I paid for it, and a stay in a 4 star hotel, and what kind of selfish brat would I be not to go and appreciate it for what it was? And so, at 5 am on Thursday morning I was promptly meeting other API students at the bus stop to head to Malaga for our flight to Italia.

We arrived in Rome to overcast weather on Thursday, but it wasn't raining, so I was thankful. (I slowly met new API students throughout the weekend, which was good, but it's proving to be difficult to remember everyone! There are so many of them!) Allison, Sam, King (new person-awesome!) and I went to our first Italian meal at a restaurant called Pastarita near the hotel. I had some pizza and it did not fail to satisfy me--delicious! Then Allison and I relaxed and napped a little at the hotel. After showering we decided to walk over to Vatican City which wasn't more than a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel. We entered the "city" at dusk just as Mass was going on, and I must say it couldn't have been a more beautiful sight. People were gathered in the center of the plaza, in front of Saint Peter's Basilica that loomed above them, and each person held a candle in a red candle holder, giving the illusion of thousands of red tinted flames among the crowd. A choir sang hymns, and every so often the crowd would utter their prayers in complete unison, echoing throughout the giant courtyard. Allison knew the prayers they were speaking even though I think they were in Italian! Or Latin maybe. She was raised Catholic so she knew them just from the flow of the words. Darkness continued to envelop the Mass, and as we walked further away from Vatican City we could still hear the prayers, songs, and see the faint lights. It was really a calm, beautiful experience.

We wandered over to the river, and as we were walking, the shrieking sound of firecrackers hit our ears. So we ran over to the river for a better view, and for 15 minutes fireworks sailed over atop the Basilica and the river. "What a nice welcome to Rome?" I couldn't help thinking to myself. Sometimes when I'm here in Europe I just can't believe I'm actually partaking in the things that I'm doing. As we were walking, we were just thinking, oh, you know, no big deal, just walking along the Tiber river in Rome, underneath fireworks being shot off from the Vatican, on a Thursday night. Cool! :) I have these moments from time to time. I had a hunch that a collection of blue lighted arches on the other side of the river signified Gelato. So we crossed, following our stomachs, and sure enough, we happened across our first Italian Gelatería! I had chocolate (like always) and we walked back to the hotel completely satisfied with our delicious treat.

Thursday night Allison, Sam, King and I, along with a few other API people that I am not totally sure of their names, partook in a pub crawl. This was really fun because I haven't ever done a pub crawl before, and I've heard they can be rip-offs but this one seemed well worth the price. It began at the Colosseum, and from there a huge group of people headed off to this restaurant, where we received awesome t-shirts, had an hour long open bar, and got pizza included in the price. From there the entire group-I'm guessing over 50 people headed to another pub by bus, and then again to another. I spent most of my time at the second pub dancing with fellow API students, some Italian boys, and just having a really fun time! The pub crawl was really fun because I met Brits, Italians, Swedes, Spaniards, Americans--it was a blast!

Friday we awoke to a most curious sight-SNOW! Apparently we were fortunate enough to be in Rome during it's first snow in something like 30 years. So, while I was quite cold, and my feet were very wet, it was still a cool and very memorable experience that morning. We went on a bus tour of Rome, which I was quite sleepy during and kept nodding off in the warm bus, only to be rudely interrupted by random walks outside in the slush rain snow. Allison and I ditched the tour a little early because it was just extremely cold and wet and we were borderline miserable. So we hopped into a café and downed some hot chocolate, which is really more like melted chocolate than hot cocoa, and then headed back to the hotel. I had some quality bonding time with Allison, which was nice! We have a similar budget for our travels, and we'd both already been to Rome so we weren't interested in the touristy stuff so much. We started watching the Olympics! And took a nap in our lovely hotel room. Man, I miss that bed and those towels! haha. We were living the high life. Friday night after dinner we walked up to the Spanish Steps, had a nice little romantic time up there, ha! And then we took an early night in due to Thursday's late night out, and we were like a little married couple reading our books in bed in the hotel listening and half watching to BBC. Precious!

Saturday, our final day in Roma, was shockingly beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky, we could hardly believe we were in the same city as the day before where it had been snowing! Allison and I ate a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then set out on a leisurely stroll towards the Colosseum. We walked by the river the entire way, as it was a nice walk and a good alternative to getting completely lost in the streets as we headed to the Roman Forum. It was toasty warm to us Washingtonians, so we just walked around in our t-shirts. Yes it was probably like 55 degrees, but compared to the snow on Friday, it seemed like summer! We got many stares though from fur-coated Italianos. Don't be hatin! :) Seeing the ruins in Rome was cool as ever, I always imagine who walked around there thousands of years ago! We finished off our day with some shopping at H&M, I bought a new coat! and then spent the afternoon napping like usual. I know it sounds lame, and lazy, but I've been sick for two weeks, and after walking for four hours one is quite tired! We finished off our trip to Rome by meeting up with Tina, Emily, and Alyssa, some of the other "Year" girls. We grabbed our last gelati for the weekend and took another spin by the Spanish Steps.

And that was basically Roma! =) It was a blast, I loved every minute of it, from the naps to the walks to the buffet breakfast at the hotel, to the pub crawl. It was an amazing time.

And I am out of my funk that possessed me before leaving for Rome. Now I'm back in action, communicating a lot more clearly in Spanish, and ready to plan some trips! I just purchased reservations for the a Mediterranean Cruise for when my mom comes to visit me! It will go to begins in Barcelona and goes to Spain, France, Italy, and Africa!! It's going to be a blast, I can't wait for her to get here, and it's right around the corner. This weekend I'm going to Cadiz for Carnival, and I think Ana has come up with a good, warm idea for me to dress up as a kitty cat! :) Still trying to fit in trips to Portugal, Galicia, and Morocco, but we'll see how the rest of the semester treats me, both money/time wise. My 20th birthday is a week from tomorrow, and I'm excited to celebrate but bummed because Ana and Jess will be in Paris! But a whole week alone in the apartment will allow me to adjust and start a cooking routine for the rest of the semester. Life is lovely, I am very happy and settling in quite nicely at this point. I will go to the gym tomorrow for the first time, exciting! And my only wish is that the weather would improve a bit, so I wasn't so cold all the time! That's about it though. Anyways. Oh-Olympics--go US!! I hope I can catch a few events at a bar or something while I'm here! Love & miss everyone, hope to set up some skype dates in the near future!

Besos, MacKenzie