So last time I posted, I was about to head off and catch my overnight train to Rome. It's now five days later and I'm in Florence (so much for posting once I got to Rome lol). Anyways, my email had been hacked in that time, so I've been trying to sort all that out, as well as making sure all my other accounts were OK. If you have received an email from me saying that I'm in the UK and need money desperately, ignore it. If you've been following my blog, then you'll know that I'm fine and am nowhere near the UK. Anyways, I'm now in Florence, and I have free time, so let the recounting begin.
Day 53: I was on the night train to Rome, and luckily I was in a compartment which had a lock on it. It was a six seater, with two bunks up top. I was only sharing with one other person (a German guy named Lucas), so we had heaps of space. I didn't end up sleeping on the bunk up the top since it was high and it didn't have a barrier to stop you from falling off, so I ended up just sleeping on the seats below. The guards check the tickets quite often, and they'll knock on the door until you wake up to show them your ticket. Got woken up three times. You would think that once was enough, but they keep changing guards and everytime that happens, the new guard wants to check tickets again. Anyways, after a very long train ride, I got into Rome at 10am, checked in, and headed out to explore the city. Interesting story: I got stopped by "policemen" who accused me of illegally exchanging money with a guy on the street (when I was only helping him with directions). I don't know if they were legit or not, but I had read about this type of scenario in my Lonely Planet book. They then ask to see your wallet/money (which they did) and then they handle it, and stuff goes missing. Luckily I only had a 20 euro note in my wallet, so there was no way I wouldn't notice it going missing. They didn't seem satisfied with my lack of money, so they kept demanding to see the rest of my money. "Other money, other money where?" and asked to check my pockets. Losers. I had nothing in my pockets besides coins. This went on for a while, so I just started to pretend to not understand anything that they said. Eventually they let me leave, whilst the other guy was being "searched". Maybe the other guy was an accomplice or something. I have no idea. But at least I still had everything. So yeah, not the best way to start my time in Rome.
First stop was the Colosseum. It was pretty close, and the line to get in wasn't too bad. Apparently it gets really bad in summer, but during winter, the wait is only around 10 minutes. No student discount though, which is annoying. The Colosseum is impressive. It's in really bad condition though. Anyways, after a lot of looking around, I was ready to head out and check out all the other ruins in the area. To be honest, I didn't even know the names of things I was looking at. I just knew that they looked important. I still don't know what they're called, but I have identified them on the map that I have of Rome (mainly because it's in picture form lol). It was a pretty gloomy day, and it actually started raining. I hadn't seen rain since Paris. It was definitely a welcome change (at first). It's also amazing how many umbrella salesmen pop up once it starts raining. You couldn't walk a block without meeting one who would be willing to sell it to you for a "very good price". Anyways, it was pretty much raining all day (quite hard too), but since I was in Rome, I needed to make the most of my time. I ended up just walking around everywhere trying to cover as much ground as possible. Later on that day, I found out that I had walked down the Spanish Steps without realising it. They were bloody slippery. At about 4pm, I found myself standing outside the Vatican. Since I was already there, I thought "Why not?". Went into St Peter's Basilica and stayed a bit to see what mass was like, which started at 5pm. Decided to leave the Vatican Museum for the next day since it was about to close, plus I was really hungry. Headed back to the hostel via train (so bloody packed), and had free pasta there. After dinner, two middle-aged British ladies (who worked at the hostel) suggested that we start drinking. How random. We ended up playing UNO as a drinking game (although it wasn't so much a drinking game, but more like drinking while we played the game). Ended the night by heading out for a late dinner at a nearby pizzeria.
Day 54: Found out that three other guys who I had met playing UNO were also planning on heading to the Vatican so we all headed out together. There were so many "tour guides" along the way to the Vatican trying to sell their services. It was so annoying. And a lot of them were so rude. One of them, after helping a tourist with directions, asked if she needed a tour. The tourist declined. The "tour guide" bitch stormed off muttering "Thanks for wasting my time". So many instances like this. I hate people like this. To me, they're disgusting human beings and deserve to be shot (although I can't do that, so I just don't acknowledge their existence). We finally got through all the hawkers and made our way up to the very top of the dome of St Peter's Basilica. Great view!! Next stop was the Vatican Museum which was quite expensive (plus they also didn't give student discounts). One of the guys I was with ended up having an argument with the attendant because she wouldn't recognise his student card from Spain. She was a rude bitch. It seems that Italy is filled with rude people, moreso than Paris. I didn't even bother showing my student card and just bought an adult ticket. The musuem was huge. There was so much to see in there, but to be honest, it's still just another musuem. The only thing I really wanted to see was the Sistine Chapel. When we finally got there, I must admit I was a little disappointed. I've seen way more impressive ceiling works of art, one of which was in St Peter's Basilica right next door. Anyways, lunch, and then amazingly delicious gelato at this little hidden place which we searched for for quite a while. They had some really interesting flavour combinations such as sage and raspberry. I ended up getting chocolate and orange, and lemon cheesecake. It was easily the best gelato I had ever had. Pretty much after that, it was just more walking around to see the sights.
Once I got back to the hostel, I tried to log onto my hotmail and found that I couldn't do so. Logged into my gmail and saw an email from my hotmail account. I had been hacked. Apparently I was in the UK and in dire need of 1800 pounds because I had lost my bag. I was so fucking pissed off. I couldn't get into my hotmail at all. The hacker had changed my password, my secret question and the secondary email to which a password reset link could be sent. There was no way for me to access my email. I looked at the time the email had been sent, and it had only been sent an hour earlier. I was still able to log onto Facebook (thankfully) and warned everyone who I thought could be tricked into thinking the email was really from me. My friends, I wasn't worried about. As most of them know, I am a grammar Nazi. The email which was sent from "me" was littered with grammatical errors, and was not punctuated correctly at all. My friend Cathy posted this on my wall detailing the ways in which she knew that email was not from me, which made me smile.
- You wouldn't write to me so formally in an email
- It is not punctuated properly and there are a billion grammatical errors
- You aren't presently in the UK and I hardly think you would spend time on your trip on a 'program'
- You won't even need £1800 considering the time left you have on your trip. Also, what 'hotel bills', you're not staying in hotels?
- 'Cell phone' - pfft, mobile please.
-...and pretty sure you'd know that if you wanted to contact me immediately you'd check Facebook first haha.
Anyways, hoping that the whole email debarcle sorts itself out. Hotmail is taking a long time to respond to my problem, but if my email has been blocked (meaning the hacker can't access it, then it's all good). After realising there was nothing left for me to do about the situation, I joined up with the UNO gang and we had dinner and a few bottles of 1 euro wine. Not the best wine, but drinkable lol.
Day 55: Headed out to see more sights. Like I said, I don't really know the names, and to be honest, I don't really care. Rome, for me, has been quite a disappointment. I constantly have an uneasy feeling here, and I don't actually feel safe. We have a local guy staying with us in the hostel (until his flat is ready for him to move into) and he told us that the area where we were staying was a pretty dodgy neighbourhood. I guess my senses were accurate. I was walking around with the guys from the day before, and one of them noticed that a dodgy looking guy was following us. We pretended to stop to look at souvenirs and noticed that the guy also stopped (albeit by a payphone). Started walking again and what do you know, he was behind us again. We ended up going inside a church to lose him, but when we came back out, we could see him standing in the courtyard looking extremely shifty (possibly looking for his next victim). I guess he didn't see us, because he wasn't following us as we left the church. Dodgy son-of-a-bitch. Another person who deserves to be shot. Anyways, it was a pretty quiet day for me, and I headed back to the hostel quite early (at 3pm). Ended up helping the owners decorate the hostel, before taking a nap. Pasta for dinner again, before heading to a medieval bar with a new group of people (since most of the UNO gang had checked out). Late night, but it was OK since I had done everything I had wanted to do in Rome, and the next day would be an even lazier day than today was.
Day 56: Woke up at 11am. Went out and saw the Trevi Fountain. I had actually thought I had seen this before, but apparently not. I had seen some other fountain and mistakenly crossed off the Trevi Fountain on my map. This is easily my favourite thing in Rome. It's beautiful. Lunch was pizza, which was amazing!! Definitely way better than anything Pizza Hut could ever make lol. After that, it was simply a matter of souvenir shopping, which actually took quite a while. Nevertheless, I still had a pretty short day, an ended up back at the hostel at 4pm and took another nap. Woke up just in time to have dinner with some of the people I had met last night, followed by more wine. Pretty much, today was simply a lazy day. You wouldn't even know that I was in Europe, unless I hadn't gone to the Trevi Fountain.
To sum up my time in Rome: I enjoyed the hostel more than I enjoyed Rome. Rome was a big fat disappointment for me. I'm glad I had such a good hostel and was able to meet so many people so that at least my time in Rome had some positives. I've never had so much wine in my life before I came to Rome. every night, we would crack open a few bottles. But yeah, I don't know if it's because I'm just tired of travelling or whatever, but Rome just did not live up to my expectations and I was just bored of it by the end. Definitely regretted booking four nights there. Rome is probably not a place I would return to. I'll definitely come back to Italy to explore the south one day (in summer though lol), but Rome is done. I should have cut down on Rome time and extended Bruges time lol.
Day 57: Today. Had some leftover pizza for breakfast, before heading off to the station to catch a train to Florence. Found out that the regional trains (which are free for me with the Eurail Pass) only came every two hours, and I was almost about to miss it. I had yet to buy my postcard from Rome, and was constantly tossing up between buying it or just running to jump on my train. In the end, I decided that I needed that postcard because otherwise I wouldn't have a complete set (later on, I realised I already didn't have a complete set because I didn't get one for Marseille because I hated it...guess Rome could have had the same treatment lol). I ended up running and getting a postcard from the newsagent at the train station and then ran like a madman to the platform, with my backpack half-off, my carry bag off the top of suitcase and my suitcase banging into everyone who got in my way. I managed to jump on the train with 30 seconds to spare. Awesome. All that was left for me to do was settle down, and enjoy the ride to Florence. The ride was long. I should have just paid the 5 euro fee and hopped on an fast train and gotten to Florence in 1 hour 35 minutes. On my super-slow regional train, I got there after 4 hours. Nevertheless, I got into Florence which is all that matters. Checked into my hostel, which is half-hotel, and is amazing. It has a free gym, sauna and pool. Too bad I didn't bring gym clothes or boardies. Sigh.
Walked out and explored the area. Went straight to the place where Michelangelo's David was housed. I have to admit, it was simply breath-taking. I actually sat there and just admired the statue for a good 15 minutes. It's amazing to think that Michelangelo carved that thing out of a block of marble when he was only 29. Wasn't allowed to take photos though, so I then headed to a plaza which had a replica of the statue in the courtyard where you could take photos. After that, I simply explored the city. Saw a lot of stalls selling eather goods, which Florence is famous for, so I took note of what I could buy for my Dad and brother. Dinner was pizza, which was horrible compared to the ones I had in Rome.
Now I'm back at the hostel using their internet, which you have to pay for, but I just hopped onto a computer and it was already logged on so I haven't paid anything and I've been sitting here using it for the last 2 hours. Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Pisa in the morning, and then coming back to Florence and buying souvenirs/gifts. I'm quite tired of travelling, and tomorrow will probably be a pretty lazy day. Tomorrow will be my last full day outside of Switzerland!! I'm so excited to be heading back to Switzerland so I can finally relax and not feel guilty about just being lazy. I'll be able to have one night's sleep back at the house in Switzerland, before I'm heading up to the Alps with my relatives, but that'll be really fun so I'm definitely looking forward to that!! What better place to learn how to ski and snowboard than on the Swiss Alps?
HBL signing out from Florence, Rome. Ciao bella!!
No comments:
Post a Comment