Days 5 and 6

So if anyone asks, Rome is WAY different than Germany. Mark and I have both adjusted differently and slowly. If we had made it back to the hostel sooner, I would be able to write more. Basically, none of the streets are straight, and streets merge and change rapidly. So it is hardly possible to follow a map (which is mark's natural tendency) and since the streets aren't straight, aiming in a general direction doesn't really work either...and what we have found is that the worst idea is trying to do both methods at the same time.

Over the last 2 days we have been to the Vatican, seen the sistine chapel, seen a numbet of monuments (most of them were unintentional), walked, walked and walked some more. Our brief itenerary has been something like:

Woke up,
walked towards the vatican
got lost
ate gelato
walked toward the vatican
got lost
walked towards the vatican
got lost
found the vatican
waited in line
looked for the sistine chapel
waited in a line
it closed
ate gelato
decided to walk to the spanish steps (25-30 minutes in theory walk)
got lost
found the spanish steps, met up with melanie and found a hole in the wall restraunt and it was the most amazing restaraunt EVER!!! I would eat there every day if i could.
parted ways with melanie
walked to the part (without getting lost)
got lost
got on a bus that said would bring us where we wanted to go
1 1/2 hours later arrived close to where we wanted to go.
got lost
found where we were
got lost
found the plaza
walked around and gathered food at small shops for dinner
met some of melanie's friends (a porta rican, norwegian, an italian, and 2 americans)
Cooked dinner and hung out
ate gelato
walked to the bus (it brought us where we wanted to go...such a surprise!!)
Went to bed

Today:
I slept well because our snoring friend checked oout.
Woke up and walked to the subway
barely squeezed onto the subway(no joke)
stood in a line about 1-2 miles long
made it into the vatican]
walked around for a couple hours seeing just a few things (really crowded)
got busted for trying to take a picture of the sistine chapel
left the vatican at 1:30.
tried to make it to the pantheon
got lost
found piazza navona (2 blocks away from the pantheon)
got lost
found the piazza navona
got lost
found the piazza navona
got lost
found the pantheon
walked around with melanie and her friend rose
found a restaraunt and ate lasagnae!!! (amazing!!!)
walked around
ate gelato
Rose showed us around and gave us a city tour. She is a jewish italian and knew a TON of stuff. Mark and I were impressed with her random knowledge.
Played frisbee in front of the colloseum
Ate pizza in the jewish ghetto
walked around
parted ways
got lost
found the piazza venezia
got lost
found the colloseum
my camera battery died
almost got mugged by the italian police
got lost
walked aimlessly talking about what we would have done differently
got more lost in the process
found termini (train station)
made it to our hostel
updating my blog while mark is getting into bed

Tomorrow
8am colloseum (inside)
10am leave for the catacombs with melanie
2pm meet up with rose
???

All i can say is that things are different here. I haven't really even had time to update my blog. Needelss to say if you come to rome, DO AS THE ROMANS!!! Otherwise you will get stresseed out! The romans are laid back, but sound intense.

I have enjoyed myself, but if you come here, you need to do 1 of 2 things. 1
1) Read and memorize the map before you come.
2) RELAX, walk aimlessly(you will anyways) and JUST ENJOY IT!

Sometimes we find ourselves walking intensely past giant monuments that are amazing just to get to another place. The best thing is just to enjoy where you are. Okay, i'm tired. I hope to explain more later. We shall see, for tomorrow is another adventure...

(OH, and although gelato is good, it's expensive...the best gelato i've ever had is still the gelato I had in Tonga)