Rome

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I think Rome is defintely my favorite city so far. When I arrived here on Monday evening I found my hostel, The Yellow Hostel (not that cool despite the good rating) and got some pasta and vino for dinner. I spent Tuesday touring all around the city in the heat, but managed to fit in the Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, etc. I have decided that my particular type of sightseeing can only be categorized as speedseeing because I get through these places pretty quickly and move quickly between sights. I don't have anyone to slow me down and I only see what I care about seeing. Kind of selfish I know, but very satisfying. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in an enormous park reading and relaxing. Which I think I needed after the busy morning, plus I got pretty sunburned so needed to sit in the shade.

Last night started out interestingly. I returned to the hostel at about 8 and used my key to get into my room. As soon as I open the door there is a naked blond girl standing there...who then shrieks and runs for the cover of her bed. Of course I close the door and apologize. She and her friend get dressed and let me in (mixed sex hostel, so you sleep in a room with a bunch of different people), she seems to not think anything of it and I ended up getting invited to dinner with the two of them. So I went out with Brittany and Ashley (you can tell by their names that they are American) from Ocean City, Maryland. They took me to the White Hen Restaurant, which was very good. On a side note, everyone here always dresses very well, both men and women (especially the women) so I feel like a bum pretty much everywhere I go but I've gotten used to it by now I think and don't really care....except when I go out to dinner at a somewhat decent restaurant....then I care.

Today, I went to see the Vatican and I ended up seeing the Pope which was actually very cool. Got a great picture of him about 3 feet away from me. The rest of the Vatican was amazing, but as usual I moved through all the art and even the Sistine Chapel pretty quickly. I came very close to sending Gavin Goshinski a postcard from the Vatican Post Office, because I think he would appreciate it as a Pope fan, but didn't want to wait in the enormous line of course. I'm in an internet cafè/laundry place typing this and doing a load of laundry. I'm off to Florence this afternoon as I've seen what I want to see in Rome, but this is definitely a place I will be back to at some point.

(Again no pictures yet, I promise that once I get to Florence I will upload a bunch more for all the existing entries and the one for Florence too.)

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Photos

A guy with a red cowboy hat
.....oh no wait........thats the Pope!

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TWO WORDS: ASHLEY BRITTANY