Roma / Rome - Day 1 - Part 6 - Europe Trip

“No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention.  Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day.  This is all practice.” 
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

Ok.  I should apologize for not getting back to this sooner.  I know it's been a month and a half, but more life changing experiences happen almost every week in my life lately.  After my trip to Cali I know where I want to live, San Diego.  I backbacked through all the best cities for free crashing on couches I found on couchsurfing.org.  If I were to tell you to do one thing right now, it's sign up for that website, it'll expand your world in ways you never thought possible!  :)  I went to San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Tijuana, MX for free for 12 days, and you can too.

Other happenings in my life include not being able to find a new roommate, which is going to cost me a lot of money in rent.  I didn't want to give up my place in MT Adams, but the universe has bigger things for me, so I'll be putting my notice in on my apartment, and move out by March.  As luck would have it, I have a friend closing on a house offering me dirt cheap rent for the duration of my stay in Cincy...funny how these things work themselves out when you worry so much and enjoy the ride.  So, the last thing I need to do is find a job.  I've built my resume up more than any person I've met over the past 7 years, so this won't be an issue.  San Diego beaches here I fucking come!!!   Also, if you've ever wanted to make a big change in your life but have been too hesitant or afraid of being alone, I want you to read this post by my friend, a Cincy native who  made her first scary trip out of a 10 year marriage and the best job in the country to find happiness, and found more than I could've hoped for her in Hawaii of all places this year.  http://chroniclesofriddikulus.blogspot.com

The Colosseum

Onto Roma, Italia day 1!!!  Now that I got my rant about my American ignorance of the public transport system abroad, let's go onto the city.  I stayed at the hostel The Yellow which, as all good hostels do, supply you with a map of all the big toursity shit to go see.  This is a life saver I found out later in my trip since you are in Europe, with no GPS and not everyone speaks English...ok, that's only part true.  Did you know that Rome was founded by the legendary twins Romulus and Remus in 753BC?  Turns out the story goes they were sentenced to death as babies, were saved by a she wolf, and years later they made their own 2 cities founded on where they thought they were born.  This pissed the other brother off so much he killed his Remus.  The city needed women, so they invited everyone from the surrounding country, at which the men of the city abducted all the women in what is known as the Rape of the Sabine Women...yup, the more you know.  Hahaha!  What?  

Old ruins from the Colosseum. 

The Colosseum was just amazing!  It is just a marvel of human creation!  When you walk in, it feels like a football stadium, but it's all made out of stone.  I've been to the Packers Stadium and the Bengals, and you don't get THIS feeling where your jaw drops.  This is a 2000 year old structure that held some of the most violent events of history.  This is a  place that held gladiators fighting to the death against criminals and wildlife.  At one point, it could hold up to 50,000 people. The Colosseum was used to kill 9000 gladiators and 10,000 animals in a 117 day killing spree.  There are even paths underground so that this could be made into a navel warfare event.  Awesome!  

Part of the Roman Forum, or kind of like a market, religious area, etc.

Look what I found on Palatino hill!  So random

America!  Fuck ya!!!  ;-)

Everything in Rome is gigantic, and historic, and breath taking.  It also turns out that Rome, is the most American city I've ever seen in Europe.  They speak better English there than in England, so you know it's a huge tourst area for Americans, Australians, Canadians, and well, the rest of the fucking world.  Hahaha!  When you see all of the signs in English, and the waiters don't have Italian accents at all, you know it's not an authentic Italian city anymore.  

Oh, and there was a dance club in the hostel's basement
where I met some of the coolest friends in the world!

Roma / Rome - Colosseum - Part 5 - Europe Trip

Colosseum is fucking massive!

The original plans for the Colosseum.  

So on today's episode, I let you know how ignorant I am as an American traveler.  On June 11th, I traveled from Naples, Italy to Rome or Roma via the metro.  Now, seeing as I have absolutely no experience with trains because we just don't use them here much, I had no idea what to expect.  I mean, NO IDEA, like even how to buy a ticket and if my credit card would work.  Turns out my credit card does NOT work at most train stations which led to many not so funny stories.  It also turns out I brought the WRONG check card with all of my cash in my bank account so I had to transfer funds from one bank to another.  Then, it took 1 week to transfer those funds, so when I did I thought I had enough for my trip.  To top it off, my check card also didn't want to work at some of the ATM's.  This led to another funny story of why I didn't make it to Amsterdam's red light district!  Fuck my life right?

Random Californian I met.  

It's tall too. 

Huge marble gladiators.  

I think the one thing that saved my life is that I had friends from Naples already before I went there.  That's why I booked my ticket to Naples, Italy, because I had someone to tell me about the area.  Once I was there, I had 6 weeks to travel, random number I know, but I had a few drinks when I booked.  He had me buy the Lonely Planet  guide on Italy.  If you ever travel BUY A TRAVEL GUIDE, or you may end up stranded or dead or raped I don't know, just buy one of these.  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy  My travel from Napoli to Roma cost me a total of 22 Euro and took 2 hours.  I would have thought that this would cost a lot more.  This is dirt cheap in my mind, to get from one major city to another is cheap in Europe and so easy!  On my trip I had time to wind down and go through my guide to write down what to do for the 4 days I would be in Rome.  I had my hostel in Naples, Hostel of the Sun, book me a hostel in Rome called the Yellow.  Apparently, this place is known through out the world as a huge party place with a hundred people staying every night.

It's like a giant football field, but 2000 years old.  

Everything in Rome is giant sized!

The Yellow is a half mile walk from the Roma Termini train station but it was a beautiful sunny day with 80+ degree weather.  That's the best part of Italy, there are no clouds.  When I had my transfer in London from Heathrow to Gatwick airports, it was COLD as shit and cloudy both times I went through.  Italy is sunny and cloudless, not too windy, and not humid.  I mean, I was sweating my ass off with my gigantic backpack but once I got it off, it was very nice weather.  Rome is inland, whereas Naples was on the Mediterranean sea.

Next time I'll post pictures about the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatino, and other awesome things.

Pompeii and Naples - Part 4 - Europe Trip

The audio guide for the city of Pompeii exhibit

This is going to be a short post because the only thing I have left is my day in Pompeii.  Naples is next, sort of, Mt Vesuvius (Vesuvioso I think in Italian) and you are always reminded of the raw power of nature here. Everyday you are looking at a volcano that could kill you whenever it wants.  You live life with more respect for nature when you realize you can die at any time.  The most amazing part is just how eerily quiet Pompeii is when you are alone.  So I went out and made 2 new friends for the day by themselves and who actually told me that I made their time awesome.

The central temple/market from 2000 years ago.

Pompeii was a thriving city 2000 years ago and then one day, boom!  Dead!  And your lasting legacy is being an art exhibit...  Can you imagine what the people who we have body castings would think if they knew they are our exhibits?  We stare and point all day long!

One of the people buried who's body left an empty hole.
They are covering their face from the ashes and heat.

Another body found that showed the person covering their eyes.
It makes you feel their pain to see this in person.
It really changes your whole perspective on things.

The Opera theatre with a tour group going through.

One of my new single serving friends I met in Pompeii

The colosseum was gigantic and 2000 years old. 

One of my new single serving friends I met in Pompeii.
One lives in Australia, the other London.

Pompeii is an actual city.  

Naples has hard times too.

Don't think that just because I showed you all beautiful pictures all the time that that's it.  Naples was the dirtiest city I've ever seen in some parts, but it has so much character too.  Every city has poverty, get over it and appreciate it for the good parts because you can't have the good without the bad.  Below you'll see that by this point I had picked up 4 people to travel with in Europe.  The 2 new ones were on their honeymoon in Amalfi Coast, Naples area, and were lost trying to get to Da Michele, but you can't find shit too easily there. So I helped them out and asked if they wanted to go with me and my 2 new friends from Pompeii.  They had a blast and said that I made their honeymoon awesome because for 2 days they had shit luck!  Confidence extremely boosted at this point.  Hahaha!

She's got this!  E Decumani restaurant again, 5 Euro only!
This is the look of ferocious optimism of finishing that pizza alone!  

5 Euro pizzas are huge and fresh and fucking amazing!
I saved my new Canadian friends on their honeymoon.

The look horror as the owner makes her finish her plate,
but she can't!

Naples is old and with old buildings,
you can't just power was them like in America.

Naples - Part 3 - Europe Trip

This time I'm going to talk about my mid week in Naples.  I met soooo many people by this time, and I was getting used to walking around by myself, but also meeting people on the way.  Everyone who was traveling like me was so friendly.  So were the English speaking Italians that I got to meet through my friend Enrico, who set this whole thing up in Naples.  I love the architechture and the views of the Mediterranean you can see in a lot of my pictures.  I was on the Mediterranean for the most part of the 6 weeks I was in Europe.  This is what made me understand that I may be a Wisconsinite, but I've lived through snow too many years that I appreciate the weather, the cloudless skys, no humidity with 85 degrees.

Picture from one of my walks the first week.  

This is from Sorbillo's pizza off Tribunali.
4 Euro for this size fresh marinara pizza with fresh herbs!

I went to Sorbillo's with a new German and a guy from Switzerland, so there were a lot of stories about their cultures, music, entertainment, economics, etc.  And then the drinking...ooh the drinking!  Wine is less than water in Europe.  

The main Piazza with the bars that the locals go to,
part of my personal tour from my new Italian friends.
It's filled with hundreds of people drinking at the bars or on the streets

The island of Ischia, I got off on the wrong Italian island.
This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.    

On Saturday I tried to meet up with Enrico's friends on the island of Procida and ended up taking the water ferry to Ischia.  They are by Capri, but I'm told less touristy.  They both connect, but since it's in Italian on the speaker phone, I got to see both islands.  If you were to get old, and retire in the perfect place, it would be on these islands.  

Procida, the right Italian island!  Look at the buildings.  

Procida again.  

I believe it was right here, this sunset, that changed my life.

I believe that it was right here, this sunset, this moment of clarity that helped change my life.  It got me to thinking.  If this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, then does my life just go down after this moment?  Am I stuck in a place where there are absolutely zero tourists coming to?  I didn't just quickly make my mind up, it turns out 6 weeks is a LONG fucking time.  After this, for the rest of my trip, I was planning my escape from Cincinnati.  I just don't belong here, and I'm not afraid anymore.  That's the best part of my trip, is that I realized I have been holding onto nothing, because I had no where to go, because I was waiting to go somewhere, with someone.  And what happens if that someone never comes?  I don't have to fight against this current.  I am young, single, have very little bills, and make an excellent living in the career I'm trying to escape.  I have a month to month lease and few large belongings.  I can make new friends anywhere, I only have to get through school just a bit longer.  

That is a Julia Roberts poster in Da Michele, the best pizza in the world, with a brick oven shown.