Around the World in 33 Days: Rome

I caught my 10:30 Ryanair Flight to Rome!! My one true love!! This was to be my fourth trip and I was so excited. I had booked a nice hostel, it was the same place Kelly, Missy and I had stayed at 2 years ago. So I was pumped!

Only I got there and a LOT had changed in 2 years. It now ranks as the sketchiest place I’ve ever stayed. My roommates creeped me out so I didn’t take out my laptop or tablet. It all stayed locked in my pack because guess what? There were no lockers. The room smelled funny too. And I’ll start this post off with all the bad parts of Rome before moving onto the best parts aka everything not Hostel related. 

Because guess what… I got bedbugs!! Yeah it was wonderful and itchy and I looked like I had the bubonic plague or something all down my arm and back. My first two nights I was like "no that can’t be bed bugs". Not everything was matching up to symptoms of bed bugs so I was like meh something must have bitten me while out walking. Thank goodness my youth was filled with horrible poison ivy and a mother who always told me not to scratch.  This was easy enough to ignore and not scratch. Except for one on my right hand… that scabbed. Ugh. But it’s all better now!! Yay! But it killed my first afternoon in Prague (more on this next post!).

I just skimmed the bed bugs here because I'd like to do a more in depth talk about them and how much it actually sucks and the easiest way to get rid of them.

Now onto all the good bits and the parts that were amazing!

I obviously saw all of my normal digs…

And I did a lot of hiking up hills to get good views…

Come on it’s a lovely city and it leaves you breathless and you can’t help but just be in awe of the beauty!

I made a cool journey outside of the city one afternoon to the Aqueduct park! It was worth the 3 euro cost of round trip metro tickets!

Come on! How does that not leave you breathless!?

I mean these used to be the life line of Ancient Rome and they’re still standing! Like holy hell! But the craziest part of the park was the juxtaposition with the modern world. Here are aqueducts that are thousands of years old. And right through the park passes the train/ metro. And airplanes pass over head because it's so close to the airport.

I did a surprising amount of night time wandering. I was sort of laughing at myself the one night because when I first started traveling solo I was in my hostel at sundown. I never saw cities at night. Then one trip I was like fuck it. If I’m smart and follow my gut then there’s not going to be a problem. And suddenly my comfort zone was a bit larger and the world was open!

But I think the highlight of this stop in Rome was my cooking class! I took a class on how to make pasta! I splurged $70 on the class. But boy was it worth it. Between the good food, presseco and wine I made friends and can now be uber pretentious and be like (Read in snoody voice) “Yes I learned to make this dish while in Rome.” Hahaha.

And check out this!! It’s like a guitar for cutting pasta!!! How cool!!!

((Video to come... but hostel wifi is not agreeing with me tonight!!))

When my last day in Rome came I was pretty excited to leave! Prague was waiting. Lenka and I had Thanksgiving plans! And the prospect of a bed bug free bed was enticing. Although the idea of losing hours in Prague to de-bug was not enticing.

So it was off to Prague!

Cheers,