December 21, 2013: Day One in Madrid

         

          Today we took it slow as my best friend was still recovering from jet lag.  We took a nice stroll through Retiro Park, which she suggested.  I was surprised to find that rollerblading was a fun pastime for the people of Madrid.  In the park, we visited the Crystal House (a misnomer seeing that it is actually made of glass, but pretty to look at nonetheless).  There were also two free museums in the park, which were a nice way to kill time.  It was a nice change of pace after my jam-packed days in Amsterdam and Rome.  I wasn’t able to go to Vondelpark in Amsterdam so this was a nice substitute.  Susan was enjoying it, as was I. 

          I was able to convince Susan to visit The Royal Palace in Madrid. I would say that it was definitely the highlight of my day.  We walked through many of the elegantly decorated rooms in the palace and took a look through the armory.  It was a great inside look at the way the Spanish Royals must have lived. I highly recommend visiting the Palace. We ended our day early to get a jumpstart on tomorrow.  

          I wished we could have gone out later but I wanted my best friend to be comfortable her first time away.  When traveling with a friend there is definitely a lot of give and take and two people with different interests. But in the end, I was okay with giving up some freedom and control to have a travelling companion around Spain, especially since my Spanish is severely limited.

December 20, 2013: Travel Pains

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." -Mark Twain

I think this will go down as one of the worst days of my life.  I check out of my hostel with over 2 hours before my flight departs so I think I have time. I spend time waiting at Termini Station to get on a bus to the Airport. Time is a little tight but the airport is less than 10 miles away so I think it’s going to be fine. And then traffic. Fucking Rome traffic. I swear those Romans are god-awful drivers. I don’t know if it’s their fault or if it is the poor city planning that’s to blame.  I’m pissed so I say both. It took 15 minutes just to get out of the busy part of Rome.  Long story short, I missed my flight and the next one was 8 hours later.  So I’m waiting in the airport frantically trying to reach my best friend.  She finally calls and my phone can’t get her call. I start panicking because I know that she’s scared and the Information Desk isn’t very helpful, directing me to a payphone that I’m pretty sure was broken.  I go into a souvenir shop begging the lady to let me borrow a phone. She is just an unhelpful and directs me to the payphone that doesn’t work.  Customer Service must be a foreign concept in Italy.  The people at American Airlines would bend over backwards to help me out.  Thankfully, an Italian lady saw how frantic I was and let me borrow her phone to make a call.  I will never forget that. It renews my hope that there are still good people in this world.  I hope karma rewards her for her kindness.

After a few more grueling hours of waiting, I was finally on a plane to Madrid.  Once I landed in Madrid and collected my luggage, I hopped into a taxi towards the hotel.  We drove through the streets of Madrid and all the Christmas lights they had set up for the holiday season.  I arrived at the hotel and was finally reunited with my best friend Susan after what seems like ages.  It was so refreshing to be in a hotel with a full size bed and my own bathroom after staying at hostels for the past week. 

December 19, 2013: Day Two in Rome

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, is the ideas of living." -Miriam Beard

I realized after all of my travelling that it takes a day to figure out how to properly navigate a new city.  By now, I knew where to get on my bus and where to go.  I decided to go back to Vatican City and see the Vatican Museum.

I will never forget the moment before I was about to enter the Vatican museum.  I was stopped by a man who was trying to sell me a tour with a guide around the Vatican Museum for 40 euros. I tried to bow out but he was very persistent and would not let me leave. I just had to walk away and less than 10 seconds another one approaches me. Like seriously? Did you not just see me talking to your comrade? I was going to tell him the same thing I told the first guy and then a British girl walks by having just left the Vatican Museum and yells over to me “Don’t listen to him! It’s a scam!” and a part of me wanted to yell back so badly “I KNOW!” like right in the guy’s face to let him know that I wasn’t falling for it. So heed my warning, never take a tour offered by a guy on the street. Plan it out beforehand. Rome definitely wasn’t as museum-heavy as Amsterdam but this one museum had more than enough to entertain me. Spend a couple hours at the Vatican Museum and you will be thoroughly satisfied.  At first I was a little hesitant at paying 16 euros to get into the museum but then I realized that it is a very large museum, like a museum conglomerate. You will get your money’s worth plus extra.

I remember after finishing walking through the Vatican Museum, I was trying to find the beautiful spiral staircase that I had seen in photos. I was about to head towards the exit but something was telling me to go back and find it. I was at the gift shop that was arranged around a circular banister.  Across from be I see people start to walk down an incline and then I looked over the banister and sure enough I had found the staircase.  It made for a gorgeous photo.

After the Vatican Museum I walked around to kill time until a free walking tour of Rome was to start.  I went to a McDonalds and was surprised at how packed it was.  It just goes to show how influential America is.  I ordered my meal and a Pistachio Mcflurry that I’m pretty sure was just a vanilla Mcflurry with crushed pistachios and green flavoring. 

Once I met up with the tour guide and met some nice people, we travelled around Rome.  The guide was a little soft-spoken and the tour was not as great as the one in Amsterdam, but I still learned a lot about the ancient city.  I got my photo taken at the Trevi fountain and saw a someone proposing to his girlfriend in front of the fountain. After parting ways, I walked back to my hostel and on the way bought a few souvenirs for my family and ate dinner at a nearby pizzeria. I packed up my things and fell asleep, ready for tomorrow. Ciao Roma!

December 18, 2013: Day One in Rome

"Rome wasn't built in a day."

This a phrase so great that one could not credit it to an author. A proverb with French origin, this quote could not be any more true once you experience the beauty and history of Rome. I feel like it is important to say that wherever you are, you shouldn’t let negative experiences ruin your time at a new city.  All throughout the day, I was continuously getting lost, going down streets only to realize I was going the opposite direction, and growing increasingly frustrated at the endless accosting by street vendors.  If you ever decide to go to Rome, be prepared to identify and avoid tourist traps.  Never take taxis.  I paid 25 euros for a 48 hours pass on a hop-on hop-off tour bus. Not only was it a mode of transportation to most of Rome’s hotspots, but it also had an audio tour. If people (of the dark-skinned variety) who don’t look like Italians approach you, avoid them like they have the plague. Sometimes I would pretend that I didn’t speak English just to avoid them. They want nothing but to take your money.

Thanks to my bus tour I was able to see the iconic Trevi Fountain and the Roman Forum and do a little Christmas shopping for my family at OVS.  The thing you need to know about Rome is that most of the attraction in Rome are statues, monuments and fountains.  There isn’t much to do in Rome, but there is no shortage of structures to marvel at.  You can definitely see why Rome couldn’t have been built in a day.

I got off the bus at Vatican City and decided to go to St. Peter's Basilica.  At the ticket booth, you get the option of paying 7 euros to take the lift or 5 euros to take the stairs.  Being the thrifty (or as I like to call it, economically savvy) person that I was, I opted for the stairs, which was a big mistake.  Take it from me; do not take the stairs.  The stairs take you up to a circular balcony, which gives you a great view of the inside.  But even if you choose to take the lift, there are about an additional 300 steps to the very top where you get a gorgeous view of the city of Rome.  I think I may have climbed over a total of 1000 steps that day!  But the view was worth it.  I had come at around 4pm so by the time I reached the top, I saw a gorgeous sunset cast over Rome.  It was breathtaking. What a wonderful way to end the day in Rome!