maravillosa madrid: castles, gelato, and janky trains

Day 2
May 6th, 2012

The day started off very slowly. Of course Nikki and I were up earlier than the others, so we had a little time to ourselves. For me, that time was perfect and just what I needed. The owners had provided us with a few things like instant coffee, milk, and Nesquik - and let me tell you, after months and months of not having hot chocolate, we were embarrassingly excited to have Nesquik. The instant coffee tasted disgusting, so I added some milk and a bunch of Nesquik. I had that with my leftover pizza, and as a college student I love cold pizza. I sipped my hot coffee, ate my pizza, and listened to my iPod in the peaceful quiet. It was a happy moment for me.

The rest of them got up a little later. While Ariel and Angela got ready, Alim and I went to the gelateria down the street because they had free wifi. We bought espressos, which woke us up immediately. Wow, were those things strong! We checked our emails and Facebook, and that's when I found out that Nikki and I were approved for our apartment. I was SO excited. Unfortunately, it's a June lease which means that I need to find a subleaser for session A. Also, it means that Nikki can't sublease for Christie anymore, which leaves her without a subleaser :/ I feel really bad letting her know so late in the game, but we didn't have any choice. We grabbed the first available, cheap apartment that we could find. Hopefully, it's all work out.

Back to Rome. We had checked the weather, and hey look it's supposed to rain the next couple of days. AWESOME. Literally on every trip we have gone on, it has rained while the week before and after are absolutely beautiful. We're cursed. When we got back to the apartment, Nikki had left. The thing is, when I was at the gelato place I was debating whether to stay with Nikki or with the others. I was going to stay with the others, but what Nikki wanted to do sounded interesting. A little voice was telling me that I should stay with Nikki, but when we got back she was long gone. I kind of sighed to myself and thought, Ok, I guess I'll stay with the others. We ended up leaving the apartment at about 1pm. We got to the Piazza and explored the ruins across the street from the Forum. What I do love about this group is that they like taking everything in. We walked around the ruins and took pictures. It was great. My only complaint is that when it started raining, my umbrella broke. Awesome. I didn't have an umbrella, and I didn't have any jackets with hoods with me because it was still pretty hot. Alim was an absolute gentleman because he gave me his umbrella and let me use it the whole time, while he just used his rain jacket. It saved my life...well, my clothes. Plus, we were laughing because it matched my shirt :) I'm such a girl.

Next we headed to the tourist office, where they didn't help us in the least bit because even though they speak English, they didn't understand what we were asking. They ended up telling us information that we didn't need. At least they gave us a map. We walked up a few blocks to Termini station, one of the 2 main stations in Rome. We went there to find out some info about Florence. We got there and Alim, Ariel, and I bought tickets for our day-trip to Florence the next day. Angela didn't want to go, and Nikki couldn't. I had to go. I absolutely love Florence, and I didn't expect to go back anytime soon. I was SO excited.

We decided to head to Castel Sant' Angelo next, which is right next to the Vatican. I didn't really get to spend time there last time, so I was happy. It is kind of on the other side of the city, so we took the Metro. Holy cow. That was the jankiest Metro I have ever been in. Their Metro system is not as extensive because they can't really build it underground - the historical ruins are kind of in the way. We walked down into the Metro, and it reminded me of Universal Studios. Why? We walked down into the Metro, and it was dark, hot, a few sparks were flying, and the cars were covered in graffiti. Don't get me wrong, it looked kind of cool actually, but I thought I would die. We had no problem getting to our destination, but we were saying among ourselves that we would never complain about the Madrid Metro ever again. Seriously, the transportation in all of Europe STINKS compared to the Metro and train systems in Madrid. We're seriously spoiled.

We walked the few blocks to the Castel Sant' Angelo after escaping from the Metro, and we were a little hungry so we had lunch. I had a pesto gnocchi, was was really good. The guys got a teeny tiny overpriced lasagna, so they finished my gnocchi. Because it's potato, it's pretty filling so I was getting pretty cool. Alim had no problem gobbling up the rest. It was nice to just sit down and relax, and luckily it decided to pour right while we were eating. By the time we were done, it was just a light sprinkle.

We headed to the Castel Sant' Angelo then. Normally you could climb to the top and get a fantastic view of the city, but it was foggy and raining, so sad day. We didn't want to pay to go inside, so we just circled around the outside, took tons of pictures, and read the signs. Because of the weather, there was no one else around the castle, so that was really nice. Ariel was telling us a little history about the place, and it was super relaxing. We were tired of walking, and the others wanted to take a nap, so we headed to the nearby bus stop. We were supposed to take another bus, the 870 back to Trastevere, but when we were looking at the schedule, it had times for Lunedi - Venerdi, which means Monday - Friday, as well as festival days. It was Sunday. We started panicking and saying OH MY GOSH, does the bus not run on Sundays?? Panic, panic, panic. Most of the stores were closed, and the ones that were open didn't know the answer to our questions. We were literally walking in circles and were planning to walk a little closer to our house and then split a taxi between the 4 of us. We were going to cross the street when we saw a bus pass by. Of course, it was the 870. It was heading to our stop. Alim and I literally bolted down the street towards the bus, and luckily the bus driver takes a break because it's a main stop. We got on the bus and sat down, sweating and laughing in relief.

A little dark, but this was the view :)

We got back to the apartment where we took a nap for an hour. It felt really nice. One thing you learn in college and especially in Europe: naps are your best friend. We recuperated our energy, Nikki met us there, and at 7:30 or 8 we headed back to the center of Rome for dinner. For the most part we had been trying to eat cheap, but since we were in Rome we decided to have a nice dinner for one night. We had picked a restaurant in front of the Pantheon the day before, so that's where we went :) We sat outside by the heaters under the canopy with a view of the Pantheon. It was perfect...except for the fact that my food was bad. Ariel and I split a mini baby bottle of wine, and I got lasagna. For one thing, it was small. For another, it tasted like Chef Boyardee and it was cold in the middle. Nikki agreed with me because she had gotten the same thing. It was one of the cheapest things on the menu. I have eaten frozen lasagna from Costco that taste better than that lasagna tasted. We definitely paid for the location and the view, but it was a beautiful night.

We went to San Crispino for dessert, where I had the banana, apple, and pear flavors. The pear was super good. That and kiwi are my favorite gelato flavors. We went to the Trevi fountain next. Again, because of the rain, almost no one was there. We were able to throw our coins in, make wishes, and take pictures with out a crowd of people being in the way. That was another one of my favorite moments from the trip - first because I LOVE the Trevi fountain, and second because we were actually all together.

Side note: Last time, I had made wishes too. The first coin means that you are coming back to Rome. I came back to Rome. It works ;)

Overall, it was an okay day - at least for me. Although I was with the others and had fun with them, all I could think about was Nikki - to think that she was wandering about alone. The whole day, I was filled with guilt, regretting not going with her. Plus, I knew that I wouldn't be able to spend the next day with her because I was going to Florence. I felt so, so bad. Turns out, she had a great day. I guess she literally walked all over Rome (which sounds tiring but cool). Her ancestry is Italian, so she was in heaven the whole time, and she definitely fell in love with Rome. When she was explaining what she did that day, she had a sparkle in her eyes which made me smile. Rome is a magical place.

For your enjoyment :) If you didn't notice, I have a sort of theme running here.