Ciao From Rome...

Spring Break!!!!

Spring Break finally arrived and not a moment too soon!  I left on Thursday night for London to meet up with my boyfriend.  I flew into Heathrow airport and due to my stupidity in not repacking my bag when I decided to check it ended up losing a flip flop and a boot.  As a result I lost two pairs of shoes instead of just one or none. After I gave up on trying to find them I went through customs and received my first stamp since coming to Rome. Yay!  Then I caught a bus to the Marriott Heathrow where I was using my employing discount and spending the night.  While there Lee called and said instead of him meeting me at the hotel in the morning it might be easier for me to just meet him at the airport.  Well I woke up early to go get a Starbucks, I have a bit of an obsession, and was given some bad directions and so my quest ended up taking way to long but I thought it was ok because I figured Lee would call once he had his bags.  I finally arrived at the airport and was looking for him and trying to call him but his phone wasn’t working.  I finally received a call from him saying he had gone to the hotel because he thought I had overslept.  So then I travelled back to the hotel and met up with him. He was soooo happy to see me but he looked pretty tired.  We caught the subway to the city center where our hotel was at.  Trying to get our baggage to the hotel was super funny because the rolling suitcases kept flipping over and Lee was getting super frustrated so naturally I started making fun of him.  Then we were both laughing and making fun of each other and the bags flipping kind of became a theme for the rest of the time when we were travelling somewhere.  We both work for Marriott so we were able to stay at really nice hotels the whole trip for pretty cheap.  In London we stayed at the J. W. Marriott.  We got there and Lee was pretty tired so we took a nap before heading out to explore.  When we woke up we went to check out some of the sights.  That day we saw Buckingham fountain and palace, we walked through St. James park, and we walked by the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abby.  Then we were both hungry so we stopped at a pub for some beer and we both ate fish and chips. The fish and chips were great definitely the best I ever had!!!!  Lee still had some jet lag so we ended up going to bed kind of early.

On Saturday we got up early to try to ride the London Eye before we needed to get on our bus to Stonehenge.  We managed to get on the London Eye on its first rotation of the day so we had plenty of time to get to the bus so we stopped to grab sandwiches to eat on the bus.  We had a long ride out to Stonehenge so we both took a nap.  It was a little cold and raining when we arrived there but Lee being the sweetheart that he is gave me his jacket to wear.  We walked around and listened to the audio guide of Stonehenge and afterward we bought some souvenirs.  Once we boarded the bus again we both fell back asleep.  There is just something about buses, trains, and airplanes that seems to put everyone to sleep.  We arrived back in London and it was still drizzling out.  I knew Lee wanted to go see Tower Bridge so I tried to convince him we should make the trek in the rain but he said he would rather just get dinner.  We started wondering around looking for a pub that seemed good.  We ended up at The King’s Arm.  It was a really nice place and we chilled there for a long time.  We had some beers and watched rugby and chatted with some guys next to us that had moved to London from America. After we ate we ordered a few shots and then some more beers before we headed back to the hotel for the night.

            On Sunday we left for Amsterdam.  We arrived at our hotel before check in time so we left our bags there and went out for some Chinese food.  After lunch our room was ready so we went back and big surprise took another nap after having such a big lunch.  Then we woke up and we got ready to go to a concert called Jam of the Dam.  Three groups were playing (Umphry’s McGee, Les Claypool, and Yonder Mountain String Band), ? Lee and none of which I had ever heard a song by.  It was still a lot of fun though, we grabbed a few beers at a bar on the way to the concert and it was a lot of fun.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at this pastry shop that was open late that had these chocolate covered waffles with sprinkles that were super amazing. 

            On Monday, we went to the Anne Frank Huis which was really cool to see.  It is amazing that so many people hid there for so long I can’t imagine what it would have been like.  Afterward we strolled around Amsterdam just checking out the sites and we stumbled across a bead store.  They had sooo many cool beads there I wish I could have bought them all ( I make hemp necklaces and bracelets and such).  Instead I spent about 70 Euro before I decided I best leave the store but I was very satisfied with the ones I bought.  Then we continued on strolling looking at the architecture of the houses and the canals.  Eventually we headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and then we went to Tio Pepe’s for some Mexican Food for dinner.  After dinner we took a romantic stroll through the Red Light District. Just kidding it wasn’t so romantic but it is definitely a unique place to see.  Then we headed back to the hotel for the night after of course stopping at the pastry shop again.

            On Tuesday we got up and went on a mission to find a specific canal intersection Lee had seen on a postcard so he could take a picture of it.  Then we went back to the hotel grabbed our bags and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Rome.

            We arrived in Rome in the afternoon, dropped our bags off at my apartment, started a load of laundry, and headed out to see the sights.  On the way we stopped to buy a bottle of wine since the first place Lee wanted to go was the Spanish Steps.  We were relaxing on the Steps drinking our wine when one of those annoying vendor guys came up to us.  He was trying to sell flowers and Lee and I both told him we didn’t want any but he wouldn’t go away.  He kept on telling Lee, “You are a lucky guy my friend” and holding out flowers.  Final we were both just like no we don’t want any and ignored him the rest of the time and he eventually went to pester someone else.  We were wondering random streets, going the general direction of the Trevi, and looking for somewhere to eat when we came upon a place named Aroma that Lee wanted to try.  After dinner we went to see the Trevi which ended up being Lee’s favorite site.  After arriving there I took him to San Crispino where we grabbed some gelato and then headed back over to the fountain.  It was getting kind of late so we decided we should head back to my apartment.  Of course we got side tracked.  Lee wanted to take pictures of the Victorio Emanual II monument and then I decided to take him for a quick look at the Coliseum.  Then we headed back to my apartment.  Lee fell asleep and I finished our laundry and packed my stuff for our next destination.

            We had a cab pick us up at 5:15 in the morning to take us the Termini so we could catch our train to Naples.  We arrived in Naples and went looking for a place that Let’s Go claimed had the best pizza in the world.  It was kind of a disappointment because neither Lee nor I were all that blown away by it.  Next, we caught a train out to Pompeii.  We left our bags at what was in retrospect a shady place to leave a bag and went to check out Pompeii.  We spent a few hours there.  It was pretty cool to see everything and it is so awesome that you actually get to walk into some of the old buildings and can touch the ruins.  After a few hours we headed back to the train station were our bags were, still waiting for us in fine condition much to our surprise.  We caught the train to Naples and then went to catch a ferry to Capri. Upon arriving we found our hotel and big shocker, we took a nap. 

When we woke up the owner was at the front desk and he recommended some places for us to eat at and gave us a hiking trail for the next day.  We went to dinner and we both ordered anchovies as an appetizer.  I tried them but they were not my cup of tea so Lee finished the rest of them.  Then we both ordered seafood dishes that were phenomenal for our main course. After we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

We woke up later than we had planned but we still went and ate breakfast in the lobby.  We went down to the main dock via cable car hoping that we could catch a boat ride to see the Blue Gratto.  Unfortunately for us the conditions weren’t right for seeing it so we walked along the beach for a little and I found some sea glass.  Then we did some souvenir shopping and took the cable car back up. We dropped our things off at the hotel and went on the hike the gentleman had recommended. The hike was really nice and we took a lot of awesome pictures.  We also got to go under a natural arch.  I really enjoyed the parts on the trail where there was a steep drop off so I could tease Lee since he is afraid of heights.  The hike lasted about 3 hours and then we stopped at a store to get some wine, crackers, cheese, and salami.  We went back to our hotel room and relaxed on the porch looking at the few and eating.  When it started getting cold we headed back inside and laid down for awhile. 

We had planned on getting dressed up to go out for a romantic dinner.  I had just started getting ready when I discovered I had FOOD POISONING!!!  Chalk another one up to new experiences while abroad, even though I think I maybe would have been fine not having this one.