Erste Halt: Roma

Where to begin? My life has been in a whirlwind the last three weeks, but it has been amazing. Michael and I started our journey in Europe on December 22. Michael arrived at the airport and then began the journey. First of all, one thing that will be a constant problem throughout the trip will be THE luggage. Michael was only allowed to pack light because he wasn’t coming back to Berlin and we didn’t want to have to check our bags for 40 Euros each time. So lucky me, Michael brought a suitcase full of random things from America that my mom sent, like my Christmas presents, etc. Regardless this suitcase was broken because I am just supposed to throw it away when it’s done. The handle is broken. It made for an interesting trip trying to roll it around. We put it in the back of my bike basket (which later bent) and I biked it the mile from the train station to my flat (Michael wogged). We called the stupid bag “Old Red” because of the hanky that held it together. This was only the beginning of our biking adventures though. To say the least, Michael is not a “biker”. I had two bikes, one which is a little crappy, but gets the job done. It was too tall for Michael so every time he had to get on it he would almost tip over and I would be way ahead of him already (story of the trip) and be shouting for him. Then he would come wobbling around the corner on the bike. I died laughing every time.

Me with Old Red on the bike. It was a long journey.

Our journey began in Berlin. Let’s just say it was quite a journey, but we will save that story for a different time. One night we went out for a nice Schnitzel dinner and then hung out with a few people at a pub for a bit. Then the next day we did the tourist stuff and went to dinner. We didn’t have much time in Berlin, but it was fun for Michael to see my life over here.

On Saturday, we packed our bags bright and early and started our trip. First stop: Rome. We were five minutes late to the airport and they wouldn’t let us check in anymore so we had to fly to Pisa first and then take a train. Great start to the trip. But we learned our lesson from here on out to be early to our flights.

Upon arriving in Rome, we were starving since all we had the whole day was two pieces of bread. The problem was that it was Christmas Eve though and not much was open. We hunted for a restaurant and finally found one. Nothing better than Italian pasta! Michael knew Italian well enough to get us around so that was helpful. On Christmas day we woke up and went to Mass (about 50 ppl) at the school where Michael stayed when he studied abroad in Rome. As you know, I am not Catholic, so I felt somewhat lost in the service. I managed though and asked Michael what to do. After the service ended everyone started rushing to leave and I was practically sitting alone in this room until someone informed me that we were running to see the Pope speak at St. Peters. We got there a little late, but it was fun. Maybe dodged a couple cars, but no big deal. The drivers are crazy in Italy. I came to the conclusion that Germans and Italians couldn’t be more different. Anyways, we met some of the people and then we were informed we were going to be singing carols with everyone in front of St. Peters. I didn’t know how on board I was for this. Let’s be real, I am NOT a singer especially in a crowd of millions. I was laughing because if people ever did that here in Germany, I don’t know what would happen, because it just wouldn’t happen. Tons of people came up and took pictures and started singing with us. Most the people are in choir that we were singing with so I just let anyone who wanted to step in front and move towards the back. St. Peters was incredible though and was so beautiful.

Vatican City on Christmas Day

The true adventure came on the night of Christmas Eve. Michael’s old Italian professor invited us over to celebrate. We were supposed to meet her at a closed grocery store (weird meeting place eh?). Regardless, she picked us up and brought us back to her house. I was a little nervous because I don’t know a lick of Italian. We walked in and there were about 10 people sitting around a table, playing BINGO. One important detail you need of the invite was Marta told us to, “Come hungry and bring some money to play cards!”, so we didn’t each lunch because it was about 4 pm and we assumed we would get a huge four course Italian meal. Well we were wrong. We got some bread and chocolate when we were there. I was starving. It was fun though they invited us to play BINGO. You could buy in for 50 cents per card. Everyone had like 8, but we figured we would just start with one because we didn’t know what was going on. We came to find out that BINGO here is two in the same row, then you move to five in a row, then you do coverall. Michael won the two in a row and won a Euro back. Then we kept playing and my card was horrible. Mike had two more left to win coverall and sure enough he got it! We won like 6 Euros. It was awesome. Then we played another game that is only in Italy and every person had to put in three Euros. The pot was like 35 Euros. We learned as we go and it was super fun. You have three lives and once you lose you are out and not allowed to talk to someone. If you get someone to talk to you then they have to give you a life and you are back in the game. It was great though because nobody could communicate with us except Marta so I couldn’t lose. It got down to two people, and I ended up winning somehow. So Michael and I won 40 Euros at this point. The next game we played was like Blackjack (except you want 7 and a half) and so we paid in again and pretty much you can win big or lose big if you are the dealer. Well Michael became the dealer and kept getting 7 and a half. He was reeling in the money. Since Michael and I shared money the whole trip, it didn’t matter if I won because it went into the same pot. The Italians couldn’t believe how much luck (I call it skill) we had. They were laughing about it, but we joked around how we definitely probably left being the least liked people there. Winning made me somewhat forget about my incredible hunger pangs. After hanging out for a while we left and found a restaurant that was open. Thank goodness.

Using our winnings to buy dinner :)

On Monday, we decided to do all the touristy stuff. Rome was an incredible city and I really enjoyed it. It was nice having Michael to tell about everything since he lived there. We went to dinner with Michael’s friend that evening and got Italian pizza and then got gelato. It was amazing! I loved Rome and our experience was great because we got to experience an Italian Christmas minus the four course meal we thought we were getting.