Day 9- Rome... And its also my birthday!

I have no idea what time I went to bed, Im guessing I had to get up a few hours after that because I woke up still drunk and feeling awesome. Dont remember getting ready, barely remember breakfast but Im sure it was more bread and cheese and orange water. We somehow get to a train station, totally ghetto but the train was 2 stories, that was cool. We get dropped off and Ryan takes us to Vatican City. Its like 8 am, Im still drunk and its already freaking hot. Im pretty sure I bought 10 bottled waters this day. We walk thru out Vatican City (since its technically its own country), get to the museum and wait maybe 10-20 minutes. There are tons of people already in line, but it goes by quick. (and you will lose everyone here so stick with a buddy). When we get inside and upstairs to buy our ticket. Apparently you can can get a discount if you have a student ID, which of course I didnt have with me but the guy at the booth gave me student or child price or something for both me and Noff. Then he winked at me, gross old man. (Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to save a buck :)

Considering my late night antics, I could care less about the next 2 hours. I just walked and walked, took pics of whatever was next to me or above me. This place is like a maze with so many hallways and corridors and whatever else there was. I wasnt exactly paying attention. If you walk away from your group, you WILL lose them, a lesson learned by poor Janine later on. We keep making our way to the Sistine Chapel, I see some statues Ive had to take tests on so that makes me happy. More walking, this place is freakin ridiculous. I had heard that you cant take pics of the ceiling in the Sistine, but people were so you know I took a pic of The Creation Of Adam!








Ryan had told us that there are 2 exits from that point, and to try to sneak into a tour group so we could exit to the right. So me, Annika, Brenton, Jason, Michael, Noff, and Rina all mix in with some group and I remember they had these things around their neck, indicating they were with a tour, and the tour guide walking by everyone counting everyone, so I raise my arm to scratch my hear and "hide" that Im not wearing one of these neck things, and he counts all of us! So when they start down the stairs we mix in and kinda go ahead of all of them and laugh about it. I know there was more to see at this exit at the right but I honestly dont really remember what, popes burial stuff. While waiting in line one of the guards tells Annika her short it too short, Rina has shorts on so she cant go in, she had to leave and wait for all of us at the exit.. Annika pulls jeans out of her bookbag and we all stand around her to hide her so she can change, right there in front of everyone. We go down some stairs, see the graves of old popes, walk some more.... and more. Im miserable at this point, all I want to do is go back to bed. We find Rina outside and come up with a plan. Its like 10-11 am and we have to meet at around 4 for the Forum/Colosseum tours, which is quiet a while from then. I demand that we find some AC and food, Im almost dying. After which, we decide that we should just walk to our meeting point, that should take all day. Normally I would have been so excited to have a day in Rome but I literally did not care :( We walked all day in the heat, pulled over to "pass out" a few times. Time passes and we are pretty close to the Colosseum but we still have like an hour or so, so me and Rina tell everyone we will meet them there and go shopping, buy some Rome souvenirs, look for clothes for the big night out in Florence.

Go to meet Ryan and the rest of the group outside the train station. I just want to lay on the floor and sleep. This day never ends. Then we walk all the way back to the Roman Forum and go to our "walking tour" aka "bitch stop talking". Ryan tells her to take it easy on us since we had a big night the night before. Janine is missing, Celeste gets a phone call from her, apparently since she lost everyone at Vatican City, she had been alone the whole day wondering around Rome. Celeste thinks shes drunk cuz she went to a cafe and ordered wine (and Janine later tells me she thinks they felt sorry for her because she was alone so they gave her the whole bottle) I have no idea what the tour guide told us and I didnt care because I knew alot of this stuff anyways. I sit on a Roman stump and looking around pretty much everyone looks miserable, hot and hungover. We walk and stop and look at more stuff, she keeps talking, repeat. Go to Colosseum, take some pics and then get to go in and this makes me feel a little bit better. Do a YMCA, sit around and she keeps taking and talking. When it was finally done we rush out of there because I think we thought it was time to go back to the hotel. (I rushed out of the Colosseum???? WTF?) Wait some more trying to find Ryan, its not time to leave he tells us to wait up stairs at the train station and then we all walk to find some food. Rina entertains us with weird Korean stories about her and her friend eating birds cooked in its eggs and does all these impressions of the birds. Its so funny because she is so serious about this and we are literally falling out of our chairs. We ask Ryan about his job and he tells us some crazy stuff that has happened to him (putting a girl in the psycho ward in Venice..???)

FINALLY we are done, its time to meet everyone and go back to the hotel. Try to use a phone to call home and it pisses me off until i finally get it to work. That night we hang out in Brenton and Annikas room with the Canadians, we all pretty much feel like sh*t and call it a night. Happy birthday to me.