Day 5 - Exploring Rome

I think that was one of the best sleeps I've had in quite awhile. Despite the traffic going on beneath my room window, I managed to sleep over 12hours which really helped the jetlag and my cold. We woke up around midday and got ready to head out. The plan was to catch the Metro to Spagna to start our day of sight seeing. Within minutes of leaving our apartment, we bumped into the $40 woman #3.


Like OMG! She's duplicating!!! And less then 2 minutes after seeing the $40 woman, we bumped into Birds Nest.


I swear we're living in an area of freaks. We decided to head towards the metro before we had to deal with any other freaks otherwise our freak list will become too long.

It took us a few minutes, but we finally figured out how the metro and ticketing works. We hop onto the first metro and damn its clean. It puts Sydney to shame. We get off at Spagna, and the first thing we see is the Spanish Steps.


Unfortunately, parts of it were under restoration (I barely recognised it). Thats a problem we're going to see throughout Rome, and I suspect through out most of Italy. I can't be helped when the whole country is dripping with history everywhere you turn.

After grabbing a few photos, we decided to hunt down breakfast. However, we got distracted by some gorgeous buildings and monuments that were screaming for the attention of our camera. This, is also going to happen a lot throughout our trip.


We finally managed to find a restaurant/bar/cafe which looked decent. And when in Rome, do what the Romans do. Eat standing at the bar. The other reason is that its cheaper than sitting down.

Ham and Cheese on Turkish bread

Tomato and Mozzarella on Turkish bread

Cappucino

Other food on offer

After satisfying our hunger and caffiene addiction, we decided to head towards the Trevi Fountain. Not before stopping by one of the many churches all around Rome.


After stumbling around for awhile, we finally found the Trevi Fountain and its gorgeous!


The place was packed with tourists (As expected) all wanting photos of the fountain. There were also people tossing coins into the fountain, which we didn't bother doing for 2 very good reasons.

1. Euros are expensive
2. Legend has it that any foreigner who tosses a coin into the fountain ensures their return to Rome. We want closure!

Heading back past Via del Corso (one of the main roads in Rome that used to be used for horse races), we followed the signs to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is the only architecturely intact structure in Rome. The interior is certainly very impressive.




As we leave the Pantheon, we decided to sit outside for a rest before moving on. It was only then that we saw a sign stating that there are no singlets allowed, drinks, camera or mobiles. We broke almost every single rule when walking into the place. But then so did everyone else. *shrugs*

Next stop was the Monumento a Vittoria Emanule II. Not before stopping by the ancient ruins used by Cherry for her kidney sacraficial ritual and another coffee.

Macchiato

After a hike, we finally made it to the Monumento a Vittoria Emanule. The Monument of the Unknown Soldier. Again, this place was under restoration and a lot of the structure has been covered up by the scaffolding. Its been half way through the day, and I'm still awestruck by how breathtaking all these grand buildings are. And also how much the Italians cherish them. There is a security guard that mans the steps of this monument. He literally guards the steps. Anyone who dares to sit down on the steps immediately has a whistle blown in their face. Its perfectly ok to walk and trample on the steps, but no sitting whatsoever. After grabbing a few photos, we decided to sit on the stairs...outside the gates of the monument that is. And there's nothing the guard can do about it.


The plan was to eventually make it down to Bocca Della Verita (Mouth of Truth), so we decided to stop by the Roman Forums on the way as well as grab a few exterior shots of the Colosseum (Since there won't be much leisurely time on the tour to do that)



By the time we were done with the Colosseum, we were completely exhausted and had to take a pit stop. We grabbed a lemon tea each and sat outside the Colosseum. It was at this point that a massive tour group decided to walk by and stop right infront of us. I don't even know how to explain what happened next. I thought a porno film crew must've walked right up to us, because I swear the woman standing infront of me was having an orgasm (except for the fact that she's about 80!!). That, or she REALLY REALLY enjoys talking. I couldn't tell if she was talking or having an orgasm. This then started a laughing fit between the 2 of us. We were laughing so hard, we couldn't even work the camera that was already in our hands!!

After that invigorating event, we started what we thought was going to be a short relaxing walk to Bocca Della Verita. My arse it was short and relaxing. After hiking for a good 30mins, we finally find the damn thing, only for it to be shut! If you want to stick your hand in his mouth, you'll have to come back another time. That didn't stop me almost getting my head stuck between the metal bars trying to take a photo though.



By this time, I can't feel my legs. Wait, I can. Its called a throbbing pain. The only problem was we were really far from any Metro Station, which meant one thing. More walking. We walked along the Tiber river, through the back streets until we couldn't walk anymore. We stopped in a bar for another coffee.


I don't know why we didn't eat at the bar, but we were starving a good 15mins later, and stopped by a pizza joint to refuel:

Cherry tomatoes and anchovies

Tomatoes and rocket

After our coffee and pizza, we felt more energised to continue our hike through Rome's cobble stoned streets. That is until we got lost. So out comes the map. The free map I got from the airport was really good in the sense that it shows where all the tourist attractions are. The bad thing is, it doesn't show all the streets. We got ourselves a free map from Maccas, which seriously shows every Maccas in Rome as well as a lot more streets. As we're standing there reading the Maccas map, this American walks right up to us and goes "Are you trying to find Maccas?". Like what the hell? Can't we even read a map in peace??

We finally locate ourselves on the map, and realise we've got atleast another 20-30mins walk. Crap. To add to this, we had purchased 2 books on Rome which weighed me down another few kilos. By the time we got to the Metro and saw the Fountain of Triton, I couldn't even be bothered taking a proper picture.


Walking back home from the metro was one of the hardest things I've ever done. If I could've taken a cab for the 100m, I would've. As we dragged our feet to the front door, we noticed that there was and dessert joint right next to our apartment. At first we were tempted to get more coffee, instead, we settled on a few pastries instead.

By the time we got into the apartment, I could barely walk the 5m from my bed to the bathroom. I reckon I was going to have a great sleep after the long long day. Before that, I decided to upload the few hundred photos I took onto my laptop to do a bit of post processing. 4hours later, I was still wide awake even though my body felt like it was broken into a few hundred pieces. I don't know if it was the caffiene, or the extreme pain in my legs, but I didn't manage to go to bed until after 1:30am. Crap.

Coffee count for the day: 3

Day 4 - Through hell to Italy

I love internet checkin. I scored myself a pretty good seat. Although it the last row of seats and its a window seat (I always get aisle seats), but this is a 2 seater. And being the last row of a 2 seater, meant there was no one behind me except the plane door. This meant I can recline myself for the entire duration of the flight and sleep, and not worry about people who get narky about people who recline their seats. (Trust me, theres heaps of assholes out there who kick and punch the back of your seat if you recline). Being a window seat almost meant I get extra storage between my seat and the window and no one could bump into me whilst lining up for the toilets.

I had a little 10yr old girl in the seat next to me, which wasn't too bad a thing until she decided to use me as a human pillow. This basically meant every few minutes her head will fall ontop of me somewhere and wake me up. This resulted in me almost leaning out of the seat to get a good nights sleep. Like all long distance flights, you get crap all sleep. Even with my super motion sickness tablets that knock you out, I couldn't sleep the entire 12 hours to Frankfurt. Luckily Singapore airlines has on demand movies to keep me entertained.

A view of Frankfurt from the plane

When I got to Frankfurt, it was like 6am in the morning Frankfurt time and I was sick as a dog. The flight was hot and cold meaning I didn't know whether to keep warm or I was too hot. Great. Anyway, the first thing I did was try and find a transfer lounge to get my boarding pass. Unfortunately, they didn't have spare trolleys inside the terminal meaning I had to lug my hand carry with me everywhere. And by every where, I mean over 2/3 of Frankfurt airport. And Frankfurt airport is HUGE. There are 60 departure gates for section B alone. I lost count of how many where in section A and C. It took me over 1.5hrs to walk from C to B to find out that there is no transfer lounge for Alitalia. And that I would need to go through passport control and go to the main checkin counters. Luckily, the passport control in Frankfurt is soooooo easy. No forms or anything. Just show your passport, they may check your photos, or not. Then they stamp it and you're on your way. I finally got my boarding pass to Rome, but I had no gate. I decided to grab a roll and coffee to recover from the marathon hike I just did with my 10kg hand carry.

Variety of food on offer

This is when Moishii SMS me. "OMG! Jessica booked my flight to Rome on the 11th July. I have no flight!! Trying to solve it now for fucks sake". Those of you might remember Moishii's flight from Istanbul to Rome got cancelled because the airline went bust, and we managed to get him onto an Alitalia flight. Because Alitalia were taking over all of Air One's flights, they didn't issue a new ticket. All we had was a confirmation email that the flight had been taken over by Alitalia and that theres a booking reference number I told Moishii to call up and check.

When I got this SMS, I literally had my coffee in one hand, and my roll half way to my mouth. I took one look and went "Ha! Its not april fools you FOOL! You can't trick me! I don't believe all THREE of us could've missed the fact that it was booked for the wrong date". And just as I was about to sink my teeth into my roll, a thought occurred to me. Its us we're talking about....things like this are highly likely to occur. I almost threw my coffee and food onto the ground as I dove into my hand carry pulling things out of the bag like a mad woman. I finally got to the bottom of the bag where I had a folder with printouts of all emails and photocopies of all documents. I found the email and went "Oh fuck." The flight WAS booked for the 11th July! I can't believe all of us missed that!

It was then frantic SMS hoping that Moishii can arrange a flight to meet me in Rome. He was on the phone to Sydney screaming at Jessica my travel agent, who had a nervous breakdown trying to book my flight and thought she finally got rid of us when I flew out only to have this blow up in her face! After about an hour, I got the SMS that said Moishii has a flight to Rome! OH THANK GOD!!

Meanwhile, I still had no gate. I need a gate number! It could possibly take me 1.5hrs to walk to my gate and I might miss my flight! I did manage to find out that I should be boarding at one of the 60 gate Bs. So to play it safe, I went back into passport control and headed towards area B. It took a good 15mins to walk there, but since I didn't have a gate, I didn't know where to sit. I wandered around for another 10-15mins before I found an empty spot on the ground where I planted myself. I pulled out my laptop all ready to blog, when I foudn out that the battery was dead. CRAP! The power plug must've fallen out when I was in Singapore and didn't charge! I didn't have a book with me either! I had no seat, no laptop and no book to keep me occupied. Basically that meant I sat on the floor, in the middle of a walk way, and stared at people for the next 2 hours hoping I had a gate to bum at.

My boarding gate finally got announced, but my stupid B gate is away from all other gates and its on the other side of the airport. I grab my bags and make a run of it, only to have to go to passport control again, before I finally got to my gate. It was then I found out that our flight has been delayed. Bloody Italians. In total, I spent almost 5 hours in Frankfurt before I even got on a flight. I haven't even got to Italy yet and they're trying to screw me over! The Italians hate us!

2hours later, I finally touched down in Rome. I collected my luggage and tried to look for passport control. The next thing I know, I'm in the arrivals lounge. Errrrr....did I just illegally enter the country?? I did look around, but there was no passport control to be seen. So I did what any normal person would do. I made a get away. I tried to find a place to plant myself for the 3hour wait before Moishii's flight arrives. This is when I find out that his flight has been delayed. Great! I went to information to try and find out how to get to our accommodation only to find out nothing. We're not even on their map, which means we're on the outskirts of town. Near St Peters my ass. I grabbed myself a slice of pizza to tide me over til dinner time and pulled out a book that was in my checked in luggage. God this was bloody good pizza! It was even a fast food joint and its better than any Italian pizza I have had at home!

I decided to call up the woman who is supposed to meet us at the apartment and let her know we're going to be late. One big problem. She doesn't speak english. And my Italian is shocking. 2euros later, we haven't understood a thing and I've run out of change. CRAP. Theres an internet/phone card place right next to the payphones, so I decided to buy a phone card and ask the lady to call up my accommodation woman for me. Unfortunately, the cheapest card is 30 euros, with 6 euros tax. Thats 36 euros! Like $60AUD+! Not that I had a choice, so I forked over the money and she managed to call the woman up and tell her that Moishii's flight won't be arriving til atleast 5:30. She was supposed to meet us there at 5:30, now we probably won't get there til 7pm. Crap.

I decided to see how much a shuttle bus will cost to get us to the apartment. The trains would've been 11euros each, but we're going to be late already, so maybe a shuttle bus will be slightly faster. The response I got was 45euros for the 2 of us. Ok, thats bad, but dealable. So I find a place to crash whilst waiting for Moishii's flight. An hour later, I decided to check the status of his flight, and his arrival tim of 3:50pm, is now 6:20pm. FARK! My 3 hour wait has suddenly turned into a 5 hour wait! I was feeling sick and tired and cranky. I grabbed a seat in the corner where I sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Its been over 24hrs since I've had a shower, and it was stinking hot. I felt gross. Near the end of my of my 5hr wait, I find out that Moishii's flight has been delayed AGAIN. By the time he finally walked out of the gates, I've been waiting for almost 5.5hrs!! I was about to hit someone then burst into tears! And it was already 7pm and we're still at the airport!

We had a big group hug after the hell we've been through, only for me to find out that Moishii went through passport control. Shit. I'm in the country illegally. We decided to split up. I needed to get my passport stamped, and Moishii needs to find out about shuttle buses. I told him to go to the counter at the end, since the one closest to us don't do apartments whilst I ran back into the terminal and hand myself over to the police. This is when I'm told I don't need to go through passport control because I have a stamp from Frankfurt airport. Its not like its hard to get a stamp in Frankfurt.....anywhooo. I run back out into the arrival area onto to find Moishii getting yelled at, at the transfer counter I told him NOT to go to. *Sigh*

We finally went to the correct counter, and the response I got was either pay 50euros and wait 20-30mins for them to round up enough people to drive us to the accommodation, or pay 75euros for a taxi to take us there directly. The 45euro place I talked to earlier was a shuttle bus as well, meaning we were going to have to wait. By this time, its been almost 48 hours since I've slept in a bed. And Moishii was up all night trying to organise his flight to Rome. We decided to pay the 75euros and just get the hell out of there.

We finally pull up the apartment 30mins later only to bump into this family with 2 kids. We followed them into the apartment only for me to stop and question Moishii as to whether they're the landlords, or we're stalking a family into their own homes. After alot of arguing, one of them waved us into the house. PHEW. Its the right people. The guy tells me to come into the house, and since only half of the door was open, and I was trying to juggle my suitcase and hand luggage when trying to get through the door, my suitcase fell over. It hit the door, and the door went slamming into the wall. Shit, theres a dent. In less than a minute I've already caused a scene.

We got a tour of the place where everything was spoken in Italian, but we managed to get the gist of things. Then it was time to sort out payment. We had originally booked for 4 nights, but because of our tour cancellation, we had to change it to 3 nights. This happened in May. Unfortunately, they said that it doesn't matter that we changed the booking in May, we still have to pay the 4 nights. We're getting royally screwed but theres nothing we can do about it. Either pay, or sleep on the streets. They also wanted us to pay a 300euro security deposit, but since we told them we're leaving very early on the day we check out, and they can't get here because they needed to take the kids to school, they said we didn't need to pay the security deposit. I thought they were going to double it considering the way we crashed through the door. In less than an hour in Rome, we've spent 350euros. Thats $700AUD!!!

They finally left and we explored the apartment. The apartment is huge! I keep getting lost around here. It was only after they left that we found out they locked one of the bedrooms. The apartment sleeps 8, but they only unlocked 2 bedrooms for us because there were only 2 of us. Stingy bastards.

I decided to have a shower before looking for food. It was then that I found out that the shower is broken. The shower head is loose, so when you turn on the water, instead of spraying water forwards, it sprays it backwards. To make things worse, theres no shower curtains, meaning I flood the bathroom everytime I try and have a shower. I ended up having to sit in the bathtub to minimis splashage. Oh, the toilet also barely flushes. It takes you about 5 minutes of pumping and pushing the tank to get it to flush. So the $600 we paid for the apartment got us a broken toilet and shower. Great. Oh, the TV also has no reception.

I managed to shower withou completely flooding the place. As I walk out of the bathroom to get ready to go out, I drop my perfume bottle, smashing glass all over the corridoor. I'm having a great start to the holiday!!! 10mins later, I managed to clean up my mess when we grab out stuff and head out onto the streets to look for food. Less than a minute after leaving the apartment, I almost stepped in dog poop. ARGH!!!

We walk around and realised that we're in a shithole of a neighbourhood. Great. We paid so much money to stay in a slum area. We grabbed some water from the nearest bar, since the supermarket is closed to tide us through the night. We stopped by a payphone and used the 36euro phone card to call Christine to give her some abusing who answered at 4am in the morning. Who the hell answers at 4am in the morning?? Especially after she gave me a big speech about calling her work phone, since it'll be in the livingroom and will definately go into Voicemail. Thanks Christine. You ruined our moment to call and abuse!!

After that fiasco, we found a local restaurant that was still open. Its dinner time! Like typical italian restaurants, there was a big basket of grissinis on the table which were soooo yummy! I decided to smuggle a few home with us after seeing the price on the menu.

We ordered a vegetable soup each since we were both sick, and I must say, this is the most delicious soup I've ever had. Yes, admittedly I was hungry, sick and tired, but DAMN THIS WAS GOOD SOUP!

As we sat there enjoying our soup, we saw the waiter wheel out a trolly of food for another table. What the hell? I turned to Moishii and screamed "HOW COME WE DIDN'T GET A TROLLEY????" which turned into a laughing fit because he was thinking the exact same thing. WE'RE NO TROLLEY WORTHY! Every other table was getting served with a trolley except us. Hell, they're even cleaning up tables with a trolley! WE'RE NOT TROLLEY WORTHY! We're both ranting and raving about the trolley and how we should keep ordering food until it comes out on a trolley when our next course comes out....on a trolley. Oh thank god! Because I really can't afford to keep ordering food!

The mains were delicious even though expensive. The entire meal costs us about $90AUD. Our bill is really racking up, and we've been in Italy for less than a day....

We head back to the apartment where we crash into bed for the night.

Day 3 - Last day in Singapore

It was a Monday morning, and luckily my oldest nephew and niece don't have school since its youth day. That meant I got to spend the day with them. After bumming at home all morning and playing with the kids, my sister took me to a local hong kong cafe since we were discussing our favourite hong kong food the night before. Well, I guess I should've been smarter to know that you can't get decent Hong Kong food in Singapore.

I was really craving a ham macaroni soup that I always get in HK. The only thing remotely close to it is their ham and egg instant noodle. They really advertise that its instant noodle, and that its a nissin brand. For $3.50, this is what I got:

It would've cost me like $2 to make that myself....Anyway, we ordered a whole bunch of other food to share amongst us.

Pork Chop Macaroni Soup with egg

Chee Chong Fun with egg

Horlicks toast

Salted fish fried rice

Butter and sugar toast

The food wasn't bad. I just didn't understand why almost everything had an egg.....Oh, and their butter and sugar toast was divine! It might be the fact that I rarely ever eat butter.

We took the kids home just in time for their piano lessons. My brother in law is also on holidays and kindly "volunteered" to look after the kids whilst my sister took me shopping. More like I took her shopping. So far I haven't bought anything from Singapore which even my Sister finds weird. Maybe its the start of my trip and I don't want to spend all my money, maybe theres nothing I like, or maybe I've just matured and grown out of the impulse shopping thing. Who knows? Anyway, my sister decided to book in a pedicure for the both of us. I've never had a pedicure before even though Cookiez keep telling me to go to the salon for one. It was just too hard to take time off work I guess.

Anyway, the minute we got to the salon, we were served hot green tea where we proceeded to soak our tired feet in hot lavendar bubble water, that contained slices of lemon and then sprinkled with rose petals. I sooooo wanted to take a photo of it...but that would just be WEIRD. Even for trigger happy me.

The rest of the pedicure took about 2 hours which involved foot massages, exfoliation of the feet and calves, a spa treatment for the calves then I had my nails painted with nail art. I'd post the photo up....but some people get a bit obsessive about toes around here, so I better not.

By the time we were finished, we were running late to pick up the youngest one from school, so we dashed home and picked up my brother in law and the 2 kids so we could pick up the youngest one on the way to dinner. Poor thing was the last kid there! But he said he knew we would come and get him.

Dinner was at a Brazillian restaurant. I've always meant to go to a Brazillian restaurant, but never had the chance. The thought of someone bringing freshly roasted/grilled meat on a skewer to your table and carving it infront of you really brings the carnivore out in me.

Vegetables to compliment the meat

Cheesy puffy things

Condiments

MMmmmMm Meat!!

I have never eaten so much meat in my life! But it was all sooooooo good! Especially the roasted top side of beef. Me and my brother in law devoured half of their supply. And their chicken hearts. Yes thats right, chicken hearts. Even as an asian I've never tried them before. They're quite firm to the bite and sooooo delicious. Even the kids couldn't stop eating it. Infact, we ate the entire skewer of chicken hearts. Thats about an entire farm of chicken....They also had the most delicious grilled pineapples! Again, we ate all their pineapple.....

After completely stuffing our faces, we headed home where I had a quick shower and packed my bags for my flight. I spent a good hour playing with the kids when it was time to send me to the airport. It was at this stage that my niece started and crying and didn't want me to leave. She started telling me how she's going to miss me so so much, and how much she loves me and doesn't want me to leave. Awwwww I love you too Jessie! This girl is such a sweetheart and it breaks my heart to leave everytime. Despite me promising her I will see her in August on my way back to Sydney, she wouldn't stop crying. Eventually we managed to calm her down and off I was to the airport. However, less than 5mins after leaving, my brother in laws phone rang. It was my niece wanting to speak to me again before I leave. Poor baby was crying on the phone telling me she misses me already. Awwwww I had tears in my eyes :~(

I got to the airport less than 30mins later where I grabbed my boarding pass for Singapore to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, my Alitalia flight wasn't open for me to check in yet. I was basically told that I will need to check in at the transfer counter when I get to Frankfurt.

And that, is the beginning of my 24hours of hell...