Dear Journal (as told by Bobby)

This was really written by Jane.

I spend most of the time she is writing her blog entries in her journal sketching, writing/proselytize about architecture history and urban space (even in the rain), and trying to ensure that I have an appropriate and usually overly-ambitious itinerary for the next day and city.

We are currently in our cheapest and nicest hostel to date in Berlin, and we are waiting for our free laundry to finish in the machine so that we can go to bed in our four person shared room (don#t want to wake them too late). Jane has been typing like a champ so I am giving her a break by typing one of her entries. Here goes:

07/19/08

The day after our trek across Rome we decided that we would sleep in and then spend some time walking the shops to get the presents for everyone. We first got our favorite sandwiches and took them to the Pantheon porch to eat like we have for many days in Rome(Bobby's note: we were sitting behind the Pantheon, on the wall surrounding, the porch is in the front of the Pantheon). There was no one sitting near us and behind the little wall we sit on is the a giant hole but somehow by the end of our picnic lunch my purse was gone. IT had been stolen right from underneath me while we ate while Bobby faced me. It was absolutely infuriating. I immediately started to cry because in my bag was 100 Euros, my credit card, sunglasses and benadryl, chapstick, sunscreen, and not to mention the little Fossil change purse and the actual leather bag itself. I loved that bag and I affectionately referred to it as my Indiana Jones Adventure Bag.

We walked, me bawling to the closest Internet cafe to send e-mails, call the bank, and try to see what we could right. Bobby at one point left, I thought to check our location again, but returned gloriously with a caffe granita to cheer me up. The saving grace was that the day before the trek had been so bad that today Bobby had taken all of the important documents , the video camera, and my little black writing journal in his bag to make my load lighter (Bobby's note: I'm awesome!). It was just so upsetting because I really had been trying to be incredibly careful and I let my guard down once and something so frustrating happens.

Because we had such a terrible day we decided to go out for a nice night and wound up having the most delicious meal. We had spaghetti al gricia (spaghetti, butter, cream, parmegianno, and thick sauteed pancetta) and bombollini, with a zesty light tomato sauce. We bought a bottle of the house white wine and although it was cheap (Bobby's note: it cost 6€, so it was too cheap to be true) it helped me to forget the whole purse fiasco. For dessert we had pannacotta with a chocolate sauce - a custard like dessert and then slowly stumbled our way home playing the smart car game (Bobby's note: I won the game that night).

**That is the end of Jane's entry. Hope it finds you all well.