Do You Have a Place to Stay Tonight?

7/18/08

Today, I officially ran out of clean underwear. I had extended my amount by hand washing two pairs in the sink in Athens but as Bobby had already run out three days ago, we decided to go search out a laundromat. Our guide book seemed to think everyone with dirty clothes had chosen to stay by Termini, the main train station in Rome, so we knew it would be a bit of trek from our side of Rome. We decided to hit up the Campo d'Fiori on our way. The Campo d'Fiori is a piazza that has a fruit, veggie, flower, clothing and miscellaneous kitchen appliances market everyday until 3. We sat with our large backpacks full of dirty clothes and smelly socks, under the large statue of Giordiano Bruno, a heretic who was burned at the stake on that spot. The statue is very brooding and underneath him it shows a relief of the actual burning. While I was sitting there a British family came by. Their little girl of 5 or 6 jumped up on the statues base to get a look at the relief. Her parents had obviously told her to look for the flames because after a few pensive moments she turned to her dad and said, "Dad? Do you think that would have been sore?" It was classic.

After some delicious sandwiches from the corner of the market, we decided to get a slice of watermelon from one of the fresh fruit stands because it looked so amazingly refreshing. Off I went to get it and due to my unbelievably amazing language skills instead of purchasing two slices of watermelon I got half of a watermelon cut into two pieces. There was a lot but it was very delicious and Bobby and I ended up quite pink and sticky. Then we headed up to the Roman Forum and then on to the Colosseum. It's huge and heats up like a big, stone casserole dish in the afternoon and as we ran out of water halfway round, we have some slightly delirious video of us making stupid jokes about the colossal size of the place. We eventually got so dehydrated that we left and went towards the Termini Train station to attempt to make the necessary train reservations to get to Florence, Paris and Berlin with our Eurail Passes. When we got to Termini, there were two huge lines at the only information/ticket desk in the entire place. The line was so long that we decided to come back at 9 when we assumed the line would go down. We got a little lost looking for the laundry place and the weight of our dirty laundry was starting to weigh us down. When we got there it was €7.50 to wash and dry one load and although we were convinced we could pack our stuff in one, the laundromat owner told we had to use two. We refused and so we picked our most dirty items to wash and resigned ourselves to being a little European in our scent for the next week.

After grabbing some pizza, some Internet and getting our laundry we hoofed it back to the train station assuming the line would have gone way down. It looked like the line had never moved. Reluctantly we got in the line marked international since we needed trains out of Italy and hoped they would also book our Rome to Florence at the same time. Five minutes after standing in line a lady came around with cards and gave them to all the legitimate customers remaining in the line and then promptly closed the line for the night. I got the last card. To hedge our bets, Bobby got in the domestic line and again he was one of the last ones allowed in before they closed that line too. At first I thought they seemed to be closing two hours early but after waiting in the slowest line of our lives we realized that they had to start closing that early in order to be done somewhere near closing time. In front of me were three crazy Asian guys who thought it would be fun to pass the time by practicing their audition for America's Best Dance Crew. At that time of night, I thought it would be better to sit on the ground and try to ignore them.

Back to Eurail. When we bought our pass for $350 we assumed it took the place of having to buy tickets so that you could easily just get on board trains, show your pass, and off you went. At least that is what they market it to unassuming Americans. It turns out that you have to get a reservation for every part of your journey and that do that you have to stand in the same line as the people buying tickets and then you have to pay for the reservation itself. Luckily we had decided not to do that extra load of laundry as we spent all the cash we had on us paying €80 in reservation fees. And we were unable to book the Paris to Berlin part because it was already full.
When we left the line we were pretty defeated and it was late. After standing in the line for so long we had to use the bathroom but the station closes the bathrooms at night and then charges money to use them in the day. At that point we decided we would have to take the Metro back because the thought of the two hour walk back was unimaginable. However in Rome they close the Metro at midnight and start closing the entrances at 11:30. So at 11:32 at night with backpacks full of luggage, incredibly sore feet from an already full day of walking and little water, we set off to walk across Rome to get back to the apartment. It was the longest, slowest walk ever. Every 30 minutes or so I had to take my shoes and socks off and rinse my feet in the cold water of the Rome fountains. When we finally made it to St. Peters we stopped to rest a moment on the colonnade steps. Bobby hadn't shaved that day, his hair is looking a little scruffy and I didn't look too hot myself. I had laid my head down on Bobby's lap for a little rest and we must have looked pretty pathetic because a couple that was walking by called out, "Are you okay there?" and after we replied that we were fine and even reassured them a second time, the man was still inspired to ask, "Do you have a place to stay tonight?" Apparently in our dishevelled state with our belongings on our back and collapsed on the church steps, we looked a little homeless or at least in need of charity. Luckily the encounter kept us laughing until we finally made it back. What a freaking night.