Last week was my fall break. It’s called “study week” here at Maynooth, but even the professors aren’t fooled into thinking that the students are doing much studying at all. I had been planning to head to Rome to visit Elexsa, Paula and Andrea studying there this semester. Needless to say, I ate a ridiculous amount of pizza and pasta and indulged in a few cones of gelato. No shame. My flight was a bit late in the afternoon on Thursday, so I went to the airport a bit early and enjoyed lounging on the ridiculously comfortable chairs by the charging stations at the Dublin airport. I attempted to write a bit of a paper while on the plane, but, of course that did not last too long.
Once I finally got into Rome, I had great directions from friends and yet I was still questioning everything and ended up missing a few trains and trams before finally just going with the flow. I quickly realized that many people did not speak English (not sure why this was much of a shock but alas, it was) and struggled a bit when asking for directions. Finally finding my friends, I was happy to sleep after such a long travel day. The first weekend that I was there, I explored the heart of Rome. I saw every monument you would want to see during a trip to Rome – the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, Vatican City…everything. The first day that I was there I went exploring with Paula, who knew the best ways to get around Rome. I enjoyed my first real deal Italian pizza and yes, it was delicious.
On Saturday, I met up with Ada and a girl also studying abroad at Maynooth in the center of the city to explore further. That’s when when we made our way to Vatican City. I did not want to pay for a train ticket so we walked – if you’re ever considering this, just stop now and buy a train ticket. Or just get on the train. I don’t know, just don’t walk. You will most definitely regret the decision, as I quickly realized. Vatican City was absolutely beautiful but by far the biggest tourist trap I have come across. After battling so many people to get into the Vatican, it seemed to ruin the whole spirituality thing that I imagined the Sistine Chapel and Vatican itself to have. But still, beautiful.
On Sunday, I explored the city alone. Surprisingly it was so easy to get around and I just walked around and revisited some of the monuments and took loads of pictures. And ate more pizza. Then, it was Monday. I waited for my friends to get done classes and then it was time for our Halloween celebration. While the details of the night are quite entertaining, the most important piece of that saga is that I lost my wallet. Went into a local fast food place for french fries. Left. Realized my wallet was no longer with me. And freaked, naturally. I did just lose my phone not too long ago. For someone who *never* loses anything, this is by far the most irritating and upsetting thing to happen. I ended up going back to the place the next day, twice, and my wallet was gone.
Losing my wallet would not have been the biggest issue but there went all of my money – about 120 euros, my drivers license, my debit card, my health insurance card etc. Thankfully, I have awesome friends that didn’t mind spotting me for the time being but still, my mom ended up saving me by wiring me money to get me through the rest of the week.
Even though losing my wallet put a damper on my trip, I still had a great time. No regrets, except going into the place to order the fries. Fast food fries are not worth it.
I headed back to Ireland on Friday morning and spent the weekend being lazy and catching up on some work I had abandoned over the break. I bought groceries to (hopefully) last me through the week and discourage me from getting Chinese at any point but we’ll see how that plan goes.
Side note: everyone keeps asking me about the election. Many have been worried I was not voting but I have assured them that I have in fact voted…and voted for all the right people.
This weekend coming up I am going to Amsterdam. I am trying to save as much as possible during the weeks in order to have more money for any weekend excursions that I take. Funds aren’t running too low…but still.