And One for Free Water
There are two things I should note. First, last night, we met a new friend who didn’t get a mention. While I was putting up the blog entries last night, there was this blonde kid wearing glasses next to me. Once everything was posted, he suddenly started talking. His name was Sam, and he was a self-described “gay Jewish boy” from England. He was traveling with his family through Italy. He told us that he had just mailed his partner a rosary as a joke (he’s dating a “gay Irish Catholic,” so he thought it was funny.). Sam explained that he either had to hang out with his parents or his sister and her friends, a couple of 17-18 year old girls who “won’t be interesting for another year or two.” We hope you found something to do, Sam!
Second, I stand corrected. Camille is not quiet, she just doesn’t talk in English much (or maybe just appears quiet next to Clotilde, hah)! Sorry, Camille!
Will and I decided to go to the Vatican Museums. When we arrived, there was a two hour line (95% of it in the sun, and it was 32o C (about 90o F). Some dude said that because we were students, we could skip the line for 12 Euros through his tour group. We could just skip the line and then ditch the tour. Since the Vatican has 7km of museum and we only had today, we decided to take him up on the offer.
I’m just gonna throw on the table that this was the first thing I took a picture of.
If you think the British were good thieves, they could take lessons from the Vatican. They had an impressive Egyptian collection, among other things. However, their best stuff was their Greek and Roman collections. This is ONE hallway out of ONE of their THREE collections. Just one hallway.
They also had a cup big enough for Joe and shiny stuff.
Finally, there was a DOVE firing a LASER at Mary. That was pretty neat. I didn’t know the Holy See was into Sci-Fi.
Anyways, that took up pretty much our entire day. We then went to Roma Termini and booked ourselves an overnight train to Budapest for tomorrow night (day in Venice, then sleep our way to Hungary). We also booked a hostel for Budapest.
Then, we went to have our last meal at Casetta di Trastevere. I am going to give you directions to it now, because I remember it now. Don’t ask me for directions, just look here. This is accurate. My memory won’t be. The restaurant is open from 12:00 – 24:00.
From Roma Termini, take the H bus. Get off at the first stop after the bridge. Facing the tourist information booth, go forward. Keep going past the big fountain. After the big fountain, you’ll get to a brick enclosure / half-dome shrine thingy on your left. There may or may or may not be restaurant seats laid out there. On your right is a museum. There should also be a military jeep guarding it. Go right, towards the museum. Walk past the jeep. Take the first right you see (hard right, there are two rights very closely spaced). You should be on Via di Pelliccia or something like that. We call it Pelican Street.
Take Pelican Street until you are there. You should walk right into Casetta di Trastevere. It is next to Da’ Augusto, which is good, but not AS good and certainly not as cheap. There. The secret is out. Go feast for cheap.
While we were eating, a young, blind dude wearing a bright purple shirt sat down next to Will, on a diagonal from me. He kept repeating things…just over and over. Examples were: “I no see, but for me, is no problem. I love the vita.” Also, “For me, I love American music!” There were a few other things, but he INSISTED on high-fiving me every time I responded to one of these things. Every question and every high-five was directed at me. The guy barely noticed Will, except he asked why my “girlfriend” never talked. I explained that Will was a guy, but he didn’t seem to grasp that.
Crazy blind dude also kept asking me if the girls around him were “good girls” and/or “single girls.” He also kept asking if we’d take him to the bus stop. I felt bad, so I agreed. We got most of the way there, and he asked if he could take one minute to use the bathroom. He went in, and the owner of the bar came out asking if it was a practical joke. I guess he went into the wrong bathroom or something.
We waited ten minutes. We had told the guy several times that we had a train to catch, and we were in a hurry. After ten minutes, we told the bartender to apologize to the guy and explain our situation. We left. About five minutes after getting to the bus stop, blind dude caught up with us. A drunk hobo was leading him.
Anyways, we got back to Termini and picked up our bags from luggage storage. We looked at the board, and the train wasn’t listed…but the trains after it were. I asked Will if I could see the tickets. I figured it was something like the Gare du Nord / Paris St. Lazare thing. It was. We were supposed to leave from Roma Tiburtina.
We booked it over to Tiburtina, making it just in time…except then, I heard an announcement. I heard it as “(our train) will be 90 minutes late.” I assumed that my Italian was rusty, and I asked someone what the voice said. I was entirely correct. We waited for 90 minutes, and then our train arrived.
Once we got on the train, we got to our bunks. Will’s bed had stuff in it. Will went to the bathroom, and this Italian businessman guy came in and started yelling at me. He was speaking in a dialetto, so I didn’t understand a word he was saying. I kept telling him to wait for “mi amico,” and explaining that Will had a ticket for that bed. He either didn’t speak normal Italian or didn’t care, because he kept yelling at me until he grumpily moved his stuff.
Will got back once the crisis was over, and we went to sleep.
Will’s Corner
I am ninja. Even blind people with super bat hearing can’t find me.
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Dear Joe,
Even a crazy, blind Italian man can see that you are rage-ready. Tonight. Every night. Forever.
Love,
Will and Andy
