Saturday May 19th

Saturday was an incredibly hectic day of traveling from Barcelona to Rome. Since our flight to Rome was scheduled for 7 AM, I woke up at 4 after a few hours of sleep for a quick shower before taking a cab to the airport with two fellow group members. Since our hotel was located on La Rambla, a bustling street with many nightclubs, I actually saw people waiting in line to enter the clubs as I entered the cab at 4:45 in the morning. It amazes me that the Spanish culture is able to stay up and party so late into the morning. It was hilarious to see people out partying while the public works employees were picking up trash and washing down the sidewalks.

After a short ride to the airport, where it seemed a person could board the plane with a gun holstered to their hip the security was so lax, I grabbed a quick breakfast from McDonalds before boarding the plane. Luckily the flight only lasted about an hour and a half because I had to practically become a contortionist to fit my legs in the little space between seats. After arriving in Rome we jumped from one bus to the other to finally arrive at our hotel. While our hotel is not in the heart of Rome as our hotel in Barcelona was, it is by far the nicest hotel we have stayed in thus far. The room is massive with a large closet area, two seats, a desk, as well as a huge bathroom. Although we normally don’t spend much time in the hotel, it’s nice to have a large, relaxing space to come home to at night.

The only picture I managed to take of the Gates of Rome

Once we all settled in and unpacked our bags, a few of us walked down the street to a local restaurant to grab a late lunch. Even though our hotel is not in a touristy area, they luckily had English menus for use to use to order. After resting for a couple of hours we traveled via the Roman subway to the Gates of Rome. We learned about the history behind the gates in one of the books we were required to read before our trip so it was interesting to see these ancient structures in person. This concluded our day as a group and we were released for the evening.

Interesting buildings we saw walking to the Gates

Wanting to have some fun after a day of travel, almost the entire group walked a ways to a bar that was showing what was apparently the Super Bowl of European soccer. While I am far from a soccer fan, it was fun to experience the atmosphere of a game that was crucially important to Europeans. Once the game was decided by penalty kicks we all hailed cabs to travel back to the hotel and get some sleep. After a day of planes, trains, and automobiles, it was great to come back to such a luxurious room.