Today I arrived in Rome feeling recharged and ready to go.  My hostel was right next to the train station so I dropped my bags off and headed straight out to see the sights.  I heard that you could spend an entire week in Rome and still not see everything.  I had three days so there was no time to waste.

My goal was to do a big loop through the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum to get a general overview of what Rome is.  As I was walking toward the Roman Forum area I was coming across various ruins.  There is so much history here in Rome that there are ruins pretty much everywhere.  Some of the buildings even incorporate them into their structure.

I was finally getting close according to my map, but was having a hard time finding the street I needed.  I notice some stairs further on that looked like they lead down to a plaza and in the direction that I wanted to go.  I couldn’t quite see what was at the bottom.  As I walked down I could see an open area with what looked like a few ruins of roman columns.  Then all of a sudden it opened up to a massive site filled with ruins.  It was all dwarfed by the Palazzo Nuovo in the background. 

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  All of the sights that I have seen throughout my trip don’t even compare to what is in Rome.  They aren’t even in the same league.  It’s simply incredible.  I was really starting to get excited because I knew that this was definitely going to be a highlight of my trip if not the top destination.

I wandered around the ruins a little and climbed to the top of the Palazzo Nuovo which was well worth it.  This structure towers over everything in Rome and there is a wonderful panoramic view at the top of the entire city.  There is a maritime museum inside which I took a quick glance at before continuing my tour. 

The next sight I came across was Cirus Maximus which basically looked like a narrow running track but on a much larger scale.  It would be quite an impressive sight if it wasn’t so arid.  But now it’s just a large dust field instead.

To the side of Circus Maximus is Palatine Hill which looks quite impressive.  I only could see the outside of it right now, but planned to take a tour tomorrow when I go to see the inside of the Colosseum.

Around the corner and down the road a little bit I could see the Arch of Constantine which leads the way to the Coloseum.  Seeing these two structures was unbelievable.  I had seen a coliseum in Pula, Croatia but this blows that away.  I can’t wait until tomorrow when I get to go inside. 

But this was enough for me today.  It was quite hot outside and I was getting hungry and tired.  I made it back to my hostel for some dinner then just hung around talking to some of the folks in my room.  I have a bunch of interesting people staying with me and it should be a fun time hanging out with them while I’m here in Rome.

All my new friends are leaving me today.  I was actually a little sad because this has been the best group of people I’ve met so far on my trip.  The few weeks before this, I was getting a little tired of traveling and maybe even a little homesick.  But now I feel refreshed and excited about what lies ahead.  The sights I’m going to see and the people and stories that I will get to experience.

By mid-afternoon everybody had left except for Kristin.  She wasn’t leaving until tomorrow so the two of us hung out for the rest of the day.  We went to Rimini’s old town district because it was something to do.  There wasn’t much to it but the weather was really nice and we were having fun joking around.  She’s really a great girl and I hope that I will run into her again someday, maybe in a month when I’m back in Germany.

Today was another day at the beach.  I’m really starting to get some nice color and have almost reached that “healthy” look instead of the “is he breathing” pale skin color.  Everybody who I had met was still around so we all were hanging out together.   We even picked up a couple of new people, Kadja and Thomas both from Germany.  It seems like most of the people here who aren’t Italian are German.  And they all seem to be from the Brovarian region (where Munich is).

Thomas and I spent most of the afternoon exchanging various slang words and dirty phrases.  I would teach him something in English and then he would repeat the favor to me in German.  Then I would go practice it on either Kristin or Kadja.  Thomas and I were quite amused and having a great time, the girls – no so much.

For dinner our group decided to head to Revanna because Belin and Bea said there was a famous church there.  It was only an hour train ride away so it was a good activity to get away from the beach.  I don’t know how famous the church is but it was amazing.  It was quite different from anything other church or cathedral that I had seen so far because it as a dome instead of the long gothic style through out Europe. 

When we walked inside there were a bunch of chairs setup with people sitting in them waiting for some kind of performance to start.  We decided to stick around for a little bit and ended up being treated to a wonderful pianist concert.  It was really wonderful because of the setting in this old church and the acoustics it provided.

After the concert we grabbed some pizza and gelato and then caught the train back to Rimini.

I met the girls downstairs for breakfast then the four of us headed to the beach to spend the day.  We were all pretty tired from the night before so we pretty much just crashed for awhile in the sand while working on our tans. 

For lunch we decided to take a walk down the beach and find something to eat.  The beaches in Europe are so much different than what I’ve seen in the US and in the Caribbean.  Most all the beaches here are occupied by private beach clubs.  You have to pay a daily fee to use them.  They usually provide you with a chair, umbrella and sometimes even a towel.   It’s sort of a nice setup because you can lounge in a nice beach chair all day.  I think I’m still more of a fan of the public beach area that I’m used to.

Anyways, during lunch we were just chatting about various things but then Belin spoke up and said “I am fat.”  It was really funny because she meant to say that she was full, not fat.  I get a kick out of hearing the literal translation of people’s native tongue to English.  I’ve heard some funny phrases. Another one of Belin’s own was “My foot is a sleeping.”  

That night I didn’t feel like going out for a late night but still went down to the bar for a drink and some conversation.  I met a girl named Christine from Germany.  I think this is the 4^th girl I’ve met from Germany named Christine.  It definitely makes things easy to remember.  That day she was walking down the street just outside the hostel and had her wallet stolen out of her purse.  The thief got all her cash and credit cards.  She was just starting her holiday in Italy too but now will have to head back to Germany because she has no money left.  What a bummer because she would have been traveling on much of the same itinerary as me and I think would be an excellent travel partner.  I guess it wasn’t meant to be though. 

On a suggestion from my friend Adam who I met in Brugges, I headed to Rimini today to hang out on the beach for a few days before I went to Rome.  The first thing I needed to do when I got there was to get my haircut.  I found a salon around the corner from my hostel and told the girl just to cut my hair like the typical guy haircut in Italy.  Most of the Italian guys that I had seen so far had a sort of a faux-halk which is how I had been cutting my hair before I started to travel.  So I figured that is how she would cut it and it was easier for me to tell her to cut it typically than try to explain some specific way when we didn’t speak the same language.  It turned out pretty good actually.

With my new dew I headed down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon to work on tanning my pale ass.  I forgot to put sunscreen on got a little burnt but nothing too bad.  By tomorrow it will be a golden brown white.

That night I met three girls while sitting down in the bar: Kristin (pronounced Christine) from Germany and Bea and Belin, both from Spain.  The three of us hung out and talked over a few beers.  Belin didn’t speak much English (or that’s what she told me) so we just nodded a lot and smiled.  But Kristin, Bea and I had a good time sharing some of our travels and backgrounds.

Just when it was getting sort of late (midnight, yes that’s late for me) Bea asked where we were going to go out to tonight.  I forgot that the Spanish don’t even think abut going out until at least one in the morning.  After hardly any convincing I said I was in.  I wasn’t about to say no to a night with three beautiful girls on my arms.

A couple of local guys told us about a night club called “Padisimo” which is supposed to be the best place here and also one of the best in Europe.  When we got there I was pretty impressed with the setup.  There were three floors to choice from each with a different style of music.  What I wasn’t impressed with was the fact that everybody there was 16 years old.  I don’t mind talking to younger girls, but I think I must draw a line at ones who can’t even go to an ‘R’ rated movie in the US, let alone drink.  And Bea, Belin, and Kristin felt the same way about the guys so the four of us basically stuck together for the rest of the night.

I woke up really early this morning so I could head over to St. Mark’s Square to take some pictures without the thousands of tourists and pigeons.  It turned out to be a great idea because it truly is a remarkable sight and it gets tarnished a little during the day by the massive crowds.  The sunset by the water was really quite a sight as well.  I spent a few hours taking loads of pictures of the square, the parked gondolas, and the coastline.

I walked over to one of the larger canals to take a picture of a bridge over it.  There were some steps on the side that led down into the water so I started to walk down them to get a better shot.  The last two steps were covered in seaweed so I knew they would be slippery.  Of course rather than just staying on the steps above them I tried to carefully setup my tripod and camera on the steps covered in very slippery seaweed.  As soon as I took my first step onto the bottom step I completely slid off of it and began to fall into the canal.  I quickly raised my camera and tripod over my head and tried to regain my footing.  But I couldn’t get any kind of grip on the seaweed and kept slipping.  I swear I must have looked like one of those cartoons where the characters feet are flailing all over the place. 

Finally I just decided to just let my feet go and try to fall backwards onto the dry steps.  Luckily I had just enough momentum backwards that I was able to basically sit down on the steps and save myself and my camera from falling into the water.  Phew.  I don’t know what I would have done if my camera would have fallen into the canal.  I guess today was my lucky day but I wasn’t about to see how lucky it was so I packed up my gear and headed back to the room to take a nap.

This morning I woke up early so I could spend the day over at Murano Island.  It’s a small island to the North of Venice where the famous Murano Italian glass is from.  To get there you have to hop on one of the water taxis.  The one I needed wasn’t too far from where I was staying but there wasn’t an easy way to get there.  I had to find my way through winding roads and over canals.  It proved to be more of a challenge than what I anticipated and I was beginning to realize that using a map was pointless.  Just when you think you’re heading in the right direction you run into a canal that has no bridge over it.  These canals were great to look at, but becoming a hassle to navigate around.

Just as I started to make some progress in getting to the taxi station one of my foot steps was met with an extremely soft cushion.  Uh oh, what did I just step in?  I looked back and was completely surprised.  Bear crap!  I didn’t know they had bears in Venice.  But there was no way that any kind of house pet could leave such a mountain of feces.  It had to be a bear crap and it was all over my sandals.  I couldn’t walk around all day smelling like crap after all I probably had enough BO since it was so hot here.  The only option was to wash it off some how.  Finally a good use for all these canals I was having such an issue with this morning.  I just hoped that I wouldn’t fall into the water because it looked really disgusting.

After washing off my sandals and a bit more trekking through the streets I finally made it to the taxi port and was on my way to Murano Island.  When I got there the sun was so hot that all I wanted to do was head inside to one of the air-conditioned glass shops to cool off.  I had no plan on buying anything because first of all I couldn’t afford any of it and second I wasn’t about to lug around any glass sculpture for 5 weeks in my backpack.  But I pretended to be a serious buyer and sulked up as much time in the AC as I could.

Once I was cooled off I walked around the island for awhile and found one of the actual glass factories where they let you watch how the glass figures were made.  It was a pretty interesting process.  I watched the guys create a dog figure which took about ten minutes, then walked inside to the gallery to see that the dog figure cost $200 euros.  Not a bad markup for ten minutes of work.

That night I went and grabbed a beer with a couple of Aussi’s guys that were staying in my room.  We found a bar that had a happy hour.  The prices still weren’t that great and the place wasn’t too happy so we only stayed for a short while before going home to crash.

I’m in Italy!  And it’s HOT!  My hostel/hotel I was staying at had its reception right next to the train station which is where I thought I was staying.  The lady at the desk corrected my error and told me I need to just walk a short way across four bridges and I would find my room no problem.  The walk really wasn’t that long at all but it was probably close to 40 C°(Sorry, I’ve given up on converting temperatures now) outside.  But I would quickly get used to it because it wasn’t going to warm up at all and I would have to do a lot of walking since there was no motorized traffic allowed in Venice.

Once I showered and cooled off a bit I took a stroll around Venice.  It really is exactly what you expect – gorgeous.  There might be a lot of tourists, especially now in the high season, but I still loved how refreshing it was to walk around an entire city without hearing or seeing any cars, busses, motorcycles, etc..   

I headed over to St. Marks Square (the main site to see) and was taken back by all the pigeons there.  There are thousands of them.  And there are actual street venders selling pigeon seed to feed them.  Why would they encourage these flying rats is something I don’t understand.  But it was sort of neat seeing all the kids running around chasing after them.  The birds were so accustomed to being fed that you could put some of the feed in your hands and they would fly up and sit on your arm to eat it.  I don’t know about you but I’m not that interested in having an animal sit on my arm that seems to crap uncontrollably.  I guess some people enjoy that sort of thing though.

I arrived into Vienna again this morning after another crappy night train.  I seriously don’t understand how or why people like taking those things.  This time the air conditioning actually worked and I took one of the lower beds which have a bit more room.  However, my wagon-mates were more interested in smoking and drinking all night long than getting any sleep.  So when I made it to Vienna, finally I just crashed at my hostel for a few hours to catch up on some sleep.

This time in Vienna was not for sight seeing or partying like the last.  I had an early train in the morning so wasn’t planning on staying up late at all.   I just did my laundry had a beer in the bar and went to bed.

My rail pass runs out at the end of this month, which is going to work out for the best anyways.  After Italy I want to see a few places that I can’t reach by train.  I’m going to fly over to Athens, Greece then venture to the Greek Isles for a week or so.  I think Doug and Nataliya might meet me for that part of my trip.

Once I’m done with Greece, it looks like I’m going to head down to Jordan for five days or so.  I have a buddy of mine from college that lives there and said I should visit while I’m here in Europe.  Jordan looks like an amazing country so I’m definitely going to take him up on his offer.   And if I can time things correctly I might even take a day trip to Israel because I think its not too far away from where I’ll be staying.

After Jordan I plan to fly over to Istanbul, Turkey for a week or so.  Everybody I’ve met who has been there says you need at least a week to see everything there.  Some people have stayed as long as five weeks, but I can’t afford that timeline if I’m going to make it back to Munich for Oktoberfest. 

So that’s the schedule for the last leg of my trip – Greece, Jordan, Turkey, Oktoberfest.  I can’t believe that I’ve already traveled for almost 3 months and only have one to go.  But I’m really excited for the rest of my trip that I’m sure it will go by even faster than what it has already.

Today I walked around the town a little to take some pictures of what a Romanian city looks like compared to a city in say central Europe.  I even took the cable car up to the top of the mountain for a panoramic view of Braşov, which was a waste of 7 euros.  I guess the view was nice but that was all that was up there.  I should have just hiked up the trail. 

That night I was hanging out in the TV room watching movies with everybody else when a group of guys from Ireland came in with 2 liters of beer.  I had seen these in the market but thought they were just soda 2 liters and never gave them a second glance.  That wasn’t the case at all.  2 liters of beer – in one bottle, wow.  When a couple of the guys cracked open their second bottle I was just waiting for the craziness to begin.  But it didn’t happen.  Soon after they were opened, the guys threw in the towel and called it a night.  I should have shown them how we Americans do it.  Ha!

It was raining for most of the day today so I didn’t get outside much.  Instead I spent most of the day catching up on my blog.  It’s been hard to keep things current because most of the time when I get home at night I don’t want to boot up my laptop and write.  I would rather hang out with the people I’ve met in my hostel.  I figure that the blog will always be there and getting to share life experiences with people from all over the world is something that doesn’t come along everyday.

The appeal to Braşov is that it lies in the heart of the Transylvania region of Romania.  There are loads of castles and haunted stories behind each of them.  None of them true, but they still provide an eerie ambience.  I signed up to tour three of the most popular ones around Braşov – Bran Castle, Râşnov Fortress, and Peles Palace.

The first stop on our tour was the 13^th century Râşnov Fortress ruins just outside the city.  The fortress sat on top of a mountain as do most every castle or fortress throughout Europe.  The ride up to it provided a taste on how crazy our bus driver would be for the rest of the tour.  He had no hesitation in speeding through pot holes or any other barrier in the road.  I think it was more of an amusement park ride than a bus tour.

The fortress itself was pretty spectacular.  The outer wall and the towers were still in tack but the inter buildings were mostly ruins.  There was a small museum with a few artifacts found on the site, but the lighting was poor or non-existent so they were tough to see.  This fortress had just recently been purchased by the state and has yet to see any funding to turn it into a proper tourist museum.  You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about just from the road that leads up to it.  I think there were more potholes than actual road.

Next up was Bran Castle, of the three probably the most famous because it is what the Dracula legend is based from.  Because of this fame, it is also heavily surrounded by trinket dealers.  You know the crap that you would never actually buy except when on vacation.  Once you make it through the market and to the castle you are greeted with the masses of tourists.  The castle might be a great place, but there are so many tourists that you’ll be sure to leave with a sour taste in your mouth.

Finally we ended up at Péles Palace, which by far was the most extravagant of the three in my opinion.  It is so extravagant that you hardly believe that people actually still live here.  I guess it is privately owned and they still vacation on the top floors for a few weeks/months out of the year.  The entrance is a massive room that greats you with walls covered in various types of marble that create an incredible sight.  Then each room is filled with various priceless artifacts from all over the world.  And when having artifacts from a specific region is not enough, they chose to create exact copies of rooms from other famous castles or buildings.  It’s really quite a place and is a must see if you ever travel through the Transylvania region.

Romania might be losing its Eastern European reputation, but there are still remnants to be found — in this case pirated movies.  My hostel had almost 300 movies that I could watch and I don’t think any of them were legit copies.  So rather than do any sight seeing today I spent the entire afternoon sitting on a couch and watching movies.

I think I still have a lingering hangover.  A two day hangover means you had one hell of a night, right?  It’s really not that bad though and I don’t have anything I need to do except wait for my train to Romania. 

I decided to go to Romania because I had an extra week before I wanted to be in Italy.  Romania always sounded like an interesting place and it was included in my EURail pass.  Initially I wanted to travel to Bucherest, but there were no cheep hostels there and the hotel prices were more than what I paid in Paris.  It turns out that Romania isn’t the cheap Eastern European country it once used to be.  Now it is a thriving tourist destination and the prices were definitely reflecting that.

This was going to be my second night train of my trip.  I hated the last one so didn’t expect this one would be any different.  My assigned cabin’s air-conditioning was not working very well and I had the very top bunk.  The windows were locked shut.  This was awful.  I was miserable and barely got an hour worth of sleep.  I absolutely hate night trains.  The problem is that to get to Brasov, Romania from Vienna a night train was your only option.  And it’s the same to get back to Vienna from Brasov, which I will have to do again next week.  Something to look forward to, I suppose.