Noel's Adventure(s): February 24: London to Rome

Woke up today at 5:45 am, sick. I don't think I slept more than 2 hrs straight last night, between me being feverish and sniffley and my roommates running in and out. Oh well. Ate a heel of bread with nutella for breakfast and made the rest of my bread into sandwiches. I brought my trusty old blue backpack and my purse and was ready to go. We took the tube to Heathrow and checked in for our 9:35 flight on Alitalia to Milan. Got there early, around 12:30. Breathtaking views of the Alps from the plane. Went through customs no problem, ate a cheese sandwich (which I did NOT declare at customs. Oops) and took some sudafed. The flight to Rome was pretty too, with more mountains and the beautiful blue-green sea. Could see pretty misty islands off the coast. Got to Rome about 3, took awhile to get ourselves out of the airport because it's huge and confusing and we were pretty darn sick.

We bought train tickets to Termini Station for €14. Had a very nice train ride, with a box all to ourselves (and one Japanese guy who napped) and felt like we were going to Hogwarts. Lots of graffiti all around the train tracks, but interesting views of lean-tos with cacti or palms growing and chickens scratching about.

We thought finding our hostel would be easy. Ha. Our directions said walk out of Terminin, cross street and it will be 100 yds left, called "Coconuts Hostel." We walked back and forth for over an hour. Must have walked miles with super heavy backpack, purse, and bread bag filled with sandwiches and fruit. Just when we were ready to panic, I spotted the #137 Via Giolitti, which was on a beat-up, shady-looking dark green metal door. To the right was a list of tenants, and yep, "Coconuts" was hand-scribbled on a tiny slip of plastic. We got buzzed in to a very scary-looking stairwell with an old cage-like elevator. An Italian woman came down the elevator and greeted us. She took us to Floor 7 (we were praying all the way up so the elevator wouldn't snap), where we went into another door. To our great surprise, the inside was new and beautifully decorated, with tiled walls and floors and new furniture. Our room is comfortable and clean, and very very nice. So far it's just us but there are 2 more beds. We got sandwiches at Termini for supper. Good bread with weird thin, flat, bacon and smushy cheese and basil. Bland but good. Now it's time for an early bedtime (it's 8pm). Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Colosseum. Thank goodness our hostel has maps for us that look clear and easy to use. We have no idea what we will be doing on this trip. I wanted to buy a guidebook at Heathrow but there were no good ones, so I guess I just hope I find one eventually.