Rodey on the Road

Never Again. I’ll come back to that in a minute.
So the plan to watch the sunset went over well, four of us, lucy, michelle, jaqueline and myself all climbed the steps up to the hill to watch the sun set over the rooftop. It wasn’t as spectacular as last time, but it still was something I would not want to miss, and the cold heineken as I was resting on the steps made it all the more appealing. We headed down into town to stop by Happy’s, this wonderful little store where the man sells bottles of wine, three for ten bucks. I walkd in, said hello to happy, asked him how he was doing and how business was, and lo and behold, we were allowed to choose from the wines that were three for 12 euros and still only pay the 10. Happy is a great man. So we started sipping the wine slowly, I was very tired and didnt think that the bottles we had purchased would be finished by the end of the night. By eleven thirty Adrian and I (an aussie guy at the hostel) were back at Happy’s picking up three more bottles, except Happy gave us a fourth one for free and was offering us all kinds of water and stuff. We refused on the grounds that we could not accept any more generosity from this kindly fellow, and also that the water would inhibit our ability to lose our inhibitions. So we played kings, and I thought, hey, kings with wine is no problem, I don’t even have to watch how much I drink, it’s only wine.
The night progressed through two full games of kings, one with a group of japanese guys and by the end of it, pictures were taken that I didn’t know were being taken, there was surprisingly little wine left, especially since it was mostly me and adrian splitting those last two, and I observed a family playing monopoly for a solid forty five minutes. Which brings me back to my original point: never again.

I woke up 15 minutes before my train was scheduled to leave, I packed, dressed, said my goodbyes to everyone and ran for the train. I made it to the station 1 minute before my train was scheduled to leave, and five minutes later it actually arrived. I spent the train ride to Rome in not the most pleasant of mind sets, and upon my arrival I could not find my hotel or the street. I did three full laps to try to find the street, and it was not there, the Italians must have misplaced it. I later learned that the street I couldnt find was the very large, main street leading away from the station, but evidently the morning after is detrimental to my already shaky ability to read a map.

So I went to the mcdonalds to get some grease to calm my stomach, and I payed for my hamburgers and waited. The lady at the cash took three more customers, then turned to me and asked what I wanted. I told her I had already payed, she said she didn’t remember me, and that I would have to produce a receipt. I do not remember being given a receipt and I was adamant that I was not going to let my two dollars slip away on this one. I was in no mood to argue, or in no condition to listen to her raised voice, but I still managed to upset an Italian woman, something I was hoping I could avoid. The voice grew, the english disapeared in favor of hand gestures, and eventually to prove me wrong she opened up the receipt dispensing apparatus on the cash register and saw that indeed, I had ordered my hamburgers. Without a word she went and got them, put them in a bag and thrust them at me, not looking at me at all. With all the strength I could muster I gave a loud Grazie and left to eat.

I found my hotel, I went and got some water, it was pissing down rain so I slept for a couple hours. I am supposed to be meeting Tara today but I do not know when she gets in or if she will find the hotel, as it was very difficult for me. The plan for tommorrow is to find a place to sleep, go do some sightseeing and basically, just do the touristy thing for a while. I guess I should pick up another camera…

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