GELATO.

I'm in Rome!

It's an awesome city, and I'll write about it later, but first I have to tell you of the adventures and misadventures of my last couple of days in Madrid.

Sunday morning we slept in a little bit and got off to a slow start. It has been so nice to be able to do that! We packed up our things and had the hostel owner hold on to them while we went out for a couple of hours. We moseyed over to El Rastro, the market that takes over the whole neighborhood on Sundays. I didn't like it as much as Portobello Road or Camden Town, but it was fun to look at a few things and, again, hear the language everywhere. After that we headed through La Plaza Mayor and La Puerta del Sol to get to our hostel. We picked up our things and began the hour-plus journey (via metro) to church. Since we wanted to go to the market and church and the market was only open from 9 to 3 (and we didn't want to wake up and do church or the market at 9), our best option for fitting both in was to go to the ward that met at 3:05. This turned out to be a great decision, because even though it was so much farther away than the others, the ward building was so adorable. And yellow!

I loved attending church in Spanish. It had the same friendly atmosphere and cheek-kissing as the Portuguese branch I attended in London, except I understand Spanish twenty thousand times better than I understand Portuguese. Plus I understand kissing in any language. 

After Sacrament meeting we spoke with a couple of the ward members, one of whom was a Chilean, from Santiago. I told him about my friend serving in the Rancagua mission and he talked about what a beautiful place it was. He was such a kind old man and invited us to come and see him at his house next time we're in Chile. Good thing I know him so well.

We left church and met back up with Rhiannon at the Prado. The line was really long so we decided not to go in and to find some supper instead. Rhiannon and I went to this restaurant that kept playing Christina Aguilera and Enrique Iglesias songs. We both got soup (I had gazpacho -- so delicious!) and horchata. If I had known it would be the last thing I would eat until the next evening, I might have eaten a little more, but it cooled me down and hit the spot. Then we met up with Jazlyn and Annie in McDonalds, where we sat in the air conditioning and talked for a couple of hours. It was so much fun talking to them and telling embarrassing stories about ourselves even though they now know my deepest darkest secrets about Tratelyn. 

Around 8 PM we left to walk through El Parque Retiro on our way to the airport. I wish I had spent more time in there, because as Rhiannon said, "That park kicks England's parks' butts." I didn't even see very much of it, but it was such a beautiful area and it was perfect for our evening stroll. We saw the statue of Satan, the fallen angel (El Ángel Caído), which we thought was funny for a Sunday. I shook my fist at him for making me sad sometimes. Then we walked over to the Crystal Palace, which was such a beautiful area! I wouldn't be offended if someone wanted to propose marriage to me there. 

We exited the park and went to the metro station to get back to the airport, our home for the night. We got there around 11 or 11:30, picked up our luggage (by the way, leaving half of my stuff there was the best decision I've ever made) and finally found a spot to spend the night. I wasn't very hungry, but I was dying of thirst so I bought a bottle of water. Then we blockaded ourselves in with luggage trolleys and slept behind a citibank counter. I didn't sleep very soundly, but I was surprisingly comfortable considering I pretty much slept on concrete. I wore my sweatpants under my skirt and propped my head up on my bookbag. Awesome. After going to sleep around 1 or 1:30 I woke up every 45 minutes or so and had to re-situate myself because I had at least one numb limb, but I did sleep. I hadn't thought I would be able to at all. The last time I woke up was around 4:30 when two ladies were talking to Jazlyn and telling her (in Italian) to wake Annie and me up so we wouldn't miss our flight. When I woke up one of the ladies started telling me, "It's 4:30" and making monster eyes at me to encourage me to open my eyes. It was sweet of them, but we weren't even going to be able to check in until 5:15. So whatever. 

When 5:15 came, we checked in, got through security, and sat at our gate until we boarded. I walked around to try and find some food, but the only thing that was open was the duty-free shop with perfumes and expensive candies and such. Any other day I might have wanted candy for breakfast, but I was so out of it and I needed real food. But there wasn't any, so I got on the flight without having breakfast.

Side story: On the way to Spain, Rhiannon said she felt like she had been drugged up. She had some vertigo and weird feelings in her brain. I felt the same way on the way to Rome, I guess from being extra dehydrated and exhausted, so I slept pretty much the whole way. I don't even remember taking off, and the only thing I remember about landing was how everyone cheered and the drunken Spaniard with the raspy voice who sat in front of Rhiannon started going off about something. I really needed to find food. 

But instead, we picked up our luggage, lost Jaz and Annie for a while, and finally found them and got to the train that would take us close enough to our hostel. At this point I actually felt hungry, and I was not in good shape on the train. Kind of thought I was going to die. We got off the train, took a while to find our hostel, and as soon as we paid and got everything taken care of, I collapsed on the bed. I was shaking like crazy, but I knew I wouldn't be able to spend any more time in the sun, even to get food or water, without collapsing in the middle of the road. So I took a shower instead. Best shower of my life. I hadn't showered since Saturday night, you know, and after all that time in the Spanish and Italian sun (and airports), I was stinky, gross, and feeling pretty bad about life. That shower turned everything around! I then took a 4 or 5 hour nap and when I woke up it was DEFINITELY dinner time. Good thing there are pizzerias on every corner, or I would have been sad. The Margherita Pizze was AWESOME. Then we found a gelateria and had our first taste of gelato in Italy. Fabulous. 

We went back to our hostel and chatted with friends and family for a little while until the internet crashed on us again (it gets kind of spotty, but it's free!) and then we watched a movie on my computer. The best part of the night was when, right outside our hostel gate, a man started playing the accordion and singing in Italian. Since then it's happened again, and we've seen the same thing outside several restaurants. 

I LOVE ROMA.

I slept pretty well last night, but woke up on the ornery side of the bed. I was sad that the internet still wasn't working (it crashed in the middle of my conversation with Mama and I miss her!) and my brain was thinking about unhappy things. But then Jaz and I finally went out (Annie and Rhiannon left a little earlier to go to the Vatican) and we saw some really cool things today! We walked to the Colosseum, where we saw some gladiators and stuff. One of them was attractive, but the others were old. Then we walked around the side of Palatino and up toward the Monumento a Vittoria Emanuele II. On the way we walked through the Piazza della Boca della Veritá, where I drank water out of one of the drinking fountains that Bishop Hunt told us about. There were some little girls there who thought it was the coolest thing ever. I thought so too! You put your finger at the end of the spigot so that it comes up out of a hole in the top of it, like a regular water fountain. It's pretty easy to get your whole face wet, though, but it's a nice way to cool down and the water tastes great! I'll put up a picture later. 

Once we got to the monument, we walked up and saw a couple of great views of the city. What a happenin' place! Then we walked to the street where we were told there were a lot of clothing stores, etc. Because we're girls and we like clothes and shoes. But, sadly, we don't like them enough to pay 50 euro or more, because that's one of the lowest prices we saw. Instead of buying clothes, we got lunch near the Pantheon and then went over to the Fontana di Trevi. Such a nice place! I threw a 1 euro cent coin in there, so hopefully my wish comes true.

The thing I like most about Rome so far is this:
We have a sightseeing map, with all the big places to go see, but we're finding out that the things on that map don't even show everything. There are tons of really neat places (the Piazza della Boca della Veritá, for example) that weren't on the map, but we just stumbled upon it. It's a very culturally-rich place. Love it.

Now we're back in our hostel and waiting for it to cool down a bit before heading out again. It was very hot today and I definitely have a watch tan starting to develop. As for the flip flop tan? Bring it on.