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Oh so much to say, but maybe I will just keep it brief and if you have questions you can ask. Or if you want more details I can tell you them.

So last I left off I had just arrived in Rome. I am still in Rome but am leaving tomorrow for Dusseldorf Germany. I am flying there from the Rome Ciampino Airport rather than taking a train north for two reasons. First was that it was cheaper for me to fly there than to take a train north to Munich. Second it's faster. Third it allowed me to stay in Rome for longer. So all in all it seemed a win-win-win situation.

Anyway, Rome! What a place. I came here having low expectations actually. At the start of my trip I was very excited for Italy, but after talking to people and hearing that Rome wasn't that great and didn't take that long I dropped my expectations. Then upon arriving by train I was still dismayed. I don't know if you've ever been in Rome or not but if you have and arrived by train you know what I mean. All around the train station it is rather gross. Newer buildings that are very run down, graffiti everywhere, lots of people, lots of noise, and no old buildings. Well... this was my idea of Rome on day one because all I had time to do after arriving was find a hostel. Finding a hostel took more work than expected since I couldn't figure out the metro. This meant the hostel I planned on staying at was out of the question. Then I couldn't get on the internet anywhere because it required me to verify who I was with a cell phone. So I had to rely on the tourism office.... when that failed on the first try I headed back. . . then while waiting I was approached by a young man from Alberta named Dave. He told me he was staying at a hostel only 4 or so blocks away and that when he had checked in at 3pm there was still 2 free beds in his room. So we headed there after he made a phone call. That night I just chilled in my room relaxing.

The next day I headed out to meet Dave at Vatican City. Well, that didn't work out because there were about a million people there but I did get to see the Pope! (Serious he was out talking to everyone, apparently he does this every Wednesday) Then I headed to the Coliseum and toured that. I biked to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spagna Piazza (the Spanish steps) and more. After seeing the sights I sat down to a very expensive dinner feeling like I could splurge... what an epic fail that was! I ordered a Sicilian steak, since my diet has been lacking in meat on this trip, along with the fresh fruit, house wine and it came with bread. I was very excited until it arrived. For starters the bread had a pretty big hair on it... yuck. Then I took a bite of meat, no wait... I tried to cut the meat.. fail! It was the fattiest piece of meat I had ever eaten. Not worth 12 Euros in the slightest! The fruit cup was unripe, the house wine was.... very potent and overall it was not worth a 3rd of what I paid. The ONLY redeeming factor was the potatoes that came with the meat... they were heavenly.
I headed back after dinner in the rain and arrived at the hostel for another early evening.

Today!
Today I headed out around 10:30 to do a free walking tour. This one took us from Piazza de Spagna to the Vatican. It was by far the worst free walking tour I've done, but still gave me a little info. (Nothing I really remember though) Still I headed back after visiting the Bastil in the Vatican and then the Pantheon on the way back to head out again on another free walking tour. This time we toured the city center. It was a lot better. We saw a door that was over 500 years old, I learned about Rome's aqueducts, I learned about throwing coins over your shoulder at Trevi fountain, learned that the Pantheon has the largest cement dome roof in the world and overall quite enjoyed it. Then I headed back to get my bike planning on going directly to my new hostel (closer to the airport) before getting food. Instead a place caught my eye and so I had the bread and oil along with the spaghetti. It was much better than the food from the night before and a lot cheaper... but still nothing to rave about. I do have to say I rather enjoy seeing all the different water containers they bring you.
Anyway, so after getting my bike I hopped the metro to the train station, then took a train to the Ciampino train station. I did miss 2 trains before getting the right one so I arrived late and it was dark. This also meant I had missed the last bus to the hostel I had booked. So... I found another. Hopefully the other hostel can give me a refund. If not I guess I'm out of luck.
So ya! That was my day. With that all said I'm going to head to bed but I wanted to ask for you all to do a few things first.

One pray another blessing on someone amazing. This time the guy Dave I met. He's a really nice guy and was very helpful and kind.

Second pray that tomorrow I wake up in time to figure out this bike thing and get to the airport. What I mean by this is - my trusty bike has to be left behind. Sadly. It's followed me from England through France, Spain and Italy. Biked many miles from Folkestone to Canterbury, Barcelona to Mataro, Nice to Monaco and all around Paris, Madrid, Rome, Lille and more. So with many tears it will be finding a new home. This is where your prayers come in. Ideally I won't have to leave it on the street with a free sign for the first bike thief to come along. I did put a post on Craigslist and had one response. Tomorrow at 8:30 I have a guy planning on meeting me here and looking at it. If all goes well he will buy it, or at the least be a cool guy I can give it away to for free. Or if neither of those are God's plans... pray I figure out what to do with it.

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COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT!
I love to read your comments. I will start trying to respond but I can't always. Basically though I have no other way of knowing who reads this. So when you comment I get an accurate tally of all the people following this blog.

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THANKS! I have less than 2 weeks before I am home and it's flying by. Thanks to everyone who has been following this blog, commented, sent money, prayed or given me well wishes. Thanks to all of you it has made this trip easier and more pleasurable for me. I also think your prayers have caused me to have certain conversations with people that God knew specifically needed that conversation. So keep it up! THANKS THANKS THANKS! I wish I could send you all souvenirs but I don't really believe in souvenirs, I don't have the space in my bag, I still have two weeks so chocolate would get ruined, and I don't have all your addresses.
With that said... if you do want me to try and send you a post card (it will be from Germany or Holland now...) send me an email with your address! I can't make any promises but ya never know!

SEE YA ALL IN GERMANY!

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