The Aussie roommates packed up and checked out of the hostel by 10:00 but we may meet them again in Barcelona at the end of the month. They were a real fun group and made us anxious about what our new roommates would be like.

We decided to take the subway to the Vatican because it was so far from where we stayed. We figured out the subway with relative ease after our many encounters with it in Munich. It was the most packed public transportation I’ve ever been on and I lived in a college town where everyone needed to get on the bus for that 9:00 class. We made it to where we needed to be, took some turns once we got off the train station and by luck found the line to get in. Again, hundreds of people there talking you in to skipping the line. We skipped that line too for a total of 45 euro to see the Vatican museum, Sistine chapel, and Saint Peter’s Basilica. Our tour group was big and they gave us those little headsets so our tour guide could drop knowledge on us and we could hear her even if she was far away.

What a place. Vatican City is recognized by Italy as its own country and is considered the smallest country in the world, something I didn’t know. It had a wall around the whole thing, enclosed was everything you’ve ever heard about and of course the Pope’s home. The museum is full of sculptures, paintings, tapestries, pretty much everything artistic that were all gifts to the Pope’s over time. It took a long time to walk through the museum. My favorite room was the map room where the walls were all paintings of different parts of Italy and the ceiling was just completely covered in paintings. So beautiful. We finished our tour and it was time for the Sistine chapel. We were only supposed to go into the chapel for 10 minutes to meet our tour group afterward for the tour of the basilica but Nate and I ditched the group and stayed 30 minutes. You’re not allowed to take pictures inside the chapel, but I’m glad because that’s something everyone needs to see themselves. It truly is mesmerizing. We stood on one side for 15 minutes in complete silence just admiring the work and looking over each painting and then switched to the other side to admire the paintings our back was to. Truly incredible. Once we left we wandered through the basilica and saw where the pope addresses the people when he makes public addresses and it was also beautiful. A day well spent. It was raining now though and we got let out of the tour on the opposite side we came in so we struggled to find the subway. We finally made it and went back to the hostel to dry off. We went to the store, bought some wine and drank it in our room and decided to have dinner in the bar, it was quite good. Bar food, but quality, real ingredient bar food.

*Pop up note: Something cool about Europe is hardly any of the food here is ever frozen and if it is there’s a note on the menu that the food had been previously frozen. Meaning everything out here is fresh.

We drank more in our room and made it down to the bar for karaoke night. Again, what seemed like a young crowd. I eventually asked someone how old they were and she said sixteen and I just laughed. My brother is sixteen and if he was at the bar it would be no good. There was a group of 50 sixteen year olds at the bar from Holland on a one week school trip to study Latin and visit the sites. A small group of them came and talked to us outside about America and traveling and Trump.

It was interesting talking to them because they had all travelled so much more than us. So has everyone it seems. Americans don’t push their youth to travel and see the world, I met with a military recruiter before college that told me and tells everyone they can travel in the military, but not everyone wants to be in the military. America should take a page out of Europe and Australia’s book and encourage the youth to travel and see the world and meet people all while learning about yourself on the way. Traveling is one of the most amazing things you can do in your life and I’m lucky that I decided to do a trip like this before I have a family of my own, and I’m already thinking about what my next trip might be. Sure, I’m going to be broke after this trip, but that’s okay. I had enough to make it this time, and I’ll save up to be broke again if it means traveling the world to see, learn, and appreciate new things. I have a degree and the work will come but this experience is something I’ll never regret and I’m only on my third week. The high school kids ended up offering quite insightful comments, but we said bye and went inside and talked with people our own age and watched terrible karaoke before deciding to call it a night.

We got back to the room and there were three people we never met asleep and then I got up at about 3:00 to use the restroom and I come back to the loudest snoring of all time in the bunk above me. No joke, my dad snores so I’ve dealt with some snoring, but this was like no other. Nate woke up from it too. I couldn’t get back to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time after that. It sucked.