Hungover and exploring Rome (Part 1)

After spending the night partying it up in the hostel bar I was abruptly woken up by someone else’s alarm going off first thing in the morning from the bunk across me, perhaps it was a call from the heavens because I woke with a start still half drunk thinking ‘shit my tour leaves in 30 minutes I’ve got to go’.

I met my tour group in the hostel foyer still in the same jeans and T-shirt from the night before and still pretty drunk but rearing to take on Roma, Italia!

We spent the morning exploring the ruins of the Roman Forum which was incredible, to say the least, but at this point, the alcohol was still in my system and oh the sun was so bright and my tummy was feeling a little funny but we ventured on captivated by what was being shown before us.

Next, it was time to hit the Colosseum and man I will never forget the moment that place came into my view, it’s honestly breath-taking! Lucky for us since we were part of a travel group we got to skip the lines which was a godsend cause this hangover was starting to kick in and I wasn’t ready to wait in any lines!

After that, we caught the train to Vatican City because we had caught wind that the pope would be making an appearance and there was no way we were going to miss that! As we arrived over there were people everywhere, and I mean everywhere! I was truly feeling the hangover now and I was being confronted with a real hurdle but if it meant I would see the pope I had to suck it up!

To our surprise, we made it through all the lines and security in record time and found a spot not too far on sight of the window the pope would be appearing from, buzzing!

After a few minutes the crowd fell completely silent and the energy that surrounded us was something I’d never felt before, as the pope appeared from the window the crowds cheered and flags from all sorts of countries hung high in the air and I’d never felt so connected to the world than in this moment it was beautiful and a moment I’ll never forget. He said his prayers and we all stood in silence and listened to his words although I couldn’t understand most of it as it was all in Italian you could still just grasp on to what he was saying and to be fair I was in the presence of the pope, he could be reciting Lose yourself by Eminem and I would still find it life-changing. (in fact, that would be pretty sick!)

 

After that we made our way back to the centre to get some coffee and do a little exploring, we caught sight of the Spanish steps and to conclude the day before making it back to our hostel for the night to sleep off the hangovers and prepare ourselves for another day in Rome we went and visited the even-so-famous Trevi Fountain I must say it’s way bigger than I expected and like every other sight to see in Rome it was breathtaking! But as expected, it was jam-packed with people eager to get that perfect photo! And for me I was hanging so much at this point I was ready to call the ambo just to take me back to my hostel so I could get to bed and be all raring to go bright eyed and bushy tailed for day two tomorrow. No ambulance rides were taken but we did catch a train back and I finally got myself to that wonderful bunk bed of mine. 

Part 2 is up now 

-Tayla Maree