Contiki Conclusion

Contiki had ended the night before but Shereen and I decided to stay on in Rome a few more days before we would be meeting our friend Ray again in Greece. We had been planning to try and fit in another Italian stop before Greece, but since our group of friends were all staying one or two more nights we decided to take a couple of days to chill out with them after our whirlwind Contiki tour. Everyone was slightly hungover from the night before so we all had a big sleep-in. When we had all made ourselves presentable (not till about 2pm...) we met in the lobby to go have a last lunch as The Great Eight, as Meg, Jake, Jess and Brian were leaving the next morning. We took the train back to the Piazza del Popolo and found a little restaurant for lunch that had enough room to seat the 8 of us outside in the beautiful sunshine. After lunch we broke up to do some gift shopping before going back to the hotel. Whilst walking around Meg and Jess discovered that it was Vogue's Fashion Night Out and they were hosting a Fashion Show on the Spanish Steps that evening, free for the public. It seemed the perfect end to our Italian adventure so we made plans to meet up again in the evening to have dinner together before all going to the show. Unfortunately the sunny weather wouldn't hold and an electrical storm hit us in the afternoon.

So instead we tried to stay close to the hotel, and walk briskly between the brief lingering showers. We found a fancy (for us) restaurant that looked delicious and we decided to splurge for our last meal together as a group. We all had amazing meals but I'm sure I won, my suckling pork was phenomenal. We all went back to the hotel and played our last game of cards. Then it was time to say goodbye to the Americans as they were leaving early in the morning. It was a sad moment to say goodbye to our new friends but we had mentioned to them that Shereen and I would be passing through Michigan in November. As we had gotten closer to the point of goodbye over the past few days Jake and Megan had gone from "you should come see us when you're in Michigan" to "come stay in our house and have Thanksgiving dinner with our family!". We were delighted to have the offer and we said we would definitely come if they would have us. They kept asking us if we were serious and didn't believe that we would actually come, but we were being offered free accommodation and a traditional Thanksgiving meal! They would be lucky to get rid of us. If anything we were worried their holiday high would wear off and they would realise they just invited two people they had only known for two weeks to come and stay in their home and invade their family holiday! But we all kept our word and Shereen and I visited them just last week (at the time I'm writing this). We had the most amazing time and we can't wait to return the favour and have them all come to Australia. I have a lot to cover before my post on Thanksgiving so sorry for the teaser, but keep reading and I will try and catch up quickly!

/The Great Eight

The next day Shereen and I trekked across the city to find a laundromat which seemed to be few and far between. While we were waiting we found a little restaurant where we could have some lunch. As is the norm in Italy, there was a very pushy staff member out the front trying to force us inside as we were looking at the menu. But they had a good pizza and drink deal so we headed inside. Unfirtunately the guy followed us inside and began laying on the the thick Italian sleaze. This included reaching in front of me with my drink whilst placing his other arm around my back to open it, thus imprisoning me in this weird drink-opening hug. I literally shuddered. Then he wouldn't give me my pizza until I smiled at him, and to make it worse a group of rowdy older women walked in and they were loving the attention so they just spurred him on. After they had really started to hit the red wine he was telling them Shereen and I had offered to pay for their meals, which of course we hadn't. They started to try and talk to us from across the room and Shereen and I just ignored them which lead them all to just start talking about us with the waiter. We snagged the opportunity when a different waiter walked past to get the bill, and timed our exit so we could run out the door when our "Romeo" was out of sight.

We met up with Kayla and Paul for dinner close to our hotel. I was so exausted that I was almost falling asleep at the table, so I crawled home to have an early night.

I have a few more posts written, I'm just editing them up. So stay tuned! Xx