Vlora and Rome

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well! The summer is just about here!!! I'll be coming back to the States on June 21st, but won't be back in Texas until the beginning of July. I'm roughin' it with the family - going on an Alaskan cruise!!

I thought I'd write about some of the travelling that I've been doing. Two weeks ago I went with Susan to Vlora, a city about 3 hours south of Tirana. Vlora's on the coast, and it is very beautiful! We went down to see some of Susan's friends (and mine too now :)) and to see her teammates that are there. The weather was great, and it happened to be the "Opening of Beach Season" weekend, so it was packed! We made it to the beach for a total of about 45 minutes, just before we ate at a restaurant on the beach....and wouldn't you know it, in that short period of time, I got burned! Typical!!!

Last weekend, Susan and I headed to Rome to meet Stephanie and Kent (friends from Denton)! We went on Friday afternoon and Stephanie and Kent joined us on Saturday morning. We stayed at a bed and breakfast outside the center, and it definitely was, outside the center! From the airport it took us 2 hours to get back the hotel via train, walking, subway, bus, and then walking! It was definitely a long day!

We couldn't have planned it any better, it happened to be the end of the culture week in Rome, so all the civic museums were free! Usually, when you pay 12 euros to get in somewhere, you feel like you have to stay for a long time to make it worth it, but in our case it was nice to go in and have a look at a lot of different places! We saw the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Arch of Constantine, and St. Peter's Square....all in a day and a half!!!

The Colosseum was the most amazing to me! It is such an architectural and engineering wonder, and remains as a standing proof of both the grandeur and the cruelty of the Roman world. Outside the Colosseum we saw some men dressed up as gladiators, so of course we (well, I) wanted a picture with them! Kent was just going to take it of us girls, but one of them came over and told us all to get it and that he would take the picture. I thought that was nice until after he took the picture he told us it would cost each of us 5 euros!! We couldn't believe it, so we fought them on it (not literally of course, they had weapons), and didn't end up paying. Crazy!

We enjoyed a nice Italian meal at a restaurant close to the Pantheon. And of course, the meal wouldn't have been complete without me spilling red wine on my shorts! Haha

Everyone had a great time, and I was glad to be able to see Rome with such great people!!!