Britta's Blog: Ostia/ Rome Day 2 (August 5th)

Today started out pretty good, because we got to sleep in a little bit. I mean, technically it wasn't really a sleep in because we went to bed at 2:30 am, but because Astrid and I had a nap yesterday we still felt rested. However, Mom and Dad could have used a nap yesterday too as they were a "little" (read: "a lot") irritable. We ate some delicious Italian meat and cheese and chocolate mousse for breakfast, and then met with Myrna and Harry to walk down to the pool to see Signa and Adora to give them snacks. Then we all went for gelato. Even though it was only like 11:00 in the morning, I was already sweating like a whore in church. We actually couldn't find any gelato and mostly ended up with ice cream bars and iced teas, but it was still nice to talk to Signa for a bit. She told us how hot all of the Italian lifeguards at the pool are, which will be an inspiration to sit through the heat during the competition. Anyway, we then left them to go do their figures and headed to the train station to go visit Rome. The first thing we decided to do was go see the Roman Bathhouse, because we didn't get to see it last time we were there. It was sweltering at this point and I was chugging water like a Victoria's Secret model after a show. Thank god they have freshwater taps all over the place to refill at. We all (except for Dad) had our umbrellas out to shade us from the sun, but the wind picked up and kept bending them inside out so we had to put them away. When we were walking into the Bathhouse initially, I was fiddling with my umbrella trying to pack it away when some dude goes "Eeeey baybeee how you dooeeeeng". I guess I was distracted and didn't totally register the major creep factor of this statement, so I said hello back. Terrible idea. Ladies, never follow my horrific example here. If that ever happens literally run away or ignore them or something because this guy then tried to, like, shake or hold my hand or something, and it suddenly hit me that he was a creep-ass stranger and I think I actually said "hah ya nope" in his face as I jerked my hand away fast and booked it to the parental unit. What an embarrassing situation. Anyway so that was creeper #1. The rest of the Bathhouse was totally cool (obviously not weather-wise though). It was massive, and one of the plaques said that when it was functional it was several floors, with a 50 meter swimming pool inside as well, and could hold 6000 people at any given time. Not sure how I feel about bathing with that many people but at least those Romans actually bathed. There were remnants of tiles and statues and engravings everywhere, and even a super well preserved painting of Jesus staring vacantly at Mary's boobs. At around this time, I started getting shaky partly because it was so hot and I was hungry. I then caught a minor case of bitch-fever, a common precursor to heat stroke. I got super impatient with Dad taking literally 10000 photos in 42 degree heat, and we finally started to leave when my fever rubbed off on Astrid too. We decided to get some food and headed to this ancient bridge that was built in something like 62 BC and is still standing and functional. We had been to the bridge our last time in Italy and we knew that there are some restaurants that are nice and quiet with some good gluten free options. We found a nice restaurant that had a fan that was blowing some mist around and it felt fantastic. The food was fabulous even though we didn't feel too hungry because of the heat. At the restaurant, there was this French couple and they were so fricking weird. I do not think that the guy said a single word the entire time we were there, but his girlfriend was totally annoying and wouldn't shut up. Not talkative per se, but I think someone made the mistake once of telling her that she has a nice singing voice and she must've believed them, because for the next forty minutes we were subject to the pitchy noises of a dying duck. Then she would giggle and speak rapid-fire French and then sing something else. Awful. Then she was talking about Justin Bieber, not realizing that Astrid and I know enough French to understand what she said, and we busted up laughing because at some point there is only so much you can be respectful of. Then she started a one man drumming circle at her table and I turned around and she started laughing. Then I started laughing because she was about 25 and acting a decade younger. We left and headed to the Colosseum. It was slowly cooling off, and we wanted to make it before it closed for the day, but we got there just 15 minutes too late. While we were walking around the outside though, we ran into Mary O'Brien (a synchro mom) and her husband and ended up chatting with them for a while. Eventually Astrid and I sat down on a railing because our feet were killing us. We people watched for a bit, and ended up focussing on some middle aged Italian military guys who were more concerned with checking out the asses of girls ten years their junior than they were with the security of their country. Next we headed out to meet Patricia in some square, got a little lost on the way, stopping for dad to take pictures and for band-aid changes. At one of our band-aid-swap-stops, we encountered creeper #2. I was wearing a skirt and I had to squat down to sit on this super low to the ground ledge, while also tucking my legs into myself so I didn't obstruct pedestrian traffic. Not to mention I was also trying to change bandages on my feet. So, I had to strategically place my purse, try to keep my skirt between my legs as much as possible and get on with things. As I was doing this though, some teenage boy who thought he was literally the look-up-the-skirt-ninja was trying to be discreet, but even with my head bent down I could see him turn his feet and body to face me. He slowed down, and in my peripheral vision I could see the loser crane his neck. Needless to say, boys, you are never as clever and as subtle as you think you are. Even mom noticed and started laughing at his epic failure. When we were waiting to be seated for dinner, they brought us all complimentary glasses of champagne. I was so thirsty that I chugged it, which burned a little so I almost coughed. Champagne is nasty. The drinking age in Italy is 16, but most places only have fancy and gross wines and beers and stuff. I shared melon and prosciutto with Astrid while she was double-fisting her champagne and a mojito. Turns out that the people at the table next to us were from Edmonton, which is so random. We did the most Canadian thing ever-- started talking about hockey. Then there was this guy who sat down and was either checking Astrid out, or, due to his long strawberry blonde hair, was trying to determine 'who wore it better'. On our way to the metro station after dinner, we had to climb all 136 (Astrid counted) of the Spanish Steps. Conveniently, the station was closed at 10pm for some stupid reason, and we had to catch a cab to the next station. Italian drivers are maniacs. Thankfully, this one was open, and the last train was going to arrive at 1120, and we just managed to catch the 1050 train back to Ostia. Once home, we all wanted to shower, but the drain smells like rotting broccoli and dead bodies. Dad cleaned the drain with his bare hands which is so gross, but at least he was willing to because I know I sure as hell wasn't. Then we went to bed. Mom was wearing her fitbit, and it turns out we did something like 22km of walking. More than a half marathon, which explains the blisters.