Rome by bike

Sorry for getting behind, I lost my European adaptor for my laptop, so she had been dead for a couple of days.  

I got the best night's sleep I've had in a while (in a hostel!) and woke up refreshed on Saturday morning for some touring of Rome.  The hostel breakfast was free, so I loaded up on that before heading out.  The weather was amazing, about 25 degrees and sunny.  While I was in a tank top and sweating, the locals seemed to still be in jackets and scarves. 

What a blue sky!

In the morning, I wandered around the city by myself and tried to get my bearings.  I couldn't figure out how to turn on the fancy electronic stove at the hostel, so I also grabbed a coffee at a cute little cafe.  I really love the trees in Rome.  There are palm trees, orange trees, lemon trees and those trees with really tall trunks and then the leaves on top make an umbrella shape.  I just looked them up, they are called stone pines.  I mentioned a few weeks ago how cool it is to see someone see snow who doesn't see snow often.  I feel like I am the same way with palm trees, I am in awe by the most normal sight to people who live in the tropics.

The coliseum.

After lunch, I met up with a couchsurfer for a bike tour of the city.  I was a bit apprehensive at first, since this is my first experience as a couchsurfer and not a host, but I figured a meet up was a good place to start. Also, if things were to go pear shaped, I am on a bike and can ride away.  Claudio ended up being an excellent guide and really kind host.  We started by going to his Mom's apartment to pick up the bikes.  The inside of the apartment looked exactly like what you would expect an older Italian lady's apartment to look like, it was great.  The apartment building had this amazing courtyard, where people were hanging out their laundry.

Stone pines on the left.

Claudio had just bought a new road bike, and I rode his mountain bike.  It was a bit scary in the Rome traffic, but we did alright.  It was actually the pedestrian traffic that was hardest to navigate near the main tourist sites, and we had to get off and walk our bikes a lot. 

To prove I was actually there.  Taken by my CS host, Claudio.

After I dropped the bikes back off at Claudio's Mom's place, I continued to wander by myself and got gelato for the second time of the weekend.

Tourists, tourists everywhere!

I was considering going out on Saturday night with some people from my hostel, but I had a paper due at 6am EST and didn't end up getting it done in time to head out with the group.  It was probably for the best, as I head that the pub crawl wasn't as good as expected, and one of the Scottish girls from our hostel went a bit nuts and had to be taken care of and carried back home.