Day 20: Wednesday
What a perfect day. We made it to our meeting place just fine, then proceeded to the train for Ostia Antica. Despite a slight delay, we made it! It was much like Pompeii but smaller and with less people, and we walked around on our tour from Dr. Westal for a couple hours, learning about the baths and the bakery of the city, as well as seeing beautiful mosaics. I did not enjoy his presentation in class on Monday, but today was much better, and he was by far the best tour guide we’ve had. The best part of the trip was that Tobin’s family came, and he has three small ADORABLE children aged four, two and a half, and nine months. I even got to have a nice chat with his wife on the train to Ostia. They are such an adorable family!
After the tour, it was about 12:30pm, and we were ready to beach it up, so a group of me, Elli, Kari, Breanne, Sarah, Mike, Alex, Chris, Brian, Andrew, Brad, and Amanda went back to the train to head toward the beach, then hopped on a bus…well all of us but Chris, who got left behind. He found us though! Then some people went to McDonald’s while the rest of us chose the pizzeria next door. Kari and I decided to share the pizza with the fries on it, and it was delicious. The pizzas took FOREVER though. After we ate lunch, we went into the first private beach we found, for six euro. It was fantastic! There was almost no one else there, and we got chairs. We found the rest of our group, changed into our swimsuits, put on more sunscreen, and ran into the water. It felt so good! It was hot and sunny, even though the weather said it was supposed to thunderstorm. It was perfect weather! I tried to read some Livy, but I just wasn’t having it, so I sat around enjoying the beachness: went swimming a couple more times, buried Brian in the sand, got thrown into the water by Mike and Andrew, thought I stepped on a fish and made Elli carry me, and bonded with everyone. It was the perfect day just chilling around on a beautiful beach and forgetting for a while that I was still in Italy. Finally the beach was closing, so we sadly had to leave, but we went to McDonald’s for fries and mcflurries. Then we rode back home on one of the most hilarious train rides I’ve ever been on. On the train Mike was so tired he was leaning all over the place. He started to fall asleep on Brad next to him, and Brad’s face was priceless. The best part is that Mike fell asleep with a cigarette still hanging in his mouth. Then Brian started sticking them in his nose and ears, all the while Mike was rocking around completely asleep and completely unaware. We were all crying and taking pictures, and even the old Italian couple sitting next to us got a kick out it. They were pointing and laughing! Finally our stop arrived and we had to wake Mike up, and he was so confused and didn’t know what happened at all. It's impossible to describe how hilarious this was for all of us. We got on the 3 bus home, and I was exhausted when we finally made it back. Being at the beach just drains you like that. We showered, had dinner, uploaded pictures, and I finally started my paper. I’m halfway done with it, and I’m just going to finish the rest in class tomorrow. We have a guest speaker, so I don’t expect to get to a lot of Livy, and I finished Book VII except the last ten pages, so I’m not too worried. I wanted to be asleep like an hour and a half ago, so it’s time for bed. Tomorrow we have plans for more old stuff, going back to the Forum and seeing the Palatine! Still trying to catch up on pictures....
What a perfect day. We made it to our meeting place just fine, then proceeded to the train for Ostia Antica. Despite a slight delay, we made it! It was much like Pompeii but smaller and with less people, and we walked around on our tour from Dr. Westal for a couple hours, learning about the baths and the bakery of the city, as well as seeing beautiful mosaics. I did not enjoy his presentation in class on Monday, but today was much better, and he was by far the best tour guide we’ve had. The best part of the trip was that Tobin’s family came, and he has three small ADORABLE children aged four, two and a half, and nine months. I even got to have a nice chat with his wife on the train to Ostia. They are such an adorable family!
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| Theater of Ostia Antica |
After the tour, it was about 12:30pm, and we were ready to beach it up, so a group of me, Elli, Kari, Breanne, Sarah, Mike, Alex, Chris, Brian, Andrew, Brad, and Amanda went back to the train to head toward the beach, then hopped on a bus…well all of us but Chris, who got left behind. He found us though! Then some people went to McDonald’s while the rest of us chose the pizzeria next door. Kari and I decided to share the pizza with the fries on it, and it was delicious. The pizzas took FOREVER though. After we ate lunch, we went into the first private beach we found, for six euro. It was fantastic! There was almost no one else there, and we got chairs. We found the rest of our group, changed into our swimsuits, put on more sunscreen, and ran into the water. It felt so good! It was hot and sunny, even though the weather said it was supposed to thunderstorm. It was perfect weather! I tried to read some Livy, but I just wasn’t having it, so I sat around enjoying the beachness: went swimming a couple more times, buried Brian in the sand, got thrown into the water by Mike and Andrew, thought I stepped on a fish and made Elli carry me, and bonded with everyone. It was the perfect day just chilling around on a beautiful beach and forgetting for a while that I was still in Italy. Finally the beach was closing, so we sadly had to leave, but we went to McDonald’s for fries and mcflurries. Then we rode back home on one of the most hilarious train rides I’ve ever been on. On the train Mike was so tired he was leaning all over the place. He started to fall asleep on Brad next to him, and Brad’s face was priceless. The best part is that Mike fell asleep with a cigarette still hanging in his mouth. Then Brian started sticking them in his nose and ears, all the while Mike was rocking around completely asleep and completely unaware. We were all crying and taking pictures, and even the old Italian couple sitting next to us got a kick out it. They were pointing and laughing! Finally our stop arrived and we had to wake Mike up, and he was so confused and didn’t know what happened at all. It's impossible to describe how hilarious this was for all of us. We got on the 3 bus home, and I was exhausted when we finally made it back. Being at the beach just drains you like that. We showered, had dinner, uploaded pictures, and I finally started my paper. I’m halfway done with it, and I’m just going to finish the rest in class tomorrow. We have a guest speaker, so I don’t expect to get to a lot of Livy, and I finished Book VII except the last ten pages, so I’m not too worried. I wanted to be asleep like an hour and a half ago, so it’s time for bed. Tomorrow we have plans for more old stuff, going back to the Forum and seeing the Palatine! Still trying to catch up on pictures....
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| Burying Brian in the sand |
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| The Sea! |
