Saturday 16th: going to Rome

I woke up a little late and got checked out. Then I used some internet to try and get things organised.

I walked to the train station and bought a ticket to Rome. For some reason the lady was confused when I told her I wanted to go to Rome Termini. I might have been trying to sound italian by saying the names differently. That might have been the problem.

I got the ticket. I had to travel to La Spezia first and then change train to get to Rome. I assumed she would sell me a ticket that would allow me enough time to catch the train in La Spezia in Rome. But I don't think this was the case. The train in Rome was leaving at 14:05, and I the train going to La Spezia would get to Levanto at 13:21. So that left 44 minutes for the train to get through five towns before getting to La Spezia. Each town had lots of tourists clambering about on the platform being silly taking forever to get onto the train. The train is also not a super fast one. The train was also late by about 5 minutes and when it got there, in Levanto, it didn't start moving for another few minutes, waiting for something. All this made me feel quite stressed. I've felt this way a little too often lately, so I had to try and not feel this way.

We arrived in La Spezia at 14:03. I had two minutes before the train to Rome was supposedly going to leave. The problem is that my ticket is specifically for this time. So if I missed the train then I would have wasted 30 euros.

Luckily the train to Rome was also late getting to La Spezia. I made it there okay!

I got on the train and the train journey was alright.

While heading to Rome I noticed that the countryside is filled with Australian gum trees. Absurd. I don't know what this is about, but they really are very abundant out here.

I got in to Rome. This is the first large italian city with cars that I've been in. The pedestrian crossings with traffic lights don't seem to exist or work very well in Rome. Instead, people seem to just wander into the road and the cars seem to have to stop and let you through. It's a little scary I think. So far my strategy in these situations has been to walk whenever I see someone else walking. I stay around their general location while in the road so that I don't get killed.

I walked to the hostel. I don't have very good initial feelings about the hostel. There is no key to the room where I will be staying. When someone from the room arrives back, they unlock the room so that anyone in the hostel can get in. During the day they apparently lock it. I really think this is absurd. I asked the lady why they don't just make copies of the key. She said that it is because they just have one key. She doesn't understand what I mean. I don't like this lady very much. When I was describing my concerns about the safety of this system, she seemed to respond with laughter. Not good. At least they have a small cupbaord that I can put my lock over. Although the cupboard is a little bit dented. It looks like it has had attempts to break into it.

I put my stuff in the room and then went to find food. I was feeling hungry. I found a restaurant and bought some lasagne. The lasagne was alright but the quality and taste of the sauce was closer to some kind of microwave kind than to a nicely cooked kind.

I went back to the hostel. I met some interesting people at the hostel. There is one guy from Malta called Balazs. He is quite into fitness, spirituality, and self improvement etc. He's a really nice person. He has a business in Malta where he has classes about these sorts of things. He mentioned several times that he really likes the concept of couch surfing. (that is where instead of staying in hostels or hotels you sleep on someone's couch or whatever they can provide. There is a website with listings of people participating in this). He offered that I can stay at his house at any time for free. He says he likes to do this to give back to the world. Malta looks like a really nice place. I'd like to take him up on this offer sometime.

In the hostel is also a guy from Canberra, Australia. He has just finished school and so is travelling around. But he has run out of money a little bit. There is also a guy from China who is quite funny to talk with.

The sheets on my bed in this hostel smell a lot like cigarette smoke. It's really not good.