In the summer of 2006, I worked in Munich and hungered to see the world. I was able to get 8 days off my summer internship and decided to go to Austria (Vienna) and Italy (Rome, Pisa and Sicily). After that chaotic trip, I wrote an email to my family and friends chronicling my adventures and these are the tales I will share with you for the next few weeks.

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Well what can I say……I came, I saw, I crawled. Yeah so once I got back to the hostel I just really wanted to drink and party. I asked – Gibrila- the Ethiopian dude..if he could ask the Scottish girls from the night before if they were going out tonight (I had met some nice cool Scottish girls the night before at the reception when I was waiting for Salvadore to find me a room…..they had been drinking wine and were on their way out and looked like cool company.) Gibrila had just showed me where my new bed was- I was on the top bunk, and I had looked at my room-mates and I am convinced I have seen furniture that had more life in it than them. Now people…Gibrila and I don’t share any common language….he speaks Amharic and Italian…his Eritrean friend speaks Tigrean and Italian and Salvadore speaks only Italian. This was the hardest conversation of my life. At some points he thought I was telling him I am a lesbian and I want one of the Scottish girls…The next minute he thought I was asking him for wine….Finally I gave up. I just decided to shower, get ready to party and go downstairs to ask Salvadore if there was any party places in the region. So I got ready,and I went downstairs and Salvadore gave me instructions to a pub nearby and strict directions to walk back only along the main road when coming back since any side streets would be harbouring criminals. Then the Ethiopian guy comes and takes me to the Scottish girls’ room. I was really surprised that he had understood what I said. I wondered if he had just been making fun of me during that long conversation earlier. So I got to the girls’ place and they were tipsy and all drinking wine. We all started chatting and I was drinking my martini. They told me they were not going out that night since their train left at around midnight , but they knew where I could go. They told me the night before they had gone for Pub Crawl.

What is Pub Crawl? Well it is a thing totally organized for young tourists in Rome to get to meet each other. Basically you pay 20 euros, and you get to drink unlimited beer and or wine and eat pizza at the Spanish Steps in Rome then after that they take you bar hopping to 4 pubs where you get in for free and get a free shot at the entrance of each pub,and finally you are taken out to a huge club with hiphop, techno, house, rock etc till morning. They also told me there are a lot of drinking games which equates to more free drinks! You also get a free t-shirt! Sounded like my type of party. Cab fare back would cost me 8 euros which sounded great. They were going for dinner around that region so we left and took the subway together. We just barely made it into the last train and sat down. Some girl was trying to get into the train, and I believe that the subway in Rome must have killed some people. She just got halfway in, and the doors started closing on her. Not the closing that means the doors will open if you push a bit more……it was the closing where she almost lost her leg. The doors closed on her foot,and I could see her face turning redder and redder as she tried to save her foot. The (un)lucky girl managed to salvage her foot,but her shoe went with us in the train. I was actually traumatized though tipsy enough to forget that creepy incident. One of the girls told me that the long distance trains in the UK open for a specified amount of time,then immediately close. So if the train has many people getting off then you are assured you will not get in. Random!!!

So finally I got to the Spanish Steps, and strangely the organizers of Pub Crawl are university students from the States working for the summer in Italy . This is a really cool night job if you ask me. I met the crowd there and mostly consisted of Australians, Scots, Irish and a scattering of Americans and people from everywhere. The nationality of this people should have been enough to make me pack my bags and go home on realizing that I was in the midst of expert drunks. I still felt up to the challenge and stayed. A few beers later, and my martini bottle half empty I heard some german conversation behind me. I turned and started talking to these two german girls. Off we went to the first pub. Shots at the door. I participated in one of the drinking games inside and won this competition. Off to the next club….by this time me and my German friends are quite drunk. I am just remembering bits and pieces from the night. Get another shot at the entrance. I don’t remember how we got to the next pub. Ok obviously we walked but I don’t know how. Another shot at the door. Heeeee then I started feeling really drunk. World spinning!!! Seeing doubles etc. Same for the German girls. Me and the German girls (who it turns out were in a youth hostel next to mine) hopped into a cab, and went home. I feel stupid that I never made it to the dance club, but I doubt anyone other than the Scots could make it that far on all the booze we had been drinking. I got home, and I was drunk, drunkety drunk. I remember that randomly my phone got an sms and I was trying to read it but could see nothing.... I couldn’t read. My youth hostel is a fortress, but mysteriously I was able to use my keys to open the main door, the elevator door, the floor door and my room door. I got to my room and thought “to hell with changing clothes, I will sleep as I am so as not to wake up my roommates!” I climbed the table from which I would be able to spring on to my top bed. All these actions are happening in the dark by the way….. I spring from the table top onto “my” bed and land on someone!!!!!!!!!!!!! The startled person springs up and I couldn't tell who was more shocked….me or him. Anyway it turns out that Ethiopian dude had showed me the wrong bed. I was actually meant to be on the bottom bed. I am not sure what apology I gave the guy on the top bunk. I was beyond feelingl feelings like embarrassment. I went down to my own bed. The next morning was when I felt embarrassed. I only woke up once I heard him leaving the floor, and even then I showered and packed up rapidly so as to make sure he didn’t see me in the daylight.

The next day I woke up with a head heavy enough to dent a wooden pillow. I was hungover like wow!!!It was my last night at the hotel and I had earlier on intended to spend my day at the Vatican . Luckily I found out from someone that the Vatican would be closed that day and the next day. I couldn’t figure out what to do in Rome for the day since I was too hungover to go walking around for hours. I needed to lie down somewhere. I decided that I would change my travel plans a bit and jumped on the train to Pisa where I would atleast be able to nurse my hangover and nap in the train. I left all my luggage in Rome in storage for two days at my youth hostel (2euros per night) since in the evening I planned to take the train to Sicily , and didn’t want to go with my baggage.