When In Rome

Chelsea and Theresa speaking. Theres no way in hell that I could properly express the last fifty or so hours spent in the wonderful, entrancing, lively city of Rome. I say hours instead of days because when in Rome, days blur into nights blur into mornings blur into afternoons until you dont even know what day of the week it is, all you know is that some how, you ended up staring up at the huge, magnificent, Coliseum for the third or fourth time since you have been here. There comes a point in your travels when one stops and just has to say "Im in Rome. To hell with sleep"
So...my birthday. It just so happens that we end up at Hostel Ivanhoe where from the very first glance at my passport, Jeff (the reception master) was determined to give me the best birthday celebration that ever was, coupled with the fact that neither theresa or I had ever even been to a hostel before. Yes it was a good night coming. Theresa was planning to make me a pasta dinner so we went to the market and got the fixins. We come back and Jeff takes over and makes us the best damn birthday meal I've ever had! (sorry mom, but its true) Fresh salad, huge freakin avacado, you get the picture. Theresa took me outside to get some fresh air and on our way back up we ran into Jeff. He covered my eyes and led me into a room full of about thirty people shouting Happy Birthday at me while I blew out the candles on yet another chocolate cake, and we passed out punch.
There is no way we can possibly relate back all the things that happened that night, but we can try, every single person we met was amazing and determined to give chelsea a good birthday, no a great birthday, no the best damn birthday she's ever had. Success!
We will try to paint a clear picture for you.....
Its around midnight, apparently the night is still young as we rally the troops to go out on the town. We stumble down the cobbled street outside of the hostel only to get pelted by tomatoes and bags of water...? Which we were told is common here. After making a very noisy and some what quick gettaway we find all thirty of us (maybe a couple got lost on the way) at an Irish pub. The night was just begining. The next few hours were spent taking crazy pictures (some of which include a few people jumping into a fountain) getting questioned by some cops ("oh yeah they went left i think" works great in that situation) roaming the city for another pub, all the time our numbers dwindeling, till about six of us found ourselves standing at the Roman coliseum at three in the morning. A perfect way to end the perfect birthday.
I would say that we got plenty of rest and spent the next day recovering and sight seeing but that would be a lie. I think that we were just so happy to be in the presence of people who are so full of life that the party just kept going and going. We might leave Rome tomorrow, we might not. But what I can say is that hostel ivanhoe is not some where that you should go if you are looking for a quiet relaxing vacation. And we love it for that.
If any of you who were there that night are reading this, thank you for making it such an amazing night!
That is all for now, but pictures from the last week or so are on their way! So hold on to your hats ladies and gents, the fun is about to begin!
tandc