This is where Firenze becomes a blur. Italian chicks can't dance.

I went back to my room finding two new roommates, a girl from Sydney, Fiona and a girl from Turkey, Fatima, they both had been traveling for about two months and were pretty worn out. I spoke to my other roommate from Melbourne and he told me about a bunch of good pubs past the river (past the tourist area). Amy came by and we (Fatima and Fiona) all went down to the bar in the hostel. We split some wine and watched the Big Lebowski, at most points I was the only one laughing, even the smiley Argentinian girls failed to find some humor in it. At the bottom of the bottle Amy and i decided to depart to the bars. As it was dark and we were going into the native part of town we decided to try to keep our Americanism hidden as much as possible. We spoke in broken French and Spanish whenever we passed groups of Italians, no one bothered us, but these awesome bars that the Melbourne boy was talking about where no where to be found.

After about 45 minutes of walkuing we finally stopped in a pizzeria. The Italian boy at the counter was flirting with Amy rather shamelessly, he made us a heart shaped pizza. Suave... pretty suave... he directed us to some local bars that would not have a lot of Americans, great. We went to one called Moya first, which kindof sucked, stuckup locals, bad music, high chairs, blue ambiance. We made our way to a club called "Twice" that was playing some decent hip hop. Although I wasn't thrilled about the ten euro bacardi and coke the atmosphere was much better.

Amy and i hit the dance floor, where it became abundantly clear that Italian girls couldn't dance and Italian guys pretty much just want to touch your crotch. I don't know if they're so vain that they're just afraid of getting sweaty or if they just naturally have no rhythm, but the chicks were pretty lame. It pretty much just meant more dance partners for Amy and I. We stumbled out around 3, I had to wake up early to check out and catch my train, and I still hadn't heard from Katie.

About 25 embarrassing pictures and a bruised hand later Amy and I parted ways at the first floor of the hostel, I was glad to meet my temporary partner in crime, but now I had a whole slew of things to worry about, which somehow concluded like this:

enter room, note on door from nick "sorry, you can yell at me when i get internet"
dickhead, pass out cold, makeup still on, phone dying wakes me up, thank god, still drunk, pack belongings, check email, no word from katie, shit, train leaves in 30 minutes, check out, book it to station, grab a water, ask porter for train location, train delayed, okay calm down. get on train, 40 minutes in "im on the wrong train!" but its still stopping in Rome, whew, listen to polish on ipod, dzien dobry, mr. Lif, gives me confidence, arrive at Termini, get on the train, back hurting, feet are sore, get to Cipro, now what?

All I have is Katie's address and I know that she's off the cipro stop. fuck. ask the metro attendant, via massimi? there are two via massimi's! maybe take the 907 bus? then what? okay, panic panic. i ask the driver, he pretends not to speak english. fucker. Oy... ask a young girl, she speaks english great, im still speaking in my phony english accent, im so hung over, she goes to loyola too! perfect, she directs me to a bus stop, which i can't find, so i take a cab. The taxi takes me to this gated area... only 10 euro, great. Where the hell is this building.

Katie told me everything is in one building and that there is a porter who will ask for an ID, NO VISITORS ALLOWED... AT ALL. So, I better not get caught. I wait outside the building... don't see anyone... I have this really loud red backpack on, dead giveaway I don't belong...but where to put it... the courtyard seems pretty safe, I take out my most valuable possession and put it in my purse. Enter the building, I can't ask the porter where she is, I walk in casually and find the dorm rooms, they has names on all the doors, brilliant. Katie had one of the most generic names in the world, not so brilliant! I knock on every door with a Katie or Katherine, no avail. I follow some voices to the dining hall, I can't get in, but I glimpse a girl, she looks framiliar from Katies facebook pictures, i ask her if she knows where she is, "oh yeah, I'll check in the dining hall..." and we are reunited and I finally get to take a shower!!!!