Friday 6 July 2012

Roma

Life is funny sometimes. You realize, all of a sudden, that life is too short and that you are free to live as you wish (contrary to popular belief), and then you act on it, and you live the rest of your life thankful that you made that choice. I have been living a rather unpredictable life lately, which has often made it difficult to make any sort of plans even a month or two in advance. My sister, at the same time, has been living in London (and currently traveling around Europe) for her study abroad in college (much like mine 3 years ago when I first started this blog) and I had wanted to visit her from the very beginning, but never felt quite stable enough to spend a big portion of my savings to just simply go. Until now.

Its not as though things have become stable all of a sudden... its just that I realized that I can, I should, and if I don't, I'll really regret it. So I went. I bought my ticket less than 2 weeks ago and I am now writing to you from Rome, Italy, after our first full day of touring the city. And I am so, so, so glad to be here. Best choice I could have ever made.

Its our first trip without our parents, which is both stressful (when both of us, equally indecisive and easily disoriented, can't seem to figure out what to do or how to get there) and thrilling (this is our trip, paid for with our hard-earned money, and we can do as we please), and I am certain we will both gain an entirely new traveling perspective after paying for, planning, and experiencing this trip entirely on our own. We've been very fortunate to have been raised by two adventurous world-travelers, so in our short 24 and 20 years of life (I'm the older one), we have seen more of the world than most people ever will. However, our trips are of a different class when we are with our parents; we tend to stay at nice hotels, eat at nice restaurants, and do 'nice' things that nice, classy grown-ups like to do. This time around, we're doing it the young, budget-friendly way: hostels, AirBnB, bargain-hunting, buying food at grocery stores (and preparing our own breakfast/lunch), walking everywhere, etc etc etc, and I couldn't love it any more. We're seeing Rome on our own terms, and we're loving every bit so far.

Stay tuned for the next 2 weeks to hear more from this trip. Next stop after Rome will be the Amalfi coast, and then my sister and I part ways and while she heads up to Torino to do Wwoofing for 2 weeks, I will be heading to the Middle East to visit my best friend. So excited.

A few quick photos to share from today...







Photos are my own.

4 comments:

JCC (Cabrera) said...

enjoyed a lot reading this, I am veeeeery happy for both of you.

Jane said...

LOVE IT!

Can't wait for all the stories and photos!

Rebecca said...

first of all i love your blog! you are such a great writer! and secondly, i love this post in particular. the pictures are beautiful. i am so jealous you got to go to rome! i am definitely going to try to plan a trip to italy sometime this year. it is a must see!

catalina said...

Thanks Rebecca!!! You should definetely try to visit Italy - I want to go back so badly. Its gorgeous! And your blog rocks too :)

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