My First Day In Roma!

Monday 21st September

I woke up a few times throughout the night but finally got up at around 9am and headed down for breakfast. I got chatting with Yuli again for a while and also got chatting with a couple of students, one from West London and one from Ghana. Yuli said that if I wanted to play football with him in Napoli that I could. I think it may be a little far away to be honest but it was really nice of him to make the offer.

I sat talking with Barbara for a while this morning too before heading off for the train. She had come to Italy to meet up with her boyfriend who works on the boats in Sorrento but when she arrived here he finished with her and left her with no money! It may have been a little unwise to travel with little money but he had asked her to come and said that he would have money for her to use! She was pretty much stuck in one place with nothing to do and no money to do it with. She had enough for a night in a hostel in Napoli tomorrow before getting a plane back to Hungary tomorrow but had told me she would not have anywhere to sleep tonight.

I decided to pay for her to have a room for the night - it was only 20 euros anyway. I didn't tell her at the time that I was doing it, I just went and paid for the room and brought the key to her and she got quite upset because she said she felt stupid and was annoyed at herself for getting into the situation she was in. She tried to refuse the room but I just said her mother would be horrified if she thought that her daughter had nowhere to sleep for the night and if I had a younger sister who was in the same situation I would be too. Eventually she accepted the offer but I gave her little choice really.

I got the 11.07am train from Sorrento to Napoli and listened to a bit of Lily Allen on the way. I managed to sleep a little on the train from Napoli to Roma which was good as I was a little tired and it helped to break up the boredom somewhat. The ticket only cost me €10.50 from Napoli to Roma but that was because it was a slower train. It ended up leaving almost half an hour late and the train journey itself took around two and a half hours. It was certainly better than some of the train journeys I have had lately!

As soon as I arrived in Roma I got my bearings. I found an internet café so that I could search out some hostels and found one that was €23 a night so headed there. I booked in for 5 nights here to give me some time to be able to look for somewhere to live, I just hope that I can find somewhere within 5 days as it's not exactly cheap living out of hostels although this one provides free pasta in the evenings and its sister hostel does free pizza about an hour later which is pretty cool - at least that will keep my expenses down a little in terms of food!

I chatted with the guy on reception for a while and he gave me some really good information on sites that I could use to look for both work and accomodation so I had a look as soon as I had dumped all of my stuff in my room. I found a couple of suitable places so sent some emails off. It seems that it will be pretty expensive if I want an apartment but if I am prepared to do a share then it seems quite reasonable really. I did look for some work too but it's a little difficult as the computers here only have internet access so I can't sort a CV out right now and a lot of the places will need an address. I decided that I will concentrate on finding somewhere to live for now and worry about work once I have found somewhere.

I had some free pasta in the hostel and headed over to its sister hostel to get some free pizza and have a few drinks with anybody I could find to talk to. I got talking with an American couple for a while and then met a Brazilian guy after they left - I can't for the life of me remember his name but I am so bad with names that I seem to forget them all the time! I always feel really bad but it's really difficult when you are constantly meeting new people everyday. I arranged to spend a day walking around Roma with the Brazilian guy tomorrow as he only has one day to see the sights and has no idea how to find everything and I know Roma pretty well.