I arrived in Rome last night, and from the moment I stepped off the train it has been swelteringly hot and sticky. I wanted to stay in Faulty Towers, a small hotel near the train station, but it was fully booked. They called the YHA across town. There were 10 spaces left and they wouldn't take bookings. With that in mind I raced across the metro system and then spent 30mins waiting for a bus. The bus stops directly opposite the hostel, but for some reason the Romans don't like to tell you it is a hostel from that side, so I asked some locals who sent me in completely the wrong direction. 20 mins later I was at reception booking a bed. I think the limit of 10 was for women coz there were 7 more beds in the room I went into. It stayed ridiculously hot all night and I was looking forward to my morning shower, until I got there. It smelled like a dirty toilet on bonfire night, half of them didn't have curtains and those that did only had half a curtain anyway. Tiles were missing from the floor and I'll be lucky if I didn't catch something in there.

    Right now I am sitting in the internet room of the Freedom Traveller Hostel, hoping that this is the one that Stacey and Brie are in and that I'll have some people to share Rome with. Tonight I am on the train to Barcelona and I will meet up with Bronwyn and Nina. I hope they don't need too much sleep coz I have lot to tell them about. See you both soon :-)

P.S. I updated the San Fermines entry to have a link to some bull running photos, it was made on July 10th, click the date on the right of your screen to go back to it.