rome

So we got to Rome at night and checked into our hostel. We ate at their cafeteria, which actually had surprisingly good and cheap Italian food. Later that night I tried to charge my phone in an outlet in the hallway that I'd seen other people using earlier. When I plugged my phone charger in, all the lights and vending machines upstairs exept the emergency lights turned off. oops. I quickly detached my charger and hid it in my room then went downstairs and told them about the lights being out (omitting the part where it's my fault) and after about an hour they replaced the fuse or something and the lights turned back on.
The next day was a long one filled with sightseeing, as it was our only full day in Rome. First we took a tour of the Vatican. We saw:
1. the Vatican museum- this is the ceiling (it's stucco) in the hall that leads towards the sistine chapel
2. sistine chapel- we weren't technically supposed to take pictures of the sistine chapel, but everyone else was doing it, so I figured it was ok
3. st. peter's basilica
- much more impressive in person. I've realized it's hard to take good pictures inside any kind of church/cathedral/basilica. Sarah and I crossed ourselves with pope holy water on the way out.

After the vatican, we took the metro to the Coloseum.
- we bought tickets at Palatine hill for the Coloseum to avoid the line. We saw lots of ruins including the forum:
After that we wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. We couldn't find anywhere until several blocks after this very impressive building (Not quite sure what it is):
Later we found canoli at a pastery shop and it was really good! then we took the metro and bus back to our hostel. Next morning we went to the airport and went to Madrid.

Croatia continued

I think I stopped with Mljet, an island with a National Park. We took a bus to a salt lake and then took a boat to an island with a monastery on it, on which we went swimming.
We wandered around and stuff some more then went back to the harbor and had a group dinner.
I'm too lazy to remember the exact order that we did stuff after this so here's a basic idea of what we did.
Dubrovnik: My favorite place we went to in Croatia. We walked along the walls of Dubrovnik for a while, which was really pretty. We also wandered randomly along the alleys of the inner city for a while which was very touristy but also interesting.
In Hvar there was a castle that only Sarah and I decided to walk to. The rest of the Australians decided to stay on the boat. The castle was pretty cool. The most interesting part was the dungeons. Tiny steps led down into a dim room with jail cells in it.
Also in Hvar, an orange fell into our bread basket while eating dinner. It was pretty exciting. The orange however was quite bitter (I tasted it).
Korcula was an island (I think?) where the supposed "birthplace" of Marco Polo is (no one really knows where he was born). Sarah and I decided not to pay to go in there. This is some pretty building in Korcula.
Here is a tiny island in the middle of nowhere with some random building on it.
Every day on the boat the cook would make delicious food for us. One day after lunch one of our Croatian crew members shouted: "look there is something interesting! something interesting over there!" "Something interesting" turned out to be a tunnel that was used during one of Croatia's many wars to hide ships in.
While in Croatia, Sarah and I noticed that many Croatians had an attitude problem. For example, almost all of our waiters (with one exception that I can think of) were very strange and/or rude. One of them insisted that "of course I know North Carolina Michael Jordan was at North Carolina, of course!".
To get back to Italy, Sarah and I took the over night ferry again. However, when we went to check into the ferry company Jadrolinija, the woman behind the counter told us that our tickets were already printed. When we told her no one gave them to us, she obviously didn't care at all and just told us again that the tickets were already printed in Ancona and that they gave them to us, the computer says so it must be true. So we had to buy new tickets, from a different ferry company of course, and ended up sleeping on the floor because they were out of actual seat tickets. anyways we made it back to Ancona then took the train to Rome. Rome will be continued in the next entry.

Hi!
I am finally in Sevilla after traveling for more than two weeks in Croatia and Italy. So I guess I'll try to start from the beginning. Sarah and I left the 12th and got to Madrid on the 13th. We tried to put our bags in a locker in the Madrid airport, but the staff told us they wouldn't fit. They also told us it was an "easy ride" on the metro to the train station, where they have bigger lockers. It was not an easy ride. First, some of the escalators weren't working, so we had to haul our giant suit cases up and down stairs. Second, while transfering between trains my passport was stolen! So we went to the US embassy the next morning at 7:30 and luckily I got my new passport by about 11, and we flew to Rome at 5. whew. Next day we took a train to Ancona, then an over night ferry to Split, Croatia! This is part of Diocletian's palace in Split.We got on our "sail" boat (the sail has been removed) and headed towards Makarska (below)
In Makarska there was a pretty sweet night club called "Deep" that was inside a cave. Also, lots of techno music.
Okay that's all I have patience for right now, I'll finish up later. Bye!