Last couple of days have been a blast in Rome. At our new hostel, we coincidentally met 6 other Canadians who are also traveling around Europe in similar fashion. Up until now, colene and I have been awestruck on how unsociable most of the other hostelers have been in Italy.  Our first night in Rome, we asked nearly the entire hostel to come out for a drink at 9pm and everyone except 1 person preferred to stay in, read a book or just eat by themselves!  Coincidentally most of those people have been Americans :)  After being on the road for 7 days, I’m starting to believe what everyone else has been telling me — Canadians are likely the friendliest people on earth

Last night was one of the biggest party nights in Rome — La Notte in Bianco, or “White Night”.  I think the real translation should be “Crazy drunkeness in Rome with no sleep and mobs of people in the street”.  It was simply crazy last night !  The entire city lights up and is an all night party from 8pm to 8am. There is live music throughout the city and everyone just roams around the streets with beer in hand.  We had 10 people from the hostel come out as we bar hopped and walked the streets like vagrants.  At around 4am, Carrie (a fellow Canadian from Edmonton) and I got separated from the rest of our group.  After searching for 25 mins in Piazza Navona, we gave up and headed back to the hostel via the Metro.  The wait for the metro was simply insane.  The mobs of people and lack of ventilation in the hallways leading to the subway passage was making me dizzy.  When the subway car finally pulled up to our stop and the doors opened, I was shocked (but shouldn’t have been) that it was packed to the brim with people.  If I was alone, I would have waited for a second train but Carrie, in full linebacker fashion, pulled me by the hand and stormed in.  It was a classic moment stuffing the 2 of us into an already full subway car.

After 5 hours of partying in the street, 1 Irish pub, 9 beers, 2 glasses of wine and walking nearly 7 miles, it was no surprise that I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.   My training for Oktoberfest is in full force