It was Thursday morning for me in Pisa. Not just any Thursday morning it was Thanksgiving morning, but to me it felt like any other day. I woke up earlier than normal because I knew I had a train to catch to Rome. By earlier than normal I mean waking up before 9-10am-ish… I know horrible, but I can’t help it. My sleeping habits have finally changed and my body no longer wakes up at 7am like it did the first few months of the trip. Anywho this post isn’t about my sleeping habits.
So yes it was Thursday morning and it happened to be a “transportation day“. I had some dirty fun in Pisa, but was time to say goodbye. I get on the train and headed to Rome adn looking forward to some Rome tours… as the wheels start turning my mind started spinning. I looked out my window and watched the beautiful Italian landscape pass by and thought about life (this time I wasn’t drunk thinking about life). I thought about Thanksgivings I had in the past with family and friends. I thought about things that would be going on at home and realized I was going to miss it, but knew I was happy with where I was in life at the moment and enjoying it. It was a bitter sweet feeling, because for the first time I was not going to be in Houston celebrating Thanksgiving. Instead I was going to be spending it in Rome with friends I have known for over a year online, but never met in real life.
—On the train from Pisa to Rome.—
They would be Sheryll from The Wanderlust Project and Caanan & Kent from No Vacation Required. I had planned to meet up with the guys for a while in advance. The 3 of us really wanted to meet up and it worked out to spend Thanksgiving in Rome. As for meeting up with Sheryll that was pure coincidence that she too would be in Rome for Thanksgiving while I was there. Also in Rome at the same time was Ayngelina from Bacon Is Magic. I had said bye too her two days ago in Pisa, but her plans changed. So the 5 of us and Sheryll’s boyfriend Johnny were all in Rome on Thanksgiving and made plans to spend it together.
So this is how our night went down.
We met up outside my hostel and were all excited to finally meet each other. Then moments later we all looked at each other a bit lost not sure where to go… thankfully Caanan and Kent had done some research on where to eat. We walked around the area a bit to see some of Rome and then made our way to dinner. We ended up going to an Italian Restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal and a beer.
—MY YUMMY BEER—
—I HAD LASAGNA THIS YEAR INSTEAD OF TURKEY. IT WAS SO DAMN GOOD.—
After our nice dinner our plan was to do what most travel bloggers love to do… DRINK. This time none of us did any research on where to go for cheap drinks. We walked around for ages and couldn’t find anything. So we went back to the hostel and we asked the lady where a cheap place to drink near by was… That lady sent us to a place that was charging about $5 a beer and had a SMOKE MACHINE. Ummm yeah we were not about to go in there. So then we thought fuck it lets buy some wine and drink somewhere. We came to a store that sold bottles of wine and was a cafe as well with tables outside. We thought SCORE lets buy some cheap wine and sit out side and drink the night away.
We were excited… I even took a beautiful photo of our cheap wine on the nice table outside of the cafe. We had our cheap white plastic cups and started drinking. Moments later the man behind the coffee bar came out and swayed his hand back and forth and said, “NOOO”. We all looked at each other like WTF… and start walking away with a white cup in one hand a bottle of wine in the other. We had no clue what to do at this point… We weren’t sure and in the end… well this is what happened.
We found a bank around the corner with some comfy steps (by comfy I mean cold and hard) and decided to drink there. I mean why not… here we are a few bloggers who’ve traveled extensively now in ROME drinking on the steps of a bank! We all are looking cute with our little white cups sipping wine.
We CHEERED to a great Thanksgiving dinner and now a bit of a tragic aftermath. I had already ditched the tiny white cup and was drinking from the bottle.
I think I was already buzzing and went photo happy. I love this photo cus well y’all know I love my crotch and well it looks great and love that its symmetrical (including Caanan’s feet…lol)!
—Sheryll – Me – Ayngelina—
—Caanan – Me – Kent—
—I was already drunk… this was my second bottle already… I think.—
—Look at this… don’t lie its tragic… I mean really I have no clue how we did this.—
The 6 of us ended up chatting the night away and cracking up about the whole situation. At one point in the night a homeless guy even came up and started talking to us and we think that he was trying to tell us that this is where he slept, but we weren’t sure. We also ended up going back to the store that kicked us out and bought more wine. We ended up calling our gathering at the bank corner #OccupyCorner because we occupied it for a while… and loved the fact that people would walk past us and were quick to judge us.
The next day though we all woke up feeling like shit from the cheap wine, but I’m not going to lie in the end I think we all agreed that the night turned out to be tragic yet amazing. Looking back at it now it is definitely going down as one of the most memorable nights of the trip. I mean really… I spent Thanksgiving having an Italian dinner and drinking wine outside on the steps of a bank in Rome with people I had been wanting to meet for so long. I spent Thanksgiving with family and well isn’t that what that holiday is all about anyway? It doesn’t matter where you are in the world when you celebrate a holiday that is not a holiday in the country you are in you can make it amazing.
UGH. I’m jealous. I want to be part of that PARTY!!!! <3
Erica recently posted..Playing With Mud in Colombia
Ja you missed out on a GREAT PARTY… it was so much fun!
Ah, it looks like you all had so much fun! LOVE that you sat on the steps of a bank to drink… i’ve done that so many times and you get so many dirty looks haha!!
I celebrated thanksgiving for the first time here in Chiang Mai with a big bloggers get together. Was so much fun! Mmmmm pumpkin pie…
Lauren recently posted..Becoming a Terracotta Warrior in Xi’an
Lauren oh we had a blast…. but um would love to know how you do this many times in your life…lol? I mean it’s so tragic…lol!!! I’ve heard so much about that TGing up there… I am a bit jealous.
Glad you crew had a stupendous (if tragic) time. Somewhat ‘routine’ holidays’ take on a whole new spin when you celebrate them abroad.
Brock – Backpack With Brock recently posted..5 Alternative Ideas For Winter Season Travel
Thanks Brock… yes your right routine holiday to take on a whole new spin when we are abroad… but that is what makes them so interesting.
Ummm you forgot to mention that I had to wake up at 7am to catch a flight!
How I made it I’ll never know.
Ayngelina recently posted..Choosing street art over graffiti
jajaja I have no clue how you made it… I was pissed when at 10am the damn lady came in and kicked me out of the fucking hostel… Im glad you did make it… we were wasted.
With a little distance, the “amazing” is even more amplified and the “tragic” is fading away. If it wouldn’t have gotten so cold, who knows how long we would have stayed on those steps.
Thanks to you, Ayngelina, Sheryll and Johnny for an awesome Thanksgiving – just the way all Thanksgivings should be… with great people.
Single tear.
Kent @ No Vacation Required recently posted..A Day in Our Life (in Rome)
I know right with time I just crack up more and more about the whole ordeal and love it more and more… oh & agree if it hadn’t gotten cold we would have been out there longer!
Single tear… miss you guys!
What a great Thanksgiving with friends <3
Heather recently posted..Macaron Day (Zumboron Day) 2011
Agreed Heather… loved it!
LOL, I recognize some faces in that crowd 😛 Nothing wrong with a bit of curb gathering for good times.
Nomadic Samuel recently posted..India Is | Video Competition
Sam Im sure a few people recognize some of these faces… they are so loved!!! & true nothing wrong with this at all.
Love this article Jaime! Doesn’t sound tragic at all, seems like it was another amazing experience – Occupy Corner is the best! LOL
Thanks Kelley… the more I think about it the less tragic it seems… at the time it felt that way, but now I just laugh… its a great memory!
This reminded me so much of my first Christmas, New Years, and Australia Day in South Korea. Expat holidays are always such an eclectic mix and I rarely had a bad time out of it.
Aussie on the Road recently posted..My Ten Year High School Reunion
I agree Aussie, Im learning holidays on the road are a very eclectic mix that make them so much more fun!!!
Looks like such a fun night! So jealous you got to meet up with so many cool people 🙂
Ali recently posted..Phnom Penh – the Killing Fields
Oh It was so much fun Ali…
Aww, it’s so great that you got to meet up with travel bloggers to spend Thanksgiving! That’s a nice way to spend the holiday 😀
Audrey recently posted..The Highest I’ve Ever Stood
Thanks Audrey… it really was. I enjoyed it so much~
Great story! I ended up being homeless Thanksgiving morning because the person I was staying with had a death in the family. But, I kid you not, I was rescued by Indians and ended up staying with them for almost two weeks. The world is amazing sometimes 🙂
HappinessPlunge recently posted..Volunteering With A Budding Indigenous Tourism Group In Chichica, Panama
Oh I am sorry to hear that HP… I hope everything turned out okay for the person and his family! I do love that when we least expect it amazing things can happen out of the blue! I agree the world is amazing.
Epic. So wish I could have been there.
adventureswithben recently posted..2011 Winners and Losers in Travel & Tourism
Oh you would have had a blast Ben!!! Hope our paths cross soon… would be so much fun!!!