San Carlo All'Arena

got off the bus and went to the closest park, had toasty breakfast and was only interrupted by hungry birds, the rain and people trying to sell drugs. my first impression of the city was similar to the other italian ones i have been to: romantic names, but grimey, littered streets.

in catania, i had had my first encounter with streetside prostitutes, here it was mainly heroin. people are shooting up the stuff in plain sight, the only place i had seen this before was hamburg.

anyways, i had a bit of trouble finding the hostel i had booked a day before. the alternative would've been an abandoned steel mill i had scouted out, but i thought waking up in a bed for my birthday wouldn't be too much to ask for. after a mcmuffin / toilet break at the nearby mcdonalds, i finally managed to find my way to the hostel. dropped off my bag and started wandering around the city, as i do so often.

came back at 3, checked in and had a 2-hour nap. met silas, a bavarian and the only other guy in the hostel. we went out to grab a kebab (for some reason it was prohibited to cook in the kitchen). in the store, we met a polish erasmus guy who promptly invited us to a beer pong competition the same night upon hearing that my birthday was coming up.

together, we went for a quick shopping tour (bought a ring) and suddenly found ourselves in the liquor aisle trying to figure out what energy drink would fit a bottle of jäger best. in about an hour, the thing was empty and we arrived at the bar where all the erasmus people hung out. after another wine supply run to the 24h store, we were way too drunk to play beer pong, so we absolutely fucked it against some belgian guys.

back at the hostel, we met two americans that we talked with until 4am which gave me plenty time to drink water and sober up for the next day.

this was not only my nineteenth birthday, but also moving day. packed up, stashed my bag at the reception and went to the store to buy some birthday breakfast. walked to the shore, where i treated myself with mount vesuvius' views, a bottle of kiba, milk slices and some skittles along with my favourite albums.

sooner than expected, it was 2 pm and time to get to the next hostel to meet lauriane and jayce (who had lost all his documents at the airport earlier). things came full circle when the receptionist announced that there would be a bar crawl that night, we were hooked.

after the free pasta dinner, the group of 20 or so people assembled. it was all very chaotic, but after one and a half hours we were at the first location playing drinking games. a bottle of spritz later, i was at the second bar with lauriane eating "our" birthday cake. no idea whose it actually was, but i was delicious.

then i tried snus with lovisa from sweden, because that's the only way you should get into the stuff. was dizzy for ten minutes, then went back to normal.

we ended the night in a club and were driven home by a guy going at least three times the speed limit.

checked out the next day, farewelled the canadians and went to the main station, where i realized i had screwed up the departure time, but i was still able to book a train (for three times the prize fml) to rome.Read more