NYC and Rome

My experience so far in NYC and Rome can be summed up best by Jerry Seinfeld in regards to what men do best, ˝just walking around, checking shit out.˝

It might be hard to top the very first day of my journey. I took a very special tour of Central Park and the Met with my friend Ben, an Oliver Hall original. We then visited the Shake Shack and imposed a shock and awe doctrine on two double cheeseburgers, the best I´ve ever had. I´ve only been twice, the weather´s been shit, and I´m two inches too tall for Ben and Anja´s couch, but I get New York. Absolutely love it. Strange thought to leave your very first stop of a world tour knowing you´ve already seen the best city in the world (secretly hopes Chicago isn´t listening).

My next stop was arguably the other most famous Western metropolis, Rome. Wore myself out wandering around, looking at stuff after an uneventful flight in (highly recommend the new 21 Jumpstreet for in flight movie, shockingly). That very first night I tried 5 times declining my hostel´s pub crawl. Partying my ass off isn´t really what this trip´s about. But my Canadian roommate hit me with some infallible logic, ˝C´mon dude, when in Rome....˝.  It started with me obligated to say, ˝Heard of it? I minored in flip cup.˝, proceeded to welcome shots at various bars, and ended with a bit of Party Marty-esque time-traveling and waking up in an entirely different hotel in an unknown part of Rome. As I walked to find a cab, I was instead goaded by a lovely Brit into taking a 2 Euro shuttle to the Vatican. Time was short, I needed to see the Vatican, so hungover tour of shame with contacts still in seemed like the right decision.  The Vatican was amazing, but I would not suggest walking the 500-plus steps to the top of St. Peter´s cathedral to anyone else after such a night.

Pic 1 of 1000 of me standing in front of stuff:

Time is short, I´m adding the first of many ˝random thoughts˝ posts next with some Croatian pics and then will try to do a full Croatia write up in a few days. Hope everyone is doing well!