Day One and a Half: We’re in Friggin Rome!
June 22, 2008
Goodness goodness goodness. Everything still feels totally surreal. Am I to believe that since the last time I slept in a bed I’ve: biked around San Francisco, had breakfast at Tartine with Eric, got on a plane with Leslie, visited Dublin with Leslie and Marika, got back on a plane in Dublin, flown to Rome, found my way through Rome, eaten my first truly Italian pizza, and finally ended up sitting in the computer room of my hostel (with a Diet Coke that’s far too small and an Internet connection that’s far too slow) writing up a quick post about our first few hours in Rome (before I take some hard core pills and induce some sleep… all so I can get up in about four hours and walk across town to the Vatican at 6am)?!?! Really?!
Well, it’s all true!!
We flew into Rome this evening and from the window of the plane I could tell it was going to be quite different from Dublin. Whereas I’d say the colors of Dublin were green, grays, and blues, the colors of Rome at sunset are warm hues of oranges, reds, yellows, browns… and cement (if that can count as a color).
So we got off the plane and made our way through the terribly long line to get my second passport stamp ever! Two in one day! While in line there was a couple in front of us and, not to be a downer, but I’ll say two quick things. First, when I have children they are not going to behave like that. And, secondly, when I get married, I sure as hell am not going to marry a man like that kids father either! Ugh!
But moving on… we we were totally exhausted, having been awake for pretty much 24 hours straight. But, we made our way through the passport line and then we were in Rome. Crowded, hot, humid, alive, and significantly more dirty, Rome. And right away the gods of travel lessons were ready to provide us with our next “gift”. So Leslie, being by far the more organized and systematic of the two of us, did the smart thing and printed out our reservations for all the hostels. On these reservations we’ve got directions listed from whatever mode of transportation we’ll be taking to get to that city. So, in this case, on our reservation to our hostel in Rome we had directions from the airport. So, we arrived and Leslie looked at the directions and let me know that we were to look for the Blue Coral bus and take it to this place (I’ve forgotten the name, we’ll call it “hell”). Well the first thing I noticed was that there was a train that said it went to Rome and so I asked Leslie, “Leslie, my dear girl, why not just take the train directly??” But she assured me that that just wasn’t the plan. Fair enough, I thought. So we exited the airport and were outside looking for this bus. I SWEAR TO THE GODS we went up and down the terminals at least five times – imagine walking up and down the different terminals for the different airlines at SFO or LAX. Imagine walking up and down to ALL OF THEM. Now imagine doing it with a serious backpack on your back. And in flip flops. And with no sleep. So we did this because we could not, for the life of us, find this bus stop. We asked for help and looked at signs, but when one person said left the sign said right. Finally, after walking around for at least an hour, two nice guys ended up giving us coherent directions. Naturally we’d passed this area about four times, but I was over it. The blue bus came, we got onboard, and Leslie asked the guy if it’d take us to where we needed to go. He, to my surprise, said “No.”
“No?!” I screamed in my head. How can this be?! We’ve looked for you forever. We just found you! You’re our only hope blue bus driving man! Our only hope!
At this point we put our heads down and got off the bus. I looked at the map and was in a state of confusion. I didn’t even see this place Leslie said we had to go to.
And then it hit her.
“Oh god… what airport are we at?”
“I have no idea… the Rome one”
“Yah but are there are like more than one? I was reading directions to our hostel from airport x (we’ll say). But what if we’re at airport y?!”
“…”
“Oh my god we’re at airport y!!!”
At which point we both laughed. We’d been going back and forth for a very very long time asking everyone for help finding a bus that basically didn’t exist. When we arrived in Rome it was light. Now it was pitch black.
We then made our way to the train.
Yah, that’s right – the train.
And, thankfully, from there we made our way to the Termina station and only got slightly lost on our way to the hostel. When we arrived we were greeted by a most friendly front hostel-desk guy that has yet to (and we’ve been here for quite a few hours now) actually charge us for our room. At one point he was about to, but told us to go get a drink and food instead. No doubt in the end they’ll figure it out, but would it not be the coolest thing if he let us stay for free?! This guy also recommended a restaurant down the street – which we went to and had our first Italian pizza 
and the most delicious bruschetta (which was only one euro!).
After dinner (which was at about 11:30PM local time) Leslie and I walked up and down a few streets and then decided to call it a night. She’s currently taking a shower while I write this up and pray to the download gods that my friggin videos get uploaded!!! But the connection is so slow!!!
Tomorrow we’re getting up at 6AM to walk to the Vatican and do all that. Should be fun!!
More to come!! Oh and to see all our pictures from this day, go here.
*Oh random exciting update: Because I’m paying for Internet by the hour and it took an hour to friggin upload the first video for the Dublin day that meant my Internet ran out while I was uploading video number two. I then had to get up and talk to the guy at the counter to get that fixed. After I paid I got change back and decided to buy, yet another, baby-sized diet coke from the machine. The machine is a piece of crap and won’t actually give you the soda… which means the guy comes over and shakes the machine to get it out (though there’s a sign on the machine telling me not to do so). I made a smart ass comment about this and computer-lab guy said some small thing back. I then decided I had to be brave and strike up a conversation. I’m in Rome! I’m staying at a hostel so I can meet other explorers! So I said, “Hi! I’m Heather!” and then we’ve been talking for a bit. This guy is totally having the best trip ever. He’s been here for, I think he said, 22 days now. The first week and half he was traveling with his friend up in Eastern Europe but ever since then he’s been on his own! He recommended I check out Cinque Terre on one of my Florence days. He then explained some stuff about each of the little islands (Cinque Terre I gather is Italian for five islands). In two days he’s off to Greece! This guy went to school in Chicago and is going to go back to do something related to financial investing. How cool! My first hostel-homie!! I’m so proud of myself! He’s going to Vatican city tomorrow, too – maybe Leslie and I will bump into him there!? Who knows – we’re traveling gypsies, baby!*
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2 Responses to “Day One and a Half: We’re in Friggin Rome!”
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I feel like these first two blog posts document well your lack-of-sleep-induced path to death. Hopefully your next blog post isn’t an epitaph… get some sleep!
I’m not sure what’s going on?? I left like two comments already and they have not posted for some reason! I need more videos! You should find some faster internet and post more videos. I’m glad you guys are safe and having fun! The Vatican!?!? I have to video of that! Bye for now!