Are we there yet? - A looooong day/night!
Trip Start
Apr 12, 2008
1
2
54
Trip End
Jun 18, 2008
Rome,
Italy
Monday, April 14, 2008
- Left Adelaide on the 12th and flew 7 hrs to Kuala Lumpur... kinda painful.
- Met up with Lang's boss from work who was returning from a trip to the UK. Had an interesting conversation about sex shows in Amsterdam and the like... you know, the good stuff.
- Flew 13 hrs from KL to Rome... OMG, heaps painful. And a plane full of Italians coming home from tour, ARGH!
- Got off the plane at 6:30am in Rome... man, no sleep, must go do stuff.
- Checked in at the accomodation called "The Beehive".
All packed and ready to go..
- Went on a "hop-on hop-off" bus which goes to 80 sites in 2 hrs (as advertised) to orientate ourselves with the sites of Rome... didnt really work... doing U-turns and going past the same site a few times doesnt count and the audio kept cutting out.- Walked to a cool looking fountain called the Republica and went into a church called "Santa Mario degli Angelgi", which is filled with artwork by Michelangelo... nice.
- Went and saw the Trevi Fountain... nice, but packed with people. Had first run in with Indians running everywhere trying to sell crap... if you ever find yourself in Rome and need {a balloon filled with sand, a gun that shoots bubbles, a 3D prism, a 10cm high camera tripod, a printed cloth for a scarf or a cheapass umbrella, etc etc}, hit some of the big tourist sites!
- Went back to our accom... turns out phone and net isnt working there... hence delay in updating this blog. The accom is basically a 3 bedroom apartment with shared common areas such as a kitchen and bathroom. After a long days walk, it was great.
<Lang - WARNING - very extended version!!>
OMG, as if my arse wasn't fat enough already
Dog Dog resting on the soft M'sia Airlines pillow
! It is now fat AND flat from all the sitting!The flight from Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur was relatively uneventful. We woke up quite early, I'm not sure if it was the anticipation, nerves or excitement, but sleep was somewhat hard to come by, well, for me anyway..
Anyway, we made it to the airport to check-in a couple hours before take-off, the line there was huge! Seemed like the only international flight going out that arvo, I guess that's Adelaide for you!
While waiting in line, lo-and-behold, Brian spots a familiar face - Richard - he was going back home for a couple of weeks holiday on the same flight as us.. it seems as though he was stalking us - we bumped into him during the Easter long weekend at the Big Rocking Horse, Gumeracha.
The flight took 7 hours which was bearable as we chatted to Richard a couple of times and watched "National Treasure - Book of Secrets" and a Hong Kong movie called "Brothers".. both were average.. but we had nothing better to do anyway..
Brian & Richard..
Once we touched down, we went in search for my boss, Dave, as we had arranged to meet at the airport. He was heading back to Adelaide that night after his whirlwind week in Europe. It was relatively easy to spot him and we had a good chat and laugh together before he had to leave.
I won't be seeing him again at work (yes, he's quitting and moving to London to work!!), but we might be catching up again before our trip is over. He will be moving to London by the end of May, so hopefully we'll meet up with him again and tell him all about our adventures and if we took any of his tips on.
As we had another 2 hours before we flew out, we went in search for our gate and found that they had free internet terminals as well as free wifi at the airport.. Bonus! The funny thing was seeing lots of other people with laptops sitting around doing the same thing as us..
The next flight from KL to Rome was a 13 hr flight of PAIN. You couldn't sleep, and when you thought you could, only 10 minutes has past by and not the 6-7 hours you hoped.. Oh, and the flight attendants woke you up at like 3.30 in the morning to eat, who eats at that time?!
Dave & Lang at KL airport
!Around 5 hours into the flight, the screen looked as though we were going over Afganistan and suddenly an announcement was made over the speakers that there will be some turbulence - coincidence? Who knows?
Anyway, we touched down in Rome at 6.30am, dead tired, but excited that we were finally there! Immigration was a breeze, the guy checking the passports just stamped ours (on pages 23 and 29, mind you!), and let us through.. Apparently it was the end of his shift..
We waited a while for our bags to get through, and then had to find our way to the train station to purchase tickets to Roma Termini. At the ticket booth, Brian's first attempt at Italian was hilarious.. the first words that came out of his mouth was "No English!"
The bus tour around Rome was suppose to help us get orientated but didn't help at all.. we sat on the bus for around 2 hours to do the round trip, then got off and walked to the fountain near the Republica. Being the first thing we saw, it was absolutely beautiful.
Tech heads at KL airport..
. Just opposite the fountain, we stumbled across Santa Mario degli Angelgi, a basilica designed by Michelangelo.. It appeared run down from the outside, but was gorgeous inside.
A walk further down the road and through some alleyways lead us to one of the most famous sites of Rome - the Trevi fountain.. The noise of thousands of tourists, could be heard before you actually saw it.. It was such an amazing site, even in the middle of the day.. However, due to the crowds and a lone Roman gladiator, we decided to leave and come back here later on in our trip.. Besides, we were busting to go to the loo and wanted to grab the keys to our room for a much needed rest!!
