To Rome...

7-2-07 Flight to Rome

01

So after a LONG ferry ride in which I almost froze to death....literally. I put on a pair of pants, sweater, fleece, socks, and had two towels to keep me warm, but it didn't work. I even debated sleeping in the bathroom because at least there it was semi-warm! But anyways, my frozen body was very happy to get back to Athens, where the sun was just rising. We headed over to the train station to pick up the luggage we had left in the storage locker. I have to say, I thought the idea was stupid at first, but it definitely made it much easier to get around on the islands! Jose had some issues getting money for the locker - they wanted the 20 euros ALL in change....how annoying. But anyway, we decided to grab some breakfast at the train station - they had a huge bakery that was just pumping out great smelling delicacies! I ate the most gigantic cinnamon roll ever - but it was SO good! Not greasy like those Cinnabon things, just very fresh and delicious! We also bought a thing of milk - it has been too long without milk! We used to drink it everyday, and I have hardly had any since we left! Anyways, we hopped on the metro to head to the airport - I have to say the public transportation here is very good - the metro goes everywhere - even directly to the port and airport. We decided to head to the airport super early to see if we could get some sleep on the very comfortable airport chairs, as we hadn't gotten any rest on the ferry ride. This worked out pretty well - we found some semi-comfortable chairs with no armrests and laid down for awhile. Apparently this annoyed people though, because while I was in the bathroom, some Americans (figures!) were pretty rude to Jose about his taking of three seats. Three seats between two people is not bad, and its not like there were a shortage of chairs in this place! Whatever - rude people, what can you do.

02

So after a bit of sleep, we headed over to our gate..or so we thought. The minute they started to board, I got a funny feeling....it was a different airline! Apparently they had changed the gate on us and never made an announcement. I hate when they do that! Lucky for us though, OUR flight was boarding just a few gates down, so we jogged over and made it with plenty of time. We happened to run into these two Canadian girls again - who we had originally started talking to as we waited for the ferry to arrive in Mykonos. Funny that they were on the same flight to Rome as well. Anyway, the flight was pretty uneventful - just a two hour quick flight - but we had the exit row again so I was super happy. Instead of serving us a meal, they served us a "sweet snack", which turned out to be cake! When in Rome I guess!

06

Once we arrived at the airport, it seemed they dropped us off at the "forbidden terminal".... We weren't allowed to enter right there, but instead had to walk down the walkway to a shuttle, which took us to a different terminal. Quite weird, but whatever, we are getting used to quirky airport happenings. We were quite surprised when they didn't even stamp our passport upon leaving Greece or entering Italy - I guess that is one of the benefits of the European Union, although it sucks for us because we have quite a nice stamp collection accumulating in our passports!

Anyway, for some reason there was no baggage line assigned to our flight....it was very weird. The Canadian girls, another couple from the flight, and us all stared blankly at the television monitor for about 15 minutes wondering where our bags were...with no luck. One of the carts finally started moving, but these were definitely not our bags. I finally decided to walk all the way down to try and get some help at the AlItalia desk. The girl at the desk looked at me like I was retarded and told me to go to Cart 10 - very meanly! It was very odd, considering the area that we were in only had carts 1 through 8 - with no mention of any others. But I led Jose and the Canadians down a dark hallway which said "staff only", and we finally figured out where cart 10 was.....very very weird though, we're still not sure how we ended up in the wrong area, or why!

07

Unfortunately, our sleeping bag did not make it. This made me very sad.....someone in Greece is probably enjoying our warm blanket now! Oh well, at least it made it this far! Anyway, we hopped on the train that took us to Termini Station, in the middle of Rome. Rome is SO cool by the way. From the airport, we passed big areas of farmland, but there were still some very old buildings and parts of walls along the way. Termini station was quite packed and busy with people, but we found the Metro easy enough and went the one stop to our hostel. Upon coming back up to air, everyone around us was Asian! We thought that was kind of weird, but we found our hostel easy enough, and everything seems really nice. The area has plenty of Asian-run stores, plus the traditional trattorias, pizzerias, etc. etc. We immediately dropped our bags and decided to head out to explore as much of Rome as we could before it got too late. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain - a massive fountain jutting out from the side of a building. It was PACKED with tourists, mostly Americans, but the fountain was quite beautiful nonetheless. We grabbed a bite to eat at a cute little trattoria nearby, and their menu of the day was quite good. I find it so interesting that they serve their pasta in small portions as appetizers here! Definitely not how the Italian restaurants in the U.S. do things! We also had the best house wine I think I've ever had - really really good, and obviously quite cheap.

08

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed up the metro again to I think was called Pope's Square? Or something like that. It held an Egyptian obelisk and was a huge open square surrounded by beautiful buildings and fountains. Just what you would picture when you think of Rome.

Anyway, by this point I was completely exhausted and since we want to get up early tomorrow to do the main sightseeing in Rome, we are headed to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. So far though - Rome is beautiful!!!

Love,

Andrea and Jose

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