1 December 2007: A journey begins...with no sleep
So, Kaity, Jordan, and I left our flat for the last time at 10:00 PM and headed to Gatwick Airport. This involved taking the Tube several stops and tube station run-throughs to Victoria station in order to catch the Southern train lines to Gatwick. We didn't have tickets at the time and the automatic "do-it-yourself" machines wouldn't take our cards so Kaity stood in the slowest que and the only que to get tickets. The guy gave her a whole lot of trouble and for no real reason. Both Kaity and I got upset but suspected that it was because it was late and that we were Americans that he had the right to be rude. Oh well. It happens. But we got the tickets and borded the 11:30 train to the station. By this point, we were all tired but ready to take on an adventure, the likes of which none of us had ever gone on. It was exciting, to be sure, but first we had to get out of London.
We got to the train station and there is no one in any kiosk to let us check our bags, so we lug them all upstairs to the food section of the airport and look for a comfortable spot to rest until our 6:50 AM flight. We found a bench at Cafe Nero, which was open 24 hours a day and for which Kaity was eternally grateful (since she loves coffee, almost more than anything else) and set our stuff down just to wait. Apparently, there had been a strike at the airport into which we were flying and spent about 2 hours freaking out that our flight had been canceled, but for no reason. We flew out at 6:50 - the canceled flight left at 7:05. Thank goodness Kaity booked the ONLY non-canceled flight. I bet you're wondering where we were going, aren't you? Yeah, you are. :-)
Kaity and I watched Troy a bit before she decided to try and get some shut eye. I don't actually know if either Jordan or Kaity slept, but they said they didn't. I didn't sleep at all. I kept watch over the bags - mostly because I was paranoid that someone would take something since it is Europe and pickpockets are everywhere. But I busied myself with Snake, Bubble Breaker and Solitare - for 4 hours. Yay... There would be time to sleep later, when we got to our hostle in .... oh, I forgot. I'm not telling you yet.
Well, I "woke" up my two comrades in arms at 4 am and we went and got our luggage checked, went through security, and hung out in the shopping area until our platform number was announced. When we found that out, we walked to it - forever away, but still. Waited some more until we could board, hopped on the plane and settled in for a 4 hour flight to a totally different country. The only thing we were not excited about was the fact that there was NO leg room on the plane at all. My knees were bumping into the seat in front of me, and I have short legs. I felt bad for any tall person who was riding on the plane. We fly for a while and I get a bit of sleep, but not much since I have a hard time sleeping on planes. But I did wake up one time and see the tops of the Swiss Alps. Isn't that cool! Does that give you a hint as to where we were headed? South. What's south? you may ask.
We landed in a state of exhiliaration - we were totally in .... *sigh* When we pulled into the holding bay, we heard the familiar welcome we had become used to...in Italian. Yes we were in Italy. But there are so many places to go in Italy! Well, this happens to be the center of all things Roman.
Yeah, I know - I'm lame, but we were in Rome! I was so excited and so very grateful that our flight had not been canceled. I honestly don't know what we would have done. But no use in worrying about that anymore for we had arrived! It took us a while to get on the bus, since the airport is on the very outskirts of Rome, but we finally made it. What was supposed to take 25 minutes, took an hour and a half because the traffic in Rome is awful! There are too many cars. But since everytime Rome tries to build another line to their existing, but small Metro System they always run into more ancient Romans ruins and have to stop. *sigh* I guess it's the price you pay for living in such an old city. On the way to the hostel, we passed all kinds of old stuff - like palace ruins and aqueducts. As soon as I saw the aqueducts I started crying - ye olde softie am I - because I couldn't believe that these things were still around! They were over 2000 years old and still standing. Not they they were whole or anything, but most of them still stood and it was really cool to see something older than Jesus' birth still around. We finally got to our hostle, which was didn't think was in a good part of town, but over the next few days, it got better. We checked in and went out on the town since we weren't allowed to stay just yet (lock out was from 11 until 4 for cleaning). We just walked and guess what we found?? This:
Yep - we walked through a park and, BAM, there it was in all its Roman splendour. I about cried again (me and my historical pitifulness...oh, I love it) but I didn't. We decided we wanted to conquer the Colosseum, so we did. We got in the long que, went through security, and got our tickets. One thing about Europe - if you are a student, well, that's nice, but you have to be European citizen in order to get discounts most places. It would have helped at the Colosseum, since admission is 11 Euro, but I would have paid more than that to get inside. Just about everything I did during the next 17 days was something I had dreamed all my life of doing. Now, I was standing in the Colosseum - the epitomy of fire exits. We went inside and spent over an hour just meandering through it. It's not as big as the pictures make it out to be - therefore I was very surprised at how small it was. But it was really cool. It's all falling apart and has been patched with concrete to keep it together (which is sad, but who wants it to fall down?) but you can see the labyrinth below where the floor was. It's a bit hard to imagine what it would have looked like, at least for me, since you really can't tell where people are supposed to sit, but there are still the impossibly steep stairways haunting many a dark corner. We walked up one in order to get to the second level and realized why, in all Roman sculpture, every person has amazing gluets - it was because of those steep, tall staircases they had to climb up all the time. It was definitely a workout. After having come from London where there is nothing BUT steps, I thought I was ready for Roman steps - yeah, I was wrong. Not these Roman steps - they were killer. And don't try running down them either because you just might die. The steps themselves are tall and narrow - room for almost 3/4 of one's foot to tread and that's it. But since the Romans were not tall people, we can't harp too much on their lack of spacious stairways.
(stairway in Colosseum - but the picture doesn't give this stair justice)
I called my mom from the Colosseum and both she and my dad were so excited that I was standing there. I almost cried again - third time in a day. That's a bit sad. But who wouldn't when you're standing in the shadow of the great Colosseum. The sun started setting while we were still exploring this wonderful place (the sun starts setting at about 3 pm). I saw most of a sunset in the Colosseum and it was beautiful.
(see? Pretty!)
After that, we decided to head back to the hostel and get some sleep - besides, we had free dinner at 7 and we didn't want to miss that. So we headed back and rested in the hostel for a while, ate a dinner of pasta, met some of the other people staying in the hostel, and went to bed at about 10 since we were all wiped.
What a whirlwind first day, but one worth remembering forever.
I still had 17 days left in Europe and I wondered what they would all bring.
That's all for right now, guys. I still have unpacking to do and my room is a wreck. But I will have some more up about free travel when I can.
Ciao for now!
Aimee
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