Are we in Rome yet?!

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April 3, 2008

Finally, time for ROME! After waking up at the right time, because earlier in the morning I woke up because I was so excited to leave, I got ready, packed some last minute things, ate breakfast, and headed to meet Katie to take the city buses- my first time. As soon as Katie got there, the bus arrived and dropped us off close to where we would catch the bus to the airport. The airport buses run on: 45s and: 15s, but the 10:15 never showed. Thankfully the 10:45 came so we wouldn’t have to take a super expensive taxi! We went to the airport, checked in, and went through security before going to our gate. We left Sevilla for Madrid, and arrived an hour later.

Once we got to Madrid, we saw our gate was “M” and we headed there. Well, “M” has NOTHING! I needed to find an ATM, and we wanted food because we were starving. The people at the airport said “R, S, U” would have something. We went there and found nothing. So we asked again, and the lady said we had to go to “H, J, K.” This meant riding the tram back there (that was where we arrived) and going through security again. Finally we made it to “H, J, K”, found a cajero (ATM) and McDonald’s. My McPollo was so good! We eventually learned for sure that we were at Gate M 28, so we took the tram back to “M” (3rd time!) and waited for our plane.

The fun didn’t seem to end in Madrid. Our directions to the hostel told us to take a city bus. After someone told us where to find it, we found an empty bus. Then we learned we had to buy tickets inside. The “Drugstore” that was supposed to have the tickers, didn’t. We made friends with an Italian guy who helped us figure things out- or so we thought. We were told we could buy the tickets on the bus, so when our bus finally came we stared talking to the driver, and he said we should buy them inside because they were only 1.20 euro versus his 7 euro on the bus buying. We had 20 minutes til the bus left, so we went looking again. We went back inside where he told us to go. That sales guy told us to go to the tobacco store. Again, no luck, but to go to a different tobacco store in Terminal C. So we were running out of time and getting frustrated that no one had the tickets. We figured out we had to go up two flights to C. We asked another sales guy, and he said to go to the railway station. We only had about 5 minutes, so we were running with our luggage. Finally, someone had tickets, and we started running back hoping we could get there on time. We thought we were on the right level, but we had to go down one more still. We went down the elevator to the main level, figured out where we were in relation to the bus, since we knew from being around that area so much, saw our bus and ran some more making sure we got on before it left.

We were on the bus for a little but, and then we had to get on another one. This one dropped us off close to the hostel, but since we didn’t know where we were going, we were really confused. We asked an older mad if he knew the street, but he didn’t have his glasses so he couldn’t see. We told him the street, and he finally figured out where it was and started giving us directions- in Italian! When he started pointing, we figured it out and went to the hostel. The hostel was really big and nice.

Katie and I were starving at this point, so we asked where we should go eat. They called the restaurant making sure it was open, and told them we would be coming. We went to Al Pontile da Marco, a local Italian restaurant. Katie had fettuccini, and I had spaghetti. It was so good, especially since I never have it here. For dessert, we had strawberries with sugar and whipped cream- HEAVEN! We made our way back to our hostel to relax before our big day tomorrow.

Public Transportation Count: Buses: 4

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