Well that is one way to travel...

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A simple train ride, underground trip, another train ride, a plane to Rome, and then a taxi to the hotel. Should be easy enough....



If we survived this weekend in Rome, Danika and I will be able to travel anywhere with no problems. The day started early in the morning at 9 am since we did not have classes this particular Thursday. We headed on our first train which was delayed already by 5 min. This caused the next train we had to get on to be delayed by an extra 10 minutes. This train was already going slow enough that we became nervous for our next train switch. It had finally hit the time for our next train to leave the stations and we were not even on the underground yet. When we finally reached the underground and bought our tickets we hopped on the underground to head to the next train station.

When we arrived we talked to one of the workers to ask when the next train that would go to the airport would arrive. He told us in 5 minutes but that the train was canceled so the next one would not be here for another 20 minutes. We had an hour to get to the airport now instead of the 2 that we were supposed to have. He said if we catch the next train we would be able to make it to the airport around 1, which was good news and bad news. The gates of our plane closed at 1:15. We jumped on the train and luckily it was moving much faster.

We arrived at the airport at 12:55 and began to briskly walk. Security was a breeze to get through so we were not delayed more than we expected. We then found our gate number and started our brisk walking again. We were able to reach our gate at 1:10 which was as soon as it began actually boarding the passengers. As we waited in line, we noticed on our boarding pass that before we reached security we had to have our pass stamped. As soon as we reached the boarding pass the flight attendants said we could not board unless it was stamped. They said customer service was opened at the end of the long hall. If we came back with it stamped before the gate was closed in 5 minutes then we could get on. We RAN to the customer service where the lady lectured us which we definitely did not have time for. We then RAN back to the gate where they took our tickets and literally closed the gates right after us.

We finally could breathe as we walked through the rain to board the plane. RyanAir does not have assigned seating so we had to squeeze in between two people. The flight was only an hour and a half but felt like forever. As soon as we arrived we were so excited to walk into the warm sunny Rome weather. We finally made it but could not get to excited because we had to find our hotel next.

We asked a travel correspondent what would be the easiest way to get to our hotel. All she said was taxi. So we walked outside to find a taxi driver who approached us asking if we needed his help. We told him where we wanted to go and all he did was laugh and said that's outside of town. We got in the taxi where he continued to laugh and talk Italian jumble. Italian drivers are the worst drivers in the world. No one cared what the lines on the roads meant or that the cars in front of them were in sitting traffic. They were all determined to get around even if it meant using the median. Danika and I sat back quietly with wide eyes trying to hold on the to door handles. We finally made it to the hotel where we ran inside to find a safe bed. We were so happy to finally be in Rome and we were not looking forward to finding out way back to Harlaxton on Sunday.

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