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Published: June 27th 2009
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The last few days have been way too hective to properly post, but I've got so many pages backed up in my journal that I really need to get all my thoughts online.
So I eventually made it into Rome, albeit fourteen hours later than planned. The one good thing that came of this delay was that my flight left Austin about 45 minutes before my roommate Michelle's flight from Ohio got in, so we got to meet up at the airport for a drink. It probably shouldn't have been a full drink though, because I ended up having to run to the gate before they closed the door to the jetway, but luckily I just made it. Oops.
We made it to Chicago okay, but then my flight from Chicago was delayed a couple of hours, so by the time we landed at Heathrow, I only had about 45 minutes to catch my flight to Rome. Under normal circumstances, this would have been okay, but I had to change terminals, which is a big production at Heathrow. After running to the terminal and going through security again, where the security guy said my travel-size contact solution bottle wasn't travel-size enough and threatened to charge me 150 Euros unless I threw it out, my flight was already gone.
I ended up having to take a flight from Heathrow to Milan and then on to Rome, instead of my original direct flight. My flight to Milan was, of course, delayed, but after that, things started to go my way. The British Airways flight to Milan had a vegetarian option, and I reached Milan with plenty of time to catch my flight to Rome, and even to call the hostel in Rome and make sure my reservation was still good. I shudder to think how much the credit-card phone at the airport cost me, but the peace of mind was worth it. In fact, other than an overzealous automatic flusher that flushed no less than nine times while I was on it, everything in Milan went very well.
Eventually, I made it to Rome, and caught the train from the airport to Termini station in the city. The directions to my hostel were from the metro station one stop south of Termini, but when I reached Termini, I decided just to try walking to the hostel from there. As soon as I stepped outside though, I realized how bad it would be if I got lost in an unfamiliar city on my first night.
I went back in to the Termini metro station and found the automatic ticket machine, navigated through the screens, and stuck in a Euro, but nothing resembling a ticket came out. I looked around at the people using other machines to see how they did it, but no luck. It was at this point that I realized just how alone I was. I was going to have to either figure this out myself, or find somebody who knew enough English or hand gestures to help me. Luckily, it turned out the ticket had just taken a few seconds to print out, so when I went back to the machine and stuck my hand in the receptacle, it was there.
I took the metro to Cavour station, and after a quick walk, reached the hostel. I hit the button on the intercom and the guy buzzed me in, but when I pulled on the door, it didn't budge. I stood there for a good ninety seconds, with the guy at the desk re-buzzing me in, unable to figure out how to open the door. At one point, an old man walking behind me actually lauged at me. Finally, I gave pushing a try, and the door opened right up.
The hostel was just a narrow room with a guy at a desk, a few computers for guest use, and doors leading off to various other rooms. I got my room assignment, threw my backpack on my bed, and went into the kitchen to get some water.
I thought everyone would be out or asleep, since it was about 11:30 pm by this point, but the kitchen was full of people playing some card game I'd never seen before and drinking beer and cheap wine. This was my first test to see if I was going to be able to handle travelling alone and meeting people for the next three weeks. I sat down and watched, and for a few minutes it was pretty awkward.
Eventually though, I gathered the nerve to strike up a conversation with one of the guys, and after that I ended up joining the game. The girls turned out to be from the US, while the guys were from various places in Europe and South America. We ended up playing for a while, then one of the guys, who actually worked at the hostel, took us to a fountain in a small square a couple blocks from the hostel. The fountain seemed to be a gathering spot for local young people to sit around and drink or smoke, thanks to the lack of open container laws.
It ended up being a pretty fun first night, and I think I definitely passed my first test.
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