Day 5 - London, England to Rome, Italy

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Tuesday August 22nd, 2006
Day 5
London, England to Rome, Italy

Today I was up at 6:30am. I had to leave a bit of stuff behind at Nick’s place as I didn't want to be taking 15kgs of stuff to Rome and Paris. I had to catch the tube to Liverpool Street Station (yes, the one from Monopoly) and then another train that goes directly to Stanstead Airport.
The trip to the airport was about 35minutes so I arrived at the airport at 9:45am.; over an hour before I could even check-in my luggage. Oh well, better early that late. After sitting listening to my iPod for an hour I checked-in my luggage and made my way to the gate to go through security. As there was a terrorist threat only a few weeks earlier they were very thorough; they made us put all of our belongings in tubs, even my thongs / flip flops, then I had to walk through the x-ray machine and get patted down.
I arrived at Rome Ciampino Airport just under 2 hours later. It was a very small airport, I think with just 3 departure and arrival gates.
There was a guy on the plane that was sitting next to me that asked if I wanted to share a cab with him into Rome City, I politely declined and got the Terravision shuttle bus from outside the airport which went straight to Rome Termini (main train station). The trip took about 35minutes and it was only €13.50 for a return ticket.
Upon arrival at the termini, I found that my hostel, M&J Hostel, is literally only 50metres away from the shuttle bus drop-off point. Very convenient indeed.
After getting settled in at M&Js I went for a short walk to try and find some sunglasses to buy as I accidentally left mine at Nick's place. While walking I came across the Piazza de Republica. I found some sunglasses to buy at a little street stall and after a little more of a walk around I made my way back to the hostel. I was starting to wonder what an earth I was doing travelling to a country of which I didn't speak the language of. It was at this point I decided that I would cut my next flight to Paris out of my trip. This was my first big trip away from home, and I was stupid to think I would be able to do it al. After changing some flights around I came across two guys in the room opposite mine, they were from New Zealand (pretty much the first English speaking people I had come across).
Troy and Grant were just getting ready to head out on a pub crawl and after speaking to them for only a few minutes they asked me if I cared to join them...why not?! When in Rome.
We left from outside the Colosseum and went to four of five different pubs. We had drinks included and got a free t-shirt to wear. I believe we ended up getting back to the hostel at about 3:30am.

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