Ciao Roma!

We finally made it to Rome! :D

So this trip is, so far, the craziest I’ve ever been on. Our day started off with Thacker picking us up from my house and driving us to LAX. Thanks again, Thacker! =) Checked our bags in, which were a pound or two over the Contiki limit (meaning we gotta take our pea coats out, haha)…went through security check…then finally boarded the plane. Yay for sleep deprived travelers! The flight from LAX to NYC wasn’t too bad, hit a few instances of turbulence now and then, but nothing too major.

Arriving at JFK five minutes early was nothing, since it took nearly 20 to get off the plane. Our itinerary said we had about 40 minutes from the time of landing to the time of our flight from JFK to London Heathrow, so we had to seriously haul ass from one terminal to another. At one point I freaked out because Chris took off with my purse, thinking that would give me one less thing to worry about, but that ended up scaring the hell out of me…gah! We got to the gate at final call, thankful that we actually made it…and then it turns out that there was a fatty delay! Haha oh man…gotta love international travel. Flight to London was pretty good; National Treasure was one of the in-flight movies, and Chris got excited because they served chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner, haha! =P Then, as we’re approaching London, the pilot tells us there’s gonna be a delay because of heavy air traffic, so we circled for what seemed to be FOREVER. Of course, this threw off everyone’s connecting schedules, so we were all booked on other airlines and whatnot. Originally, we were supposed to fly British Airways on the leg from London to Rome, then we found out that I would be flying BA and Chris would be flying Alitalia…boooo there goes the excitement! But upon re-checking in, we were both actually ended up on Alitalia…which scared us because we read some bad reviews. =\

We had a few hours to kill in London, so we got food and wandered around for a bit, looking for phone cards to call home. Ditched the phone card idea because rates were ridiculous! Finally settled on emailing people and blogging (although I couldn’t log in to my xanga because apparently it had “inappropriate content”…like what, I said the British keyboard sucks?!)…and mailing postcards to our parents. Oh funny thing about buying stuff at the little shop…I usually read Cosmo or other girly magazines, but the nerd in me came out when I saw the front cover for The Economist…because it reminded me of my Econ169 class! HAHA oh geez…I got sad because that was one of the best classes I’d ever taken at UCI. *tear*

Our flight was supposed to be at 12:15, then delayed to 12:55, then to 12:35, then finally 1pm. Went to the gate as soon as we found out what it was, boarded the plane, and sat there for about an hour and a half. 1pm take off time, my arse! We didn’t end up in the air until 2pm! It’s okay though, we made it to Rome! It was like landing in the Philippines when we landed in Rome…people started clapping! =P We deplaned and took a shuttle bus to the terminal, claimed our bags (and for some odd reason, mine was warped), and waited for the Contiki driver to pick us up. We met another person on the tour named Denise, but we’re all probably gonna hang out tomorrow when the tour starts since we’re all pooped.

All in all, this day (or two) was nuts. The risk of our bags getting lost was so high: two connecting flights, delays, being rerouted to a completely different airline…but yanno, that’s the fun in international travel (and travel in general). You never know what’s gonna happen, and through it all, you just have to manage to keep your cool and not freak out. Although I was a bit cranky from lack of sleep. =P

So now…I’m very tired. After being in planes and airports for literally 24 hours, my body is exhausted…it’s not even the fact that I’m sleepy, but my body is has literally been running without rest for nearly 48 hours. I feel like Jack Bauer! =P It’s crazy hearing Italian all around us and actually somewhat understanding it. Yaaaaaay!

Oh, and if you guys wanna call, my cell number here is 011-39-339-25-9072 (when calling from the States). Ciao! =)