27 Hours to Rome
So, let me preface this post (the first one of the trip) with that fact that I have had VERY little sleep in the past 40 hours and some of these accounts could very well be sleep-deprived hallucinations. Matters not, this is HOW I experienced the “trip” to Italy.
March 21st
1:48am PST – Redmond WA, USA
I wake up after about 3 ½ hours of sleep and there is no way I’m going back to sleep. Action: get up, turn on MSNBC’s Morning Joe & take to yoga moves. Around 3:45am, I move to the bathroom, dress & start to get ready to move! Scott & leave the house at 4:30am for SEATAC and surprisingly find a lot of cars on the road. Nonetheless, we’re at the airport in less than 40 minutes. I hug & kiss him goodbye and he leaves me at the curb with my “what I deem to be very manageable” luggage (all 4 pieces of it)! **Yes, for all of you that I told I was “traveling light” – I lied!
5:25am PST – SEACTAC, USA
I’m through security (gotta love TSA’s Pre-Check) and trying to find some food, since I’ve been up for 3 ½ hours and haven’t had anything to eat. For me, to have forgotten to bring anything but some energy bars & dark chocolate, is crazy & somewhat perplexing. I go on the hunt for protein! At 6:20am – Alaska begins to board (down the steps, onto the open rainy tarmac & up the wet staircase) for the flight to Portland. We leave 5 minutes ahead of schedule . . and the journey begins.
7:50am PST – Portland, OR USA
Another outside, rainy disembarking on the Portland tarmac, up a bunch of stairs and I’m in search of the gate for my next flight – cause I only have a 40 minute layover. **Sorry, Kim, I was going to text & say good morning – but the call of a potty break took precedence! I quickly board the flight for the next leg which will take me to Dallas. Almost everyone is aboard and I think I’ve lucked out pretty good because there’s no one in the window seat & a nice lady who’s planning to move over from her middle seat – when this brother & sister board the plane. The boy is very much in the “take care of your sister mode”. I was very impressed at how take charge & mature he was - and asks if the lady in the middle seat would be willing to trade with him – so he & his sister can sit together. So my seat mates turn out to be a 17 year old brother and his 10 year old half sister. His father was a missionary and they’ve lived all over the world (most of the exotic places were when he was a baby – so he doesn’t really remember – has just heard the stories). They have the same mother – but different fathers – and they both live in Dallas (and their mother is in Eugene, OR – I’m sure there’s more to “that” story – but I didn’t ask!!). They were SO excited that I was going to Italy “for fun” and that I was practicing the language AND that I was going to be there for Easter and see the procession (these are afterall, kids of missionaries – so not surprising I guess that the religious holiday would be the high point of the discussion for them). Anyway, they were charming & so curious & so polite & so friendly. . . I kind of thought I was traveling with Alex & Sienna.
2:20pm CT – Dallas, TX
We arrive a few minutes behind schedule, but no worries, I’ve got 3 hours to kill. I asked the gate agent where my connection would be and in “very thick Mexican accented English” she tells me to take the train to D34. I get on the train & go to the next stop and go to the gate but no one’s there and the flight isn’t posted. So, I find another gate agent who tells me that I need to go to E34 (see the hallucinations are starting) so I jump back on the trainAll this on & off of escalators & trains AND dragging all that luggage around and a hot flash is coming on fast! About that time, I realize that the 84 degree, sunny weather in Dallas coupled with my “running around” to find my gate is NOT a good combination of activities for me – ESPECIALLY when I begin to smell myself and recall kicks in that I DID NOT PUT ANY DEODARANT ON this morning when I got dressed. Really?!?! So I run into the bathroom & put some on – but frankly it’s a little late!! Oh well . . . sorry international seat mates.
We finally start to board and I realize my boarding pass doesn’t have a zone # for loading. I go up to the counter and the agent says, where have you been, we’ve paged you 4 times (did I mention he also spoke a very thinkly accented South American English and I had to ask him to repeat himself twice)? I asked if they’d given away my seat – thank God, they did not. He must have taken some pity on me because I found myself boarding with the priority people. Turns out when you sit in the VERY BACK, they really just want to get you out of the way 😊. So I get all settled in a nice, aisle seat 2 rows from the back and a nice, elderly English guy even helps me put my luggage up in the overhead. No one comes to sit in the last 2 rows and apparently they’re holding them for the flight attendants’ breaks (more on that later). However, the flight is pretty light – meaning not all the seats are full – and the flight attendants start actively working on getting things balanced & people spread out. Long story short, they ask me to move to the very back row so 2 people that are sitting together could have the 3 seats in the middle that I would have had to myself. I ended up with a very delightful 60-something woman who retired in Hawaii – but was traveling to Spain to spend 2 months looking at & studying art – pretty cool & somewhat inspiring that others are doing the “gotta travel” thing!
The Boeing 787 is a very impressive plane indeed! During loading one of the flight attendants shooed a passenger away from the back galley saying that the bathrooms were in the middle. So, my seat mate & I spent the flight telling people who came back looking for the bathroom that they needed to go up front. Turns out – there was a bathroom right behind us – but we managed to keep it much to ourselves and avoid that “smelly overused” state that so often accompanies those back seats!!!
I slept maybe 3 hours off & on – and finally gave up about 2 hours before we landed. (It didn’t help that two of the male flight attendants decided to sit in those reserved seats behind the center row that I’d been in originally- and turn on their overhead lights & begin to have a lengthy discussion on what they do when they’re not flying.) I decided to do my morning mediation (as it was morning in Europe by now and I had already adjusted my watch) only to have a boxed breakfast of sugary carbs slapped down on my tray table & one of the male attendants (yes, one of the aforementioned ones) interrupting me with “what would you like to drink?”. I opened my eyes, smiled and said “hot tea please” and went right back to mediating. All good . . I’m on my way to Italy after all!!
But the way, it’s NOW March 22 – at least where I AM!
9:00am local time – Madrid, Spain
We land at what IS UNDOUBTEDLY the largest airport that I’ve ever been to – and that even includes Heathrow. I have never walked so much in my life . . and of course, I’ve still got all that luggage in tow. The walk to customs was at least 7 minutes, but at least customs was a piece of cake. Despite my best & most friendly “Buenos Dias” – I didn’t even get a hello from the dude, he just stamped my passport& handed it back. Another 10 minutes and I finally arrive at baggage claim & wait about 20 more minutes for the bags to start coming up. (btw – I had stopped to ask which terminal to go to for my last flight – Alitalia – and was told to take the bus to Terminal 2) I finally see my bag (I checked one – carried 3) and grab it, consolidate some stuff in prep for security check point and start to make my way to the exit. A nice gal stops me to ask if I need a taxi or gate connection information and I tell her I’m going to Alitalia in Terminal 2. She asks if it’s international and I say, "no, domestic to Rome". She looks at my boarding pass and confirms that I really must go to terminal 1, not 2. Error obverted – thank goodness!
After boarding the bus, we seriously drove for about 5 miles & 10 minutes – did I mention I started at Terminal 4? I follow the crowd and they enter a door that leads us back to the area where we were dropped off originally (more unnecessary movement) and then I finally find the escalator to check in (easy). Security check point was easy with help of nice TSA-equivalent gal that “had to feel me up” – as the sensors went off with all the metal in my hips. Then I walked another 15 minutes to get to the very last gate in Terminal 1. (Note that this airport actually has posted times on all signs that tell you how long it should take you to move / walk to your gate. Mine said, 17 minutes, so I think I did pretty well.
Flight is delayed – but pilots make up some time. I’m barely awake at this point, as I’m on like hour 25 of this trip!
Note to self - and clarification for all of you . .
I SUCK at remembering to take pictures - but I finally remember this as I arrive at Madrid's baggage claim area and realize - THIS IS A REALLY COOL PLACE. So here you go - Baggage Claim in Terminal 4 in Madrid. The picture of the chairs actually has MADRID incorporated for proof - but honestly, I really took that picture for my niece, Lindsey, she would love these chairs!
2:10pm local time – Rome Airport, Italy
We touch down and quickly (and I mean quickly) drive to the gate. Except, it’s not a gate, it’s another set of stairs and there are buses at the bottom waiting to take you to the actual gate . . and more walking to get to baggage claim (another 15 minutes of walking!). Takes about 10 minutes for bag to come up & I know I have to walk to the airport hotel – but first I have to go up 3 floors to the walkway. I follow the signs and after about 15 minutes finally arrive at the hotel. The young guy that checks me in is charming & so cute. He tells me he just split with his girlfriend and I ask “was that a good thing?”, he assures me it was – as she is just “too young & doesn’t take me seriously”. I say you’re too young to be serious and get married and he asks how old I think he is. In my best broken Italian, I say “you’re probably trentadue (32), but look venticinque (25)”. He laughs and says, your pronunciation is beautiful & yes, I’m 25!
3:05pm local time – Rome Airport Hilton Hotel, Italy
So I’m finally in my room. I’ve been traveling for close to 27 hours and up for over 29 (with a few hours of broken dozing) and I am exhausted. I’m punchy and smelly and I just want a nap. So I splash water on my face, clean up using the bidet (first time – could kind of get used to one. . Scott, make note for new house!) and crawl into bed for a 3 hour nap.
5:17pm & my phone buzzes and I’m wide awake. I stay in bed for another hour watching the horror of London terrorist attack and think about my girlfriend Sherine, who’s landing in London about now to jump on a flight and meet me in Italy. I spend another hour or so repacking my stuff to make it more manageable and consider shipping some home (or just throwing stuff away!!). I get re-dressed and decide to find something to eat. I opt for the café over the formal restaurant and have a wonderful first meal in Italy (see subsequent post). A hot bath in a big tub and a rain showerhead bring me back to smelling nice and now I sit here waiting for Sherine to arrive and typing this post.
So this is what 27 hours of travel looks like! Oh, and did I fail to mention that this leg of the trip cost a mere 20,000 miles & $19??? SO REALLY - who cares - I’m in Italy!!!
