My Spanish/Italian Adventures Part 2 with Limited Pictures

Hola, gente. It's Gina and I'm back, kinda. So I am currently at my school building right now with an hour to kill before I have to go watch two stupid movies for one excrutiatingly boring class and one I actually like. But I'm going to be here until 9 o'clock so that kind of stinks. Anyway, I figured I'd give you all a brief update on the other half of my trip with a few pictures I'm going to steal off Krista's facebook.

So, gentle readers, the last time I left you we were right about to embark on the most exciting and wonderful part of my journey: Marseilles. I was in Marseilles from 10:00 at night until 6:00 in the morning and that was enough for me. The French generally don't like Americans because of Iraq and the fact that we've had to save their butts multiple times in the world wars and what not. Plus, they're French and eat cheese and stuff. Yeah, I have no idea where I'm going with this.

At 10ish on Wednesday night, we arrived in Marseilles. The plan was to get a hotel for the night. Well, we came, we saw and we failed spectacularly. All the hotels near the airport were booked! Which meant that we had to stay there overnight, which made all of us sad and cranky and did not bode well for the day of Roman sightseeing we had previously planned. First things first, we got sandwiches at this place in the airport and I think they were making fun of me, but I don't know because I don't speak French. My knowledge of French comes from the TV so I know merci, bonjour and that's pretty much it. I'm pretty sure I told them gracias too. I kept getting languages mixed up in my head. So after eating we decided to find a nice place in the airport to crash. We head up these stairs where there's a big screen TV and some chairs so we decide to hang out there. A little while later, this woman with her two kids come, bringing with them an entire picnic, I kid you not. There were sleeping bags and a loaf of bread and all the essentials for a night spent in an airport. Krista, being the sociable person that she is, strikes up a conversation with the woman. It turns out that she's from Sweden, I think, the mother of 6 and that she and her children frequently sleep in airports. This night was their second night in this particular airport and she tells us how she takes one or two of her kids at a time to different places around Europe to see if it's worth taking the whole family there. It was actually pretty interesting and a little Bohemian and crazy.

Besides this nice family, these really annoying French guys come, turn on the TV and invade our space. At one point in the soccer game they were watching, one of the players got kicked right in the balls and it looked painful so I turned to Molly and said so, when the guy sitting next to me turned and looked at me and imitated my "Oh God," exclamation. I kind of just stared at him because I didn't know how to react. Considering this was essentially my only impression of French people, I basically never want to go back.

We ended up moving away from the rude French men and claimed our own little corner. I stretched out on some chairs and proceeded to fall asleep for a little while:



I slept a little and then woke up and one time I walk up my arm was like completely numb and my fingers wouldn't move at all. It was the weirdest feeling. No sensation whatsoever. No pins and needles, just numbness. But then I banged it against my leg a few times and all was well. Finally at like 4:00 in the morning we head over to our terminal and after waiting there for forever we finally got on our plane and left Marseilles! Wahoo!

When we got into the airport at Rome, none of us were really sure how to get to our hotel, which was supposed to be in a good location. Well, that was a blatant LIE! WE decided to take a city bus and then a metro and apparently pray to God that we somehow make it there alive without getting pickpocketed by gyspies holding babies to their breasts with fake arms, you know normal concerns. Well we get on this metro and have to go like 20 stops until we get the one we think we want. Surprise, surprise that was wrong too. Mind you, there are some many people on this subway we can hardly move and we have suitcases. So we're in the middle of Rome, no idea where we are or how to get to our hotel and Krista and Molly are bickering at each other and I'm barely holding it together and we're all hunger and tired and carrying out suitcases and dear God, somebody help us.

After walking around for another half hour or so, trying to find a bus that will take us to our hotel and communicating with a man that speaks like zero English, we decide that we'd just take a cab the rest of the way, because that'll be easier right? Oh, our naive ideas about Roman taxis. Apparently, you just can't wave one down because we tried really hard. After the third taxi went by us shaking his head, we found this Best Western and went inside and asked them to call us a taxi and they did, God bless them. I don't even know what we looked like then. We were all peed off at each other and miserable and they had mercy on our poor depraved souls. After waiting for like 15 minutes, the cab comes and we get in and we notice that the meter is already up to 12 euros because they start the meter when they come and get you. But at this point, we really didn't care so the man got us to our hotel which was 5 miles outside of the city itself and we go to check in.

Now, we had booked this hotel online through lastminute.com. This is NOT an endorsement. Avoid lastminute.com like it is the freaking bubonic plague. Stupid liars. The woman at the desk tells us that we only booked a room for 2 people when we our confirmation says 3 and then tells us that we have to pay an extra 15 euros a night. I've absolutely had it at this point so I'm a little abrupt and annoyed and I say to her, "Okay, explain to me why we have to pay for an extra bed when our confirmation says 3 people not 2." She says that the hotel only has a reservation for 2 not 3 and then a manager is involved and it all gets complicated and we end up having to pay the money. Then we find out that the continental breakfast were supposed to have is a LIE and the free internet were supposed to get is a LIE too. So thanks a lot lastminute.com you piece of LYING crap . . .

Now that I've taken a valium and calmed down a little, I'll try and tell you about the rest of that first day.

One thing lastminute.com didn't lie about was the free shuttle to the city. Unfortunately by the time we got to our hotel, after like 3 hours of trying to get there, all the shuttles for the day had left so we decide to try and take a bus. We figure that you just pay when you get on. Um, yeah, not so much. So we get on the bus ILLEGALLY and I'm praying to God that we don't get stopped. Meanwhile, we're on a bus full of priests and they keep talking to this one girl sitting in front of us next to Molly. As we get into the city, I ask Molly if she knows where to get off and she looks at me like, "Yeah, right" and I just think, "Well, isn't this just splendid." Then the girl in front of us turns and asks us if we want to go to the Vatican to which we said "Yes, yes, help us, HELP us!" And help us she did. Not only did she tell us when to get off, but when we asked her for a good place to eat she took us to this cute little Italian restaurant across from her apartment which she said had the best pizza in Italy. And it was delicious and cheap and the people in restaurant were so friendly and you felt like you were welcomed into this big Italian family with pizza and niceness and it totally turned our whole day around!

Before, I was grumpy and miserable, but after I looked like this!!!



Okay, well I've got to go now. Hopefully I'll be back soon with our sightseeing and more pictures.

Shout out to my little cousin Courtney whose mean old father Uncle Wee Wee broke her ankle in TWO places! Poor thing. Get well soon, sweetie! Do you like chocolate? I can send you a care package full of Cadbury chocolate. the best stuff ever! And make sure you milk this for all it's worth. In the future, if your dad gets mad at you, just looked down atyour ankle and make a pained expression and you'll get anything you want.

Also, a little roommate rant here. Someone keeps eating my food. It is annoying and frustrating and when I find out who it is I can be held responsible for my actions. Case in point, last night I packed a plastic baggie with cookies and pretzels and put it in my cabinet. When I went to eat it at lunch, my two strawberry jam cream cookies were GONE! EATEN by a thief in the night. Okay, who does that? Grrrr, and it's not the first time.

Alright, rant over for now. Bye!

Countdown until Mom, Gramma, and Larry come: t-minus 13 days