Coming Home {Epilogue}

I woke up at 3:40 am.  I couldn’t sleep, when I did it was very difficult to sleep.  So I got up and checked out to get back to Terminal 5.  I had to wait till 5 AM for the trams to start running so I could get to Terminal 3.

Ugh!

So I hung around the benches for a little bit.  Realizing that I still had some pounds on me from my Ireland trip, I bought some coffee.

When the time came I got onto the Heathrow express to terminal 3.  But first I met an Indian couple who told me about how they got kicked out last night trying to sleep in the airport.  the airports are afraid people will do something dangerous.  Lame.

I might have slept outside, well sit on the curb for a couple hours, but then I would have probably gotten into trouble.  In any case, I got to terminal 3.  Checked in and went through security really fast.  I had to wait till American Airlines 099 to fly home at 6:50 AM.  I still had some pounds left over, so I bought a bagel breakfast with my remaining pounds.

It took a while for my gate number to show up and when it did, I was bolting towards my plane!  It was a good 30 minute walk from the waiting room to the gate… holy crap!  By the time I got to the gate I had to go through another security check in and then a body search.  what?  I thought I already gotten through security!  They scoped my shoes, my gear, and did a quick body search.  Like I could bring anything dangerous on me while being in the airport.

7:20 rolled around and we boarded the airline.  A Boeing 777!  It was huge!  It made me really want to fly in a Boeing 787!  I had the window seat again, but at least this time the seatmate wasn’t huge. My flight was towards Chicago- AA’s hub.

During the flight, I watched Bride Wars.  I know wedding planning is crazy and all, but this made light of the planning.  It was also kind of scary in a way.  People go through lots of lengths in their planning and sometimes turn into bridezillas…

When I made it to Chicago I went through customs and then boarded my next plane to Newark.

By the time I made it home, it was 7 pm.

My adventure to Italy was over, ups and downs, it was a great experience and awesome adventure!

Arrivederci, Italy! {Day 15}

I was really gasy this morning.  I don’t know why!

I woke up at 7:50 am to brush, use the facilities, and pack my gear.  I had to leave Italy today.  Today sucks!  I had some breakfast and sent an email to my family that I was getting ready to leave Italy.

I headed out with Jason, who was leaving for Florence, to Termini.  At the self-service booths we parted ways and made our merry way to our respected trains.  I had to go to Leonardo Express to get to the Fumicino Airport, with my flight being at 1:05 today there was no point in dilly dallying.

Douche bags acted like they were service people when they “helped” people bring their luggage out and then holding out their hands for tips.  They tried that to me, but I just walked on without their “help.”

When I got to the airport, it was about 10:20 am and had to go find British Airways port.  There was a fairly large line of people checking in.  When I got to the booth, this really nice lady booked me in and I spotted that she has two different eye colors!  WHOA!  It was blue and brown!

I smiled and said thank you and went on my way to the security check in when she ran up to me asked if I wanted my luggage to go all the way to Newark or to London where my layover was.  I chose Newark.

Going through security, I went to buy some lunch.  And then some keychains as I remembered to buy some souvenirs.

I walked to my terminal, to write in my journal only to think that I need new reading material.  What to read…  I went to the book store and looked around.  Looked and looked, and figured, Under the Tuscan Sun might be a nice read send off.

My quick fix to my broken camera bag.

Having read some of the first parts of the book, I could totally see myself living in Tuscany!

1:05 pm

Time to board my flight.

Ciao, Italy!!

In the air, the BA stewardesses started to hand out sandwiches.  Being a vegetarian, one of the stewardesses ran back to get me a cheese sandwich!  That was really nice of her! 

And then the trouble came.  I arrived at Heathrow 5 and went through customs, which took about 50 minutes to go through.  The trouble came as I was going to be here for a day.

So my task was to look for a hotel.  Well at first I wanted to just sleep in the hotel, or rather just stay over night and not sleep.  Just like when I was in thailand, I wanted to just stay over night.  But apparently I was told that I could not because Heathrow closes at 11 pm and re opens at 4 am.  So I went to one of the booths to find a hotel.  There was only one hotel in the airport and the rest were pretty far from the airport for my really early flight tomorrow.  And the price for the hotel that I got was 200 or something pounds.  Fuck.

I really should have chose a flight without this crazy layover!  When I first planned this out, I thought I could go into London to hang out with a friend and then come back, but that didn’t work as the request went ignored.  Oh well, part of the adventure, Eric would tell me.

I ended up staying inside the hotel room, not eating anything and watching old music videos.

Swimming in Sperlonga {Day 14}

The last full day in Italy has arrived.  Do I sleep in, relax and chill or do I explore one last time?

I went to eat breakfast and then headed off not knowing what I would do for today.  I went to the Termini station to see what I could do around Rome.  Sperlonga?  According to Lonely Planet Sperlonga was a beach village.  That sounds nice!  Too bad i don’t have any swimming clothes.

When got to Sperlonga, the bus was filled to the brim.  Like a bus in Rome!  It took some time for the bus to get to the first stop, which was where we all dispersed from the bus.

The water was clear and clean!  I took my shoes off and walked in, but not too far in as I didn’t have extra clothes and my camera would be very exposed.  So I hiked around the town.  It was like an endless resort town.  So I went up and down hills of beach and walkways.  Boredom has crept in.

By 1 pm I was at the top and decided to go look for the bus stop.  Which to my discovery were none.  At least posted.  I had to explore around to find the stop for the return trip so I found someone who told me where it was.  In front of the supermarket and I just missed the bus.

Crap!

So I waited around for the bus to come.  Which came by 2 pm.  When I got to the train station, the actual place to buy the ticket was at a tobacco shop right at the waiting booth.  argh.

I got back to Termini at 3 pm and went back to the hostel to relax.  Meanwhile I charged my gear and rested up.  I went back out to get a slab of pizza for a snack.  I love how Italy sells pizza by the weight!  I got a whole ton of pizza!

At 6:30 I went to this place called Mama angela’s to eat for dinner.  The place was really elegant, but the staff was a joke.  They horsed around a lot and took forever with the meals.

I met my mystery roommates who kicked me the previous night, Andrea and Sean from California.  We chatted for a little while with Jason, a Canadian.

By 9 pm we departed and I was off to bed.

Into the Ruins {Day 13}

I woke up several times in the  morning, one was when an attendant rushed into my room to get some signatures from two people who came in late late last night.  Then one of them kicked me from under the bed, I am on a bunk bed.  Second time was when Cody started to snore, and then I had to take a crap.  As soon as I finished I saw one of them up and I went back to bed cause I needed to sleep.  Chris was mumbling stories about the pub crawl from the previous night.

Argh!

I went to go eat breakfast before heading out to Ostia Antica.  I saw a cute redhead in the morning.  At least my morning was saved.  Breakfast was still weird cereal with what seems to be real fresh milk and bread.  I went back to my room to get my camera and day pack.

I went back to Termini to check out if I could do a day trip to Positano.  Too expensive and it would be one heck of a train ride for a day trip!  So Ostia Antica it is!

And … then I got lost again.  I went towards the Palentino stop, which was towards the right of where I got off instead of going to the left.  I got so far out that I had to take the bus back to where I got out from!

hmm..

so when I got back, I took the left instead and made it to the transfer station to Ostia Antica.

I went around Ostia Antica checking out the ruins, climbing on the fallen stone, getting lots (as usual) and checking out all the cool rubble.

By 2 pm, I headed back to the hostel.  I haven’t been staying out long this time around at the sites that I visit because I am really exhausted.  So when I got back, I bought some bread, cheese, bananas, water, and guinness.

When I got to my room, I had my hands full and pulled out my room card and my credit cards fell to the ground without me knowing.  So when I got to the table to eat, I was about to put my United Chase card away when I saw that my debit card was gone!  OH Crap!!  I got up and prepared to go back to the grocery store when I saw them on the floor.  Whew!

I started to eat again when my roommates came in, Robert and Danners came in first.  All from Texas, they came into visit Robert who was studying abroad in Barcelona.

Then Jeff, Brian, and another friend of theirs walked in.  They all seem like fun bunch to talk to, but they all went straight to shower and to bed.  They just came out from the train from Germany.

The notion to return to Florence kept popping up in my mind, but I didn’t want to spend more money on train fare when I was really low in money at this point.  So I went back out looking for a new place to eat, but went back to the one I went to the other day where I met a guy named Charlie from S. Carolina.  This was his last night and I mentioned to him that I kind of missed America.  Then a bunch of Americans sat behind us and brought the good ol’ fashioned American Stereotype that many foreigners dislike about us- loud, brash, rude, cocky, etc.  It only took a couple seconds for me to reply that I got my america feeling back and that I am glad that I am still in Italy.

When I got back to the hostel, I was about to head to my room when I saw a cute girl drinking by herself at the bar.  I had a bottle of Guinness in my room, so I went up to get it to drink at the bar.

Her name was Kara, a college drop out, babysitting in Switzerland.  Babysitting all the way out in Switzerland?  She was planning to move back home for a little while before moving out to Paris to study fashion photography.  So I had to ask if she was planning to do anything tonight.

But she was more interested in her drink, so I let that go and went back to my room to shower and plot my final full day.

Returning back to Rome {Day 12}

I woke up at 7 am hoping that I could stay a little longer.  I didn’t get a chance to change my reservation at Alessandro Palace back in Rome, so I couldn’t extend my stay in Florence.  Feeling the hunger pang, I went down to the diner to get some food.  Mmm.. cereal and coffee!

By 9:10 am, I checked out and left for Rome.  I hope I have some cool or nice roommates back at Rome.  I am going to be there for three more nights, what am I going to do for three more nights?  I should have planned my last days better.  When I booked my ticked back to Roma Termini it was 51 euros.  ouch!  It wasn’t that much when I left Rome to Florence!  :(

Oh well.  The train was filthy too.  Well I have a two hour train ride so time to charge the gear and download the CF cards.  I started thinking about my boudoir clients that I had and will shoot in a couple weeks.  This is going to be fun, especially building the albums!

Three more nights and then I will be flying back home.  Very depressing!

I am glad that I opted to go to Italy this time around.  I listened to U2’s “I still haven’t found what I am looking for” live from milan and it got me curious enough to want to come here.  He was talking about the Duomo’s in Milan and then he slipped an “Excusi Moi” in French, instead of Italian.  I was talking about this with Giovanni and he mentions that Milan being closer to France and also being a fashionista city, French is used very often.  Oh.  Before going to Ireland I was listening to “Bad” and like that I decided to go to Ireland.  :)  In any case I am glad that I went to Italy, so much great food, great memories, and gelato!

I got back to Rome and checked into Palace Alessandro at about 12.  The heat seemed to have up’d the ante!  It was really hot!  So I stayed inside to sleep.  When 1 pm rolled around, I attempted to go out.

I went out to do some city shots and to go back to Termini to buy water and bananas.

By 3 pm my room was ready, from what I was told, so I went up to go sleep.  But the cleaning ladies went back to clean again.  What?  Whatever, back out I go to get some nail clippers.  I need to remember to bring nail clippers from home next time.  argh!

When I came back, the cleaners were done and I clipped my nails when my new roommates started to stroll in .  Melissa and Jessica from Chicago came in first and then about 20 minutes later, Danny, Chris, and Cody from Colorado came in.  We spoke for a little while to introduce ourselves and got settled in.

Not sure what I would do for dinner, might as well go for the free pizza that the hostel offers.  But then I recalled the taste of it before and changed my mind to go out to look for dinner.  I went to this place Luke and Jaclyn recommended earlier.  It was pretty good, decent portions, started me off with a huge bruschetta, lots of bread, and nice wine.  I really liked the pasta with its mixture of vegetables and light marinara sauce!

Afterwards I went to get some gelato and headed back to the hostel.  When I got back, the pub crawler folk started to come out to get people to go on their pub crawl.  But that really didn’t sound like fun.  So I went back to go to bed.