Sunday, January 5, 2014

December 20, 2013: Travel Pains

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." -Mark Twain

I think this will go down as one of the worst days of my life.  I check out of my hostel with over 2 hours before my flight departs so I think I have time. I spend time waiting at Termini Station to get on a bus to the Airport. Time is a little tight but the airport is less than 10 miles away so I think it’s going to be fine. And then traffic. Fucking Rome traffic. I swear those Romans are god-awful drivers. I don’t know if it’s their fault or if it is the poor city planning that’s to blame.  I’m pissed so I say both. It took 15 minutes just to get out of the busy part of Rome.  Long story short, I missed my flight and the next one was 8 hours later.  So I’m waiting in the airport frantically trying to reach my best friend.  She finally calls and my phone can’t get her call. I start panicking because I know that she’s scared and the Information Desk isn’t very helpful, directing me to a payphone that I’m pretty sure was broken.  I go into a souvenir shop begging the lady to let me borrow a phone. She is just an unhelpful and directs me to the payphone that doesn’t work.  Customer Service must be a foreign concept in Italy.  The people at American Airlines would bend over backwards to help me out.  Thankfully, an Italian lady saw how frantic I was and let me borrow her phone to make a call.  I will never forget that. It renews my hope that there are still good people in this world.  I hope karma rewards her for her kindness.


After a few more grueling hours of waiting, I was finally on a plane to Madrid.  Once I landed in Madrid and collected my luggage, I hopped into a taxi towards the hotel.  We drove through the streets of Madrid and all the Christmas lights they had set up for the holiday season.  I arrived at the hotel and was finally reunited with my best friend Susan after what seems like ages.  It was so refreshing to be in a hotel with a full size bed and my own bathroom after staying at hostels for the past week. 

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