Rome, Day 1. Flying in. Eventually.
So my dear Ladies and Gents,
I know most of you are actually working today. You know, that horrible schedule where you wake up at 6:30A , (or earlier!!!), drag to the bathroom to wash your face, pour coffee in (hopefully!) your mug. Sometimes it ends on the floor or on the PJs. That’s alright. I know the feeling. Grasu saves me from cleaning the floor every now and then when he cleans the omlette traces I’ve left behind in the kitchen. He’s my faithful dog dish washer haha.
But we’re distancing ourselves from the main point here. And that is your misery as compared to my happiness right now. A cruel thing I know, but the time has come for Mela to finally be on vacation. I’ve seen you all take weeks off. Now, as they say in common tongue: eat your heart out!!!! Mwwwuahahah!
Seriously though. First day wasn’t all that much fun. We were to fly out in the afternoon, with the 3:50PM Blue Air flight to Rome. That, of course, if the plane ever took off! It did, eventually, after an entire hour spent in that tight-sardine-people-packed tin can called an airplane. About 125 souls sweating their asses off, mumbling, swearing, complaining while using the safety procedure booklets as improvised fans to keep from losing consciousness. No word from the cabin crew. No word from the captain. I should’ve already figured it out that there would be some sort of delay because they started the check in about 10 minutes later than they should’ve. Then we waited for the bus to come pick us up to take us half away across the airport to the plane. You’d think we were flying out of JFK New York. Regardless, the bus had to make a round trip because there were too many people. That happened only after we got off the damn thing, of course . And we only got off after spending at least another 7 minutes locked in the bus on the runway, waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Finally when the bus pulled in before the plane, the driver got off to talk to a bunch of other people clustered around the tail of the plane, but, amazingly he didn’t let us out. I mean, I always loved to be shoved between a couple of luggage and some big man’s belly. It was finally a dream come true haha. And keeping that in mind, I really took pleasure in seeing a bunch of the airport employees do their paper work while I enjoyed the sweat and smell from half the passengers on board. Mom at least smelled good haha.
Finally they let us out. It was a bit of “Finding Nemo” kind of adventure. You know. Trying to get out of the tank and back into the ocean. We get on the plane. Mom and I were given automatic seats when checking in so I am seated separately from her on a different row. Luck finally strikes and the guy sitting next to mom agrees to switch places with me. Not because I’m cute or anything, but because I’m sitting next to his dad. So we basically trade parents haha. He can have his dad and I can have my mom. I let mom have the window seat as always. This is her third year flying and she still takes pictures of the wing of the plane, clouds and land beneath. Shhhh…. Not a word! Haha As long as the memory to the tablet holds, she can take all the pictures she wants. Actually, she took some pretty cool pictures of the islands in the Adriatic Sea. Well done mom!!!
Everyone’s ready. Even a few big Italian ladies who seem to have also packed their brain away with the cargo luggage because it was truly unavailable for common sense conversations with them at that point. They blocked the entire aisle trying to figure out left from right. Eventually a lady just snaps, grabs their luggage, puts it up there and politely shows them their seat with a push! Haha. Thank you stranger lady!!! Plus I really wanted to use the rest room and their indecision as to where to sit their Italian behinds was in the way of my bladder freedom.
Just when we thought all was good, we realize we are about 20 minutes late already. I’m thinking we’re going to make up for some of that after taking off. And we were to land at about 6PM local time anyway, so it wasn’t all that bad. But I had spoken too early. There’s no electric power in the engines. And I’m (again!) thinking. Goddamn it! I got the same thing when flying out of Dallas to Austin and it took them about an hour to charge the system. Do these people ever charge the batteries to these things? Of course there’s no air conditioning if there’s no electricity running in this plane! The guy says, ten more minutes. I’m thinking, yeah. That is as close to the truth as it is me owning a private jet that I decided to leave in the hangar because I wanted to travel with the common folk. Come on people! (Note: please see just how much thinking I’ve done in one paragraph hahaha!)
A lady needs to take her pills. Another one is fainting with the heat. They bring her water. The pilot decides to run the engine for a minute to push some air conditioning in enough to oxygenate our brains into survival mode. Then back to the African desert. The guy lets us know he’s sorry for the inconvenience in three languages. Uh uh. I am so much better now! He missed French. I can tell him to fuck off in the language of love, how about that?!?! Merde ta mere si d’alea d’alea!
We finally take off. And yes, right now I’m writing this while still on the plane. We’re running an hour late. I guess Mela is going straight for dinner out in town. Rome better be ready because two hungry Romanians are about to land in less than 30 minutes. What? You think that after paying more than 200 EUR for the tickets, being delayed an hour due to their negligence I am going to actually pay for their snacks? Which means sweets, sandwiches and chips?!? I don’t think so! Plus mom managed to smuggle some of my favorite biscuits over the customs haha and the irony of all things they actually took me in for frisking not her. Which reminds me. People, it doesn’t matter a woman does the frisking in the airport. It’s still weird. A man would be even weirder given the circumstances. But maybe this lady who did it to me now was more thorough than the usual haha ‘cause I felt it!
Wait! They just announced we’re starting to descend. So I have to cut this short. But I shall be back to finish the day. MWUAH!
And I am back…
It’s 7:20AM local time. I slept like a baby. Except for one or two mosquitoes who insisted on drawing blood from Dracula’s daughter herself. I was in a good mood so I let them haha
About last night. Yes, we landed an hour later, but checking out of the airport was fast. Luggage came in fast and before that the captain did a perfect landing. Probably one of the best I’ve experienced so far so even though pissed with the delay still applauded and cheered. It was already dark, but we manage to find out hotel fast with the help of a guy in the Termini Train Station who gave us precise directions. The hotel is rather close to Termini and also about 10 minutes away from the Coliseum so we are surely lucky that way. At some point we got confused with the little street where the hotel was and stopped to ask a couple of Indian guys. So very nice people! They looked the address up on google maps on their phones and directed us… across the street! Hahaha Yeah. Romanian loose on the streets of Rome that is!
The hotel is tiny but clean and rather spacious. We got a room on the ground floor which means we didn’t have to struggle with the luggage on the stairs. Separate beds so mom was free from my kicking at night haha. We dropped our stuff, refreshed a bit and went out to scavenge for food. We had passed this small restaurant on the corner of the street that was packed with people. One of those next door places where people eat small tables outside in the street, simple but tasteful. We found it rather fast and went inside. The same small tables, with walls covered in beer commercials, the fancy ones, framed, looking like old paintings or drawings. Not so many people anymore which meant we had plenty of choices where to sit. The girl serving us is really nice and she takes her time helping us with the choices. I don’t think I’ve seen so many pages of pizza menu in my life haha. But I am on a diet because my stomach has gone mad on me lately due to stress. That’s another story for another day. So I can’t eat crap from all those goodies. I finally get a plate of rise with mushrooms and flat water. Mom gets pasta with tomato sauce, smoked salmon and milk crème. That stuff was friggin’ ass divine people. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted pasta so delicious! But hey! I expected my dish to be some plane tasteless thing. But alas! It was soooo good and filled with aromas. And those mushrooms where delicious.
And here we are today. Time for make up and then off to grab some breakfast out on the way. There’s a long list of places to see and things to do today so I’ll have to catch up with you later guys.
Mwuah and try to enjoy the day!
Mela and mom!
PS: All these blogs are and will be written in real time. Unfortunately I don't have the time to put them up and internet here sucks and it takes forever to load the pictures. So everything will be delayed. Sorrryyy!!!
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