New Thing #65 - Italy - Travel Days

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Woke up (EARLY) this morning giddy and damn relieved that I didn't have the stomach flu. Last night was pure torture as I proceeded to hurl up every last remnant of my lunch. I panicked, thinking I was coming down with the stomach flu, since my stomach felt like that creature from Alien was trying to make his debut. Nooooo! I can't be sick. I leave in 12 hours!! I had been so careful in the weeks leading up to this trip. I avoided big crowds, snotty kids, Mardi Gras and pumped Vitamin C into my body on a continual basis. But, fortunately, it was nothing but a burger lunch that did not sit well with me at all. I nearly cried in relief since today I would begin the long trek across a few continents, an ocean, and the boundaries of my quiet peaceful life in the Midwest. (Insert dramatic Rocky-esque music here.)

I'm going to Italy, people. IT-A-LY! I have been dreaming for this day since probably my first experience with pizza and art history. Italy has always been this mysterious romantic bubble of happiness that has always been just out of my reach. Until now. 5 short months ago, a flight was booked to Rome and crazy planning and packing has ensued ever since.

I'm going with my friend Brenda, who is actually a relatively new addition to my friend circle. I only met her in late 2009 after being introduced by a mutual friend. We quickly realized we had a lot in common, including a witty - and sometimes naughty - sense of humor, a love for semi-narcicisstic blogs, and the hunger for travel. We jokingly made a comment to each other last year that we should go on a trip somewhere across the pond. That joke turned into serious conversations and eventually led us to where we are now. In the midst of our planning, Brenda's friend from college, Nikki, had contacted her about traveling somewhere soon as well. They've been on a vacation or two before, so they both knew how fun the other would be to travel with. Nikki seemed to be a great addition to our travel group, and it made for a nice fun number. I had never met Nikki, as she lived in Chicago, but knowing Brenda, I was sure that Nikki would fit right in.

So, back to this morning. I rechecked that I had my passport for the 483rd time, and constantly rethought every single thing I had packed. I'm a Boy Scout by nature. I pack more than I need nearly every time I travel. Even if it's an overnight trip to see my parents, you'd think I was going to a third world country. But, I couldn't help thinking that I had packed too much or that I didn't have enough underwear to last me two weeks. Do I really need those shoes? Should I pack another cami? Will I need a warmer sweater? Is this lint roller really necessary? Mock me all you want, but we could run into a spaghetti emergency, and only my Tide-To-Go stick will save the day. I don't really regret anything that I packed...now that I'm home. However, I did hate the fact that my flippin' suitcase weighed 38-effing pounds. But, I'll get to that later.

Ok, passport, check. Money, check. Passport, check. I rechecked all of my outlets, switches and toilet to make sure my house would be in tip-top shape upon my return. My friend Betsy would be periodically checking on my house and getting my mail, but I kept thinking that maybe I had forgotten to turn off the imaginary iron I thought I had left on. Good grief, I just need to get the hell out of here, before I caused myself to have a coronary.

Passport, check.

Finally off to Brenda's where I would be leaving my car, all the while mentally going through my suitcase. We would be taking Brenda's car to Chicago and fly out of O'Hare. She let me borrow her bathroom scale to weigh my suitcase, which was a bit difficult to use since it is enormous and wouldn't actually sit on the scale. I'm sure we looked a bit ridiculous trying to weigh a suitcase in her parking lot. I was still worried I had brought too much, but for the life of me, I couldn't come up with anything that would be okay to leave at home.

Part 1 of our journey.

We packed up our stuff and headed to pick up her niece. We were taking her niece to her parent's house as a favor for her sister since it was all on our way. We had plenty of time to kill since Nikki would be completing a full day of work. Her niece wasn't the happiest of travelers at one point, but we made it to her parent's in time for lunch and then made the rest of the drive to Chicago quite uneventfully. A light dinner and then off to get Nikki. While we waited for her boyfriend to show up to take us to the airport, I AGAIN rethought out my packing selection. Especially after feeling Brenda and Nikki's suitcases. Good grief, are they even bringing anything?! I finally opted to leave my extra tennis shoes at the house, since my walking shoes should be good enough. It didn't exactly help much, but I do have big feet. That means heavier shoes.

Don't mock me.

And of course, as soon as we got in the car for the airport, I regretted my decision to leave my tennis shoes. I kept thinking that they would probably be better for our hike that my current shoes. Sonuva. I'm a hot mess. I HATE packing for trips. Especially to a damn foreign country.

We made it to the airport pretty early, but we all wanted to make sure we didn't have any problems getting to the plane on time. Checking in was easy breezy, and fortunately my suitcase only weighed 38 pounds, and didn't exceed the 51 pound limit. Nikki's was only 30 pounds and Brenda was somewhere in between the two of us. Great, that only gives me roughly 12 pounds worth of stuff I can bring home! (In my defense, I packed clothes for every day, not really planning on rewearing much except for pants. I tend to sweat a lot.)

Finally, it was time to board the plane. The longest flight I've ever been on was a little over 4 hours to California. This flight was going to be around 7 or so. I wasn't sure how I would fare. I had a magazine, a crossword puzzle book and my headphones. I hoped I would have some in-flight entertainment, but mostly I expected I would sleep. I've never really been in a much bigger airplane than what Southwest flies, so, I wasn't prepared for the size of the plane and some of the amenities. There were 2 seats next to each window, and then 5 seats in the middle surrounded by aisles. We had 3 of the middle seats and ended up actually having the entire 5 seats to ourselves. We also had little TV sets in the back of the seats in front of us, so we could enjoy our own programming. Yes, I thought that was cool. Yes, I know I'm a nerd.

Very smiley! Brenda is on the left, Nikki on the right.

We settled into our seats, giddy and eager for our trip. And then the mother with her 3 unhappy children settled directly in front of us. Apparently Brenda has terrible travel luck and she had to force it upon Nikki and I as well. Fortunately, they really were only obnoxious for the beginning of the trip and eventually settled down to sleep after we got underway. Only a few random spots throughout the trip did one wake up unsure of where they were and cried out. But, they usually went right back to sleep. I felt bad for the mother because she was trying to corral 3 kids, but it was still kind of annoying.

We had just gotten settled in and kind of drowsy when our meal came. At midnight. I wasn't exactly hungry, but figured I better eat while I can...I have no idea when the next meal will come. It was so adorable (I've never had a meal on a plane except for crackers and a soda). We had a tiny salad with dressing, chicken in a spicy tomato sauce with mashed potatoes and green beans, a roll with butter, crackers and gruyere cheese and a brownie. Not bad for airplane food. I actually thought it was pretty good.

After our meal, I was wide awake and put on Harry Potter #7 and watched for a while until I dozed off. I tried to get comfy, but that was virtually impossible. I did last nearly 5 hours into the flight before I had to break the seal though. Pretty impressive for me. It was 3 am Chicago time and we were somewhere over the Atlantic at this point. I was kind of bummed we couldn't see out any windows, but it was dark and wouldn't have mattered anyway. I also might not have liked looking out the window to see nothing but water everywhere. Our TVs were equipped with handy dandy little flight information that kept us apprised of our current location. A little more sleep and eventually it was time for breakfast. A croissant, some raspberry yogurt and orange juice. Again, not bad.

Somewhere over the northern Atlantic.

Finally arrived at Heathrow in London, and I swear the entire airport was bigger than St. Louis. We probably took a hallway that was at least a mile long just to go down 3 more levels and around 85 corners. Good thing they had people movers. We finally got to the "end" of the level and found we needed to take a BUS to our next terminal. It was probably a good 10 minute drive to the other terminal (on the wrong side of the road, by the way), another escalator, a mini screening, another escalator, a full security screening and one more escalator. Good grief, where the eff is our gate? We finally arrive at our terminal and it looks like a giant mall. Shops are everywhere. Fancy shops, liquor shops, watch shops, you name it, you could buy just about anything you wanted at the airport. And duty free too!

Our gate hadn't been assigned yet, so we found a few seats to wait it out, while trying not to fall asleep. Jet lag's a bitch. An hour or so later, we found our gate, luckily close to where we were waiting, grabbed a bagel and boarded the plane. It also had TVs, so we planned on staying awake to watch a movie. Nope. Didn't happen. I think we might have all been asleep before the plane even left the tarmac. It was an uneventful flight and we finally arrived in Rome at 5 pm or so Italy time on Wednesday night. I had been up for over 24 hours with little real sleep. It's amazing I was even standing. But, I think the excitement and adrenaline helped.