Just came back from the Mediterranean. The weather was really nice as it was sunny every single day we were there. It was a little on the hot and humid side, but I enjoy that, and definitely prefer it to cooler cloudy weather. I think the daytime temperatures were anywhere between 85 and 95, and lows at night above 70. Probably too much to write in one day (at least for me!), so I’ll have multiple updates to how the trip went. Here we go…first day…
Flew into Rome and arrived at 7:30am local time. It was warm, both inside the airport terminal and outside. I hear that most of Europe do not keep their temperatures as low as Americans do, so it was warm whether we’re inside or outside. At least they have seperate smoking areas now. I think the last time we were there, smoking was allowed everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Made everything stink like the cigarettes they smoke. We had already arranged for transportation from the airport, so we thought once we got our bags, we would be on our way. Yeah right.
We got off the plane and into the baggage claim area around 8am. The bags showed up about 15 minutes later. We found the coordinator, and she tells us to leave the bags near the center of the baggage claim area, so the porters can put them in the bus. Ok, fine. So where do we go now? Where’s the bus? She points us in another direction, to other coordinators. Alright, we see them. We go to them, and I ask where’s the bus? She tells us the bus doesn’t leave for another 1.5 hours! Why? Because we’re waiting for another flight to arrive. Now that may make sense, but by this time there were plenty of us to fill up a bus, if not two buses! And I found out that our luggage didn’t actually go on the bus with us, as they had a seperate vehicle to go in. We can easily leave already, and let the later flight get in their own bus. Apparently that wasn’t an option to them. Or maybe they just never thought of such a simple idea.
So we wait, and wait, and wait. That 1.5 hours turns into 2 hours before we’re told we’re good to go. 2 hours normally wouldn’t be a problem, but we just got off of 14 hours of flight time, with a 3 hour stopover in between, in Chicago. We’ve been awake for about 24 hours now (at least I was, as I can’t sleep on the plane, because it’s not comfortable enough to sleep). We get to the buses, and more confusion by the coordinators. There’s 5 buses there, maybe more. There’s a line of people. What would I do? First 40 (or however many people can fit on a bus) goes to bus 1. Next 40 goes to bus 2, and so on. But noooo…we all line up for bus 1. Ok, it’s full now. We go to bus 3. Yes, bus 3! But the driver isn’t there, and the door is closed. So now we wait and see which bus is available. Oh look, bus 2’s driver came back. Where he went, and why he wasn’t there in the first place, knowing people are about to leave, is a mystery to me. So now people in line have to turn around, but there’s no room for the people in front to get to bus 2. People in the back are now in front of bus 2’s door. Now everyone’s trying to get on the bus. How lame are the coordinators?? We decide not to participate in the madness, as we know there’s enough room for everyone. We just hang back and wait at bus 4’s door. Eventually we get on the bus, and we get on our way.
Oh, did I already mention that these buses have legroom for people who are no taller than 5’6″?