When In Rome....

So we arrived, first and foremost. Quick recap of our journey: started in Atlanta at 9am Monday (3pm Europe time), flew to Chicago, got to experience figuring out an international flight (see below), and then headed off on our 9 and a half our flight to Poland. After a 3 hour layover (and a small adventure), we were on our way to Rome. A few notes from the trip:
-I don't know if it's flying international or just the Chicago airport, but that was confusing. We had to get to gate M3. ..but no signs pointed to M. After asking around we find a help guy with a map that explains it to us. He also explained "whatever you do, don't get off the train at terminal 4... That's where Stephen King bases his novels...also its part of the bermuda triangle" ...come to find out there is no terminal 4
-lots of babies and young children on our 9 hour flight ... Not much else to say about that one
-they have big projector screens on international flights, not as fun when your seat is directly in front of it
-I re learned rummy thanks to Courtney...helped the trip go by a lot faster...we have a rummy date on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower in a few weeks
-our pilot once we got in the air: "we are currently traveling 485 mph,will spend 3 hours over the Atlantic, and it's going to take about 9 hours so we should be in Warsaw around 930 am....and if you want to set your alarm it's currently 1:29 in the morning, it's Tuesday already"
-we never saw the sun set, aka it never got dark on our trip. We literally chased down the setting sun until it was daylight again
- we sang the bologna song..ya that one...and heard black and yellow about 5 times (I heard it more because somehow it got stuck in courts head). Also we saw the Polish spice girls music video... No joke it was 645am... Aka 1145 in Alabama
-the Poland airport...where to start. The bathrooms are crazy, you see a door that looks like a family bathroom door, when you walk through you have to go ton the womens door, then choose another door for shower or bathroom...then you see a stall. They also have their own currency, but it's not converted for...so we got confused and  eventually just went up and found out they accept the euro but change is in theirs..so I got a polish sausage and left a decent tip. Their language is very pretty...and when they speak English with an accent it's also pretty...you just can't understand well.
-BEST FLIGHT EVER was into Rome...first an adorable italian boy was sitting across from us...then they bring us our "snack" of a sandwich and complementary wine. 
-jet lag wasn't that bad...it was like test day..just really tired. Plus we are so excited we just push through.

First night, arrived and then walked down the road a bit to the Trevi Fountain...it's smaller than i imagined. The we got free pizza and 5 euro bottles of wine from the hostel, and met some really neat people.

After a long night we get a little sleep and are both wide awake at 5 am...which was fine since we had planned to head to St. Peters Cathedral by 8 to try and get free tickets to see the pope. Long story short, The Vatican is a lot further than we thought from our hostel, got there at 5 after, couldn't find the right bronze doors (don't ask), got in line to try and find them, talked to a family from Houston, they had 2 extra tickets.... Aka we saw The Pope speak and bless from about 50 yards away. Crazy addition...he speaks a lot of languages.

Addition, on our hour plus walk there courtney taught me (and herself) some Italian. By the time we are done here we are going to have all the important stuff down. 

We then found lunch, and our reading came in handy.. When they brought our food (spaghetti carbanara and caprice salad) they set down bread...we knew if you touched it you got charged..so we avoided the urge. And, on our ticket focca was crossed out! Win for tourists!

With more to be seen we headed off. We saw some funny and beautiful stuff. All of the people trying to make money selling random stuff and dressing up and being very forward reminded me of New Orleans. My favorite moment though was at the fountain below the Spanish Steps. After seeing peep wash there hands in the fountain water at the previous plaza,we saw a man walk up with a little metal cup and get himself some water right out of the fountain. 

Also, after advice from a traveler the night before, we spent an hour at the train station reserving  our next 4 trains....it was pretty expensive, but after hearing about horror stories and vacations changed, etc we decided it was worth it. Better safe than sorry. 

I'm tired of typing on this iPad, and its almost free pizza time. I just opened a 2 euro (amazing) bottle of wine and am ready to see what the evening has in store. I'll give an overview of my thoughts on Rome next time. 

Quick info.. I have unlimited incoming texts (not multimedia) so feel free to text. I only have 50 per month out though so if it's important  send me a facebook message or email.

If you want to see pics as we go the website is picasaweb.google.com/earchibald33

Okay, too much time in my room...when in ROME!!