Day 2 - London and Rome

Landed at Gatwick Airport just south of Rome at about 7am. Turns out there were two other Queen's people on the flight and soon enough we were all together getting out luggage together. There was Andrew Titus and Maureen (Mo) something (a girl who just graduated from commerce). Titus had people meeting him at the airport and was heading to Glasgow for grad school and Mo was moving to London and looking for work. Lucky for her (bad for me) that we met up cause she had a rediculous amount of stuff and wouldn't have been able to do it on her own i'm sure. We took the Glasgow Express together for 13.5 pounds to Vic Station then she jumped in a cab and i took a 2 pound tube rigde to the Liverpool Station across the downtown (took me my third ride to finally get the right direction). Met up with a French chic at the Liverpool Station and we caught the Stansted Express (14.5 pounds) together which ended up being a bus instead of a train cause the tracks were closed for some reason. Got to Stansted at 10:45 and the French chic took off to catch her flight. I tried getting on the 12:30 flight to Rome, instead of my scheduled 4:35, but they were dicks and were going to make me pay an extra 100 pounds to do it. Here's my notes for the next 5 hours at Stansted that i wrote to try to keep myself awake by doing.

11:00am - so i'm sitting here by myself till i fly out at 4:35
11:32am - tried using the calling card that Heather gave me, but apparently i'm an idiot (can't figure it out)
11:46am - sitting here by myself, listening to my ipod and playing sudoku
12:05pm - apparently i'm an idiot (i can't do the easiest sudoku puzzle)
12:31pm - more tired than i've ever been in my life....didn't sleep at all on the plane
1:00pm - head bobbing and trying to stay awake...if i fall asleep now, i'll miss my flight and probably get all my shit stolen
1:04pm - want to sleep so bad it hurts
1:05pm - i am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, SWITCH!
2:00pm - at least another 9 hours till i'll be in bed at the hostel in Rome
3:00pm - longest 4 hrs of my life...heading bobbing very hard
3:05pm - bought a travel pillow...thinking too much about sleeping
3:10pm - just bought a coffee and two Red Bull
3:20pm - crazy going slowly am i, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, SWITCH!
4:00pm - boarding time.....off to Rome!

Yeah, i was pretty fuckin tired.

Got into Rome by way of a super budget flight...no tv's, no food, but you could 'buy, whatever you wanted including Britney Spears perfume. Met a guy, 'Sharoose' (i think). I suck ass with names. Ayways, he's an architect student originally from Bombay, but going to Cornell and live in Rome now doing an exchance and had been in Rome for a few weeks so 'kinda' knows his way around. I followed him through a shady looking customs office at Ciampino airport and then jumped on a different bus than they advise the tourists to take, but is apparently, and was, cheaper, but had alot of very rough looking people on it, all of whom were starting at me. The bus took us to a very sketch and scary looking Metro station where after the bus left, turned out that the station was closed and there were no other buses in sight. There were about 6 groups of guys just hanging out, lots over fires they'd made in garbage cans, and as soon as they saw us come back up from the station started yelling shit at us in italian. I pretty much thought the trip was over right there. We just kept walking and started heading towards where the buses are supposed to pick people up but nothing was around at all. One group of guys (all big and black), started yelling at us more and then started walking over towards us. I think this was about the point that i shit myself. I looked at my little Indian guide and he told me not to say nothing and said that in a sec he was gonna run....SHIT! Just as were turning to run, a bus came flying round the corner with nobody in it, slowed, opened the doors, we jumped in and the driver drove off laughing and saying something to us in Italian that we took as 'bet you were happy to see me eh???'. The bus took us all the way downtown to the Termini Station which easily could have been mistooken for Compton, L.A. My new friend then apologized for the tenth time and left me at Termini. So there i was, alone, not knowing where the hell i'm supped to go, but pretty happy to be alive. Termini at night was pretty wild with everyone wanting to talk to you, or wanting you to buy something, or wanting them to go to their place where its 'very nice, very nice'. Thankfully, if you ignore them, they will leave you alone pretty quick. 20 minutes and lots of turn arounds later, i finally found my hostel which was in even sketchier than right around Termini and had pretty much the scariest looking death trap of an elevator i've ever seeen. It was barely big enough for me and me alone, and you had to close the doors manually and then pray that you actually can get out without a scene of 3 or more italians with guns and knives taking your shit. Once up the elevator, someone on the outside pulled the doors open and led me to the hostel. The half Indian, half Italian owner tried swindeling me, then finally gave me my room. After showering and chatting with my two British, Swede and Aussie room mates i decided to brave it outside to try to find internet or phone. The phone place i found was weird as hell and finally after having an American guy show me how to use the phones in the little glass booths i called Heather and left a msg for Mom and Dad (both very quick). I only brought 5 Euro with me being pretty sure i'd get mugged. So then then back to the hostel and to bed right after hanging out with the 4 extremely drunk Aussie girls in the next room. Finally to bed, 32 hours after waking up in TO the night before. Went out like a light.