morning of panic

Day 4

May 9th, 2012

You're probably wondering about title. I shall explain to you why we had a morning of panic and how we almost missed our flight to Madrid.

Our day started off very relaxing. We got up at 7:30am or so, surprisingly well-rested for staying in a hostel, and headed out to have our last meal in Rome. We went down a couple of streets before we found a cute little place that only had locals, which was our goal. Locals = cheaper. The price for everything doubled if you wanted to sit down, so we ate standing up at the bar. I got a cappuccino and a croissant. It was only 2 euros altogether, and it was very Italian and really tasty. We talked about what we liked the most about Rome and how were going to miss it. Then we casually strolled back to the hostel to check out. When we bought our tickets for the bus to the airport the day before, the lady had circled the buses that would leave at 9:55 or 10:35, so we had plenty of time. We took our last pictures and checked out of the hostel.

We walked the block or two to Termini and got in line for the bus. We noticed everyone had little colored placards, and one of the official guys told us that we had to check-in at the bus place first. We didn't know that. We went to the office and waited in line. When we got to the front, the guy told us that the ones for the buses that we needed to take were sold out. SOLD OUT. He gave us placards for the next bus that would come at 11:00 or so. The bus took 50 minutes to get to the airport. Our gate would close at 12:15. We still had to go through security. We started to panic. We had no choice but to wait.

I was starting to get worried, but then the incident where we missed our train to Florence came to mind. I panicked then, but did it do anything? No. I remembered how calm Ariel was and how he even got to Termini before Alim and me, the punk. I mean, we had no idea how the transportation system worked, and we didn't know that we had to check-in. It wouldn't help to start putting the blame on people, so for the first time (I think in my life), I was calm. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I prayed that the bus would come, that it would be fast, that a freak storm would delay the plane - anything to get us on that flight. I said my favorite scripture to myself, Philippians 4:6-7. We ate the last of my blood oranges and waited in line.

Much to our dismay (and everyone else's in line), our bus was late by at least half-an-hour. People around us were complaining and starting to panic because they were late for their flights too, which made me feel better in a sick and wrong way. So there are 2 main airports in Rome - Fiumicino and Ciampino. We all needed to get to Fiumicino. While we were waiting, 2 buses passed by that were going to Ciampino, and they probably had like 10 people on them. If there are so little people going to Ciampino, why don't they just switch over some of their buses to go to Fiumicino? COME ON PEOPLE, WORK WITH ME.

When our bus finally arrived, it was a mosh pit. We were all crowding and trying to get in one door, and the guy was taking our tickets one at a time. People were pushing and shoving, and I was trying my best not to get separated from Nikki. It seemed like everyone on the bus was late for a flight. There was an incident where an old woman was taking a long time because her niece or something had her ticket, and she had to pass it to her. Then she wouldn't go on the bus because she was waiting for the rest of the family. Let me tell you, everyone in that crowd was ready to toss her over the bus. Every second was precious, and the longer people took to get on the bus and get their luggage on meant that it would take longer for us to leave. The worker guy finally asked the lady to step to the side, and we rushed onto the bus. I think everyone wanted to leave ASAP because it didn't take everyone long to get settled. Nikki and I took seats near the front. We held our carry-ons in our laps because we didn't want to leave it buried in the luggage compartment and wait to dig it out later on.

The bus ride was actually relaxing because we knew that we couldn't do anything but hope and pray, so we enjoyed the bus ride through Rome to the airport. We finally got there and realized that instead of 50 minutes, the bus had gotten there in 30. Maybe the bus driver knew he was late and was trying to get everyone to their flights? We stopped at Terminal 3, but our flight left from Terminal 1. We literally jumped off the bus and ran to Terminal 1. Good thing we're in shape. We weren't sure how long security would take, but when we got there we saw that there was almost no one there. In 10 minutes, we had breezed through security. We looked at the screen for our flight and saw that it was delayed by at least 30 minutes. When we saw that, I laughed. Everything that I prayed for came true. The bus went faster, there was no line at security, and our flight was delayed. Prayer works.

We walked for 10 minutes before we finally came to our gate. We looked at the screen, and it said that it was a flight to Portugal or Denmark or something - pretty much it wasn't our flight. We figured that the gate had changed, so we checked the screen but our gate was the same. We looked around to ask someone because it was like 15 or 20 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. There was literally no one. NO ONE. There was not one Easyjet (our airline company) worker in sight. I asked someone in a booth, but it was for a bank, and she told me that she doesn't know that kind of info and told me to ask someone from Easyjet. I wanted to hit someone then. You'd think there'd be one person, just one worker. Nope. Moral: appreciate American airline companies because THEY'RE ACTUALLY THERE.

Maybe 1 minute before our flight was supposed to leave according to our schedule, they finally announced the gate change. We rushed to the quickly growing line of people and got on the plane. We sat down in our seats, exhausted. I mean it wouldn't be too bad to be stranded in Rome, but we were really excited to get home to Madrid. By then, we were kind of laughing with each other because of all the adventures we ended up having. Before our trip, we had almost missed the bus to the airport, I missed a train to Florence, and we almost missed our flight. It gives a good story afterward, especially since I had problems with almost every mode of transportation, but I'm okay with not having any more of those kinds of adventures. In the end, Rome was an interesting experience, and it was really fun. I'm glad I had the chance to go!