Europe Day 2 (September 12) - One Long Day

Off the plane.
Then we needed to head over the Goldsmiths on the tube to hand over a piece of luggage, which was an uneventful but very painful trip for my arms. We dropped off our bags at the International office, where we were of course warned not to get pick-pocketed in Italy, then got backon the tube to head to Stansted airport, which is where our flight to Rome was out of. On the way we got some very overpriced Burger King, but it was worth it to me at least! Then onto the Stansted Express, and then time to kill at the airport. I called home to leave a message for mom to let her know I was alive, and did the same for Jason, although it wasn't a message - he picked up :) The flight to Rome was fine as far as I remember; I fell asleep for a little bit (I needed it!), we lost another hour, and a child cried. A lot.
After the plane ride, trying to get to the hostel was a bit of a fiasco. Off the plane onto a shuttle, which took us to pick up the baggage, and the child continued to cry. Then we need to take a bus, which was not well-marked (we just kinda followed the crowd of English-speaking people) and the ticket machine for which would not accept anything other than Eurocoins, and of course we only had banknotes, having just stopped at the ATM. We discovered by following people again that we could buy tickets at a snack change inside, but they didn't have correct change to give back to us - oh well, we just paid too much. Off the bus to Anagnina station, where we needed to take the metro to Termini station and the ticket machines (surprise!) would not work. These are some very finicky ticket machines, and only will take exact change, which is tough to come by. The security guy eventually just let us all go on without buying tickets. After that it wasn't bad getting to the hostel. Ours (Hotel Romae) is nearby Termini, but still, my arms wanted to fall off,and the feet weren't too happy either.
Outside the hostel - we couldn't figure out how to get buzzed in. Some guest let us in. Went in, paid, couldn't get our key to our door to work! Got let in by our hostel-mates, who were of course sleeping (at 11:30?) so we had to get situated in the dark being quiet. Into bed, and couln't sleep, because it was only 5:30 pm at home! A looooooong day was over though, and I was now in Rome.
:)