6am Wake up to go to bathroom. Knowing I have to be up by 8 to pack and check out of hotel, become aggrivatingly unable to fall back to sleep. Play solitaire on computer and try to avoid waking Will.
6:05am Will wakes up and wonders if I have completly lost my mind to a computer card game addiction.
6:06am Quit card game. Get in shower.
6:15am (or maybe I took a longer shower, but we'll call it an approximation) Get out of shower to find Will packing. Watch in horror as he crams clothes into suitcase willy-nilly. Ask Will as nicely as possible "do you not think it might be just a little easier if the clothes were folded?"
6:15-6:30am After much discussion, ecide to agree to disagree and zip suitcase closed. Shudder slightly at the difficulty of closing bulging luggage, but decide to breathe deeply and let it go.
6:30-7:15am Dress and dawdle and wait for Will to finish shower. Resist urge to play one more game of solitaire. Cram the last few things in the front of suitcase, convinced it will explode.
7:30ish Say a final ciao to the nice man who runs the Hotel Castel Mistral.
just after 8am Hop on a surprisingly full bus from Juan-les-Pins and head to the airport in Nice. Sleep most of the way, but get woken up ten minutes before arrival by Will who is excited to show me four roosters and a hen who happen to be in this little grassy knoll in the middle of the highway. Ah, France.
just after 9am Arrive at Nice Airport. Check in. Realize that a lot of women who travel first class have deep tans, tight jeans, large designer luggage sets, tiny yappy lap dogs and confused husbands.
9:30 Coffee. Finally.
10am A gate is assigned for our flight to Rome. Head downstairs.
10:15 Notice that everyone around us waiting at the gate seems to be checking the departure monitor, sighing and heading back upstairs.
10:16 Check departure monitor. Sigh. Head back upstairs. Gate change.
11:15 After a delayed boarding, take off on time. Ailitalia serves us gelato.
12:20pm Land in Rome. Watch Flight Steward politely chastise an Italian male passenger for getting up to get his bag from the overhead compartment before the plane has stopped moving. Will and I giggle a bit and realize that we can understand enough Italian to get some jokes.
around 1pm After waiting what felt like an eternity for our overstuffed suitcase, it comes first out on the conveyor belt and we head to the train.
around 2pm Arrive back at Rome apartment. Check email, pack our last few things.
around 3pm Call the people from whom we sublet to set a time to meet to hand over our keys. Check schedule for Ferries to Sardinia.
around 4pm Hand in keys, say goodbye and the trusty 'if you're ever in New York' and leave our sweet sublet.
4:10 Print out ferry tickets and finally fax my long overdue taxes to my accountant.
4:15 Get car from garage. Head to Civitavecchia, the port town where from where we'll take the ferry.
5:30 Arrive in Civitavecchia. Park. Go to cafe for snack. Observe local color.
Here, local color refers to a group of dread-locked or shaved-headed teenagers hanging out and looking bored. The girls read. The boys play cards or stare into space. Then one of them arrives after what I can only call "a day's work" with a mesh bag full of fish and crabs. He is looking to sell his catch and offers us an opportunity to purchase all this fresh seafood for only 20 euros. Thankfully, we know enough Italian to decline. One of the card players buys the catch. Local color, indeed!
7pm Sit for dinner at a local pizzeria. Will extols the virtues of Italian cuisine over French. We eat mussels and pizza.
9pm Get the car and head to the ferry. Wait in enormous line of cars.
9:30 Drive onto ferry. Check in. Head to cabin. Reminisce about the cruise with Becky, Matt and Chris in 2002. This one is slightly different-- fewer piano bars, more nuns.
10:30 Hear a key in our door. Panic at the thought of having to share our double bunk-bed room. Will answers the door. They've got the wrong room. Sigh a huge sigh of relief and fall back on my top bunk.
11pm Set sail. Realize that today we have traveled on every major form of transportation. Fall asleep.
11:30 Boat turbulence? I awake thinking that we've arrived and I've had the most insane good night's sleep. Will tells me I've been asleep for like 20 minutes. I fall back to sleep.
5 September 2006
5:30am The captain announces basically to wake up, we're almost there! Will and I head out to the deck to confirm, then back to the cabin to get our things.
5:45 Check out and get coffee from a machine. The coffee is surprisingly good.
6am Sit in parked car on boat garage. Assume we're never getting off.
6:30-noon Drive off boat. Cruise through Sardinia. Watch sunrise. Look for more coffee. See insanely manicured resort town. Decide to look for a town with a little more flavor, less landscaping. Consult Lonely Planet Guide to Italy. Decide on Saint Teresa de Galluria. Find hotel that looks straight out of Miami Beach 1984. Stub toe on shoddy sidewalk. Go to farmacia for bangages. Have lunch. Nap.
post nap Set out to find Scuba school in English. Decide to go with the man who talks to us while taking a shower in a Speedo. Realize that if he can sell us on a course while drying off, the language barrier will be no problem.
6 September 2006
morning Go to internet cafe. Catch up on email and write way-too-detailed blog post.
still to do Get the official 'ok' from the Medical Guard to begin Scuba course. Have passport-style photos taken for Scuba license. Figure out how the hell I'm going to wear flippers with a giant boo-boo on my big toe. Stop writing every little detail on blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment