When I booked my stay in Rome I did not think when Easter was, and so was unprepared for the hike in prices and unavailability of hostels and hotels. I also didnt realise that the earliest train or metro that could get me into the airport was at 6am and thus a 7:30 flight was always going to cause me problems, unless I stayed a night over at the airport.
Likewise in Athens I was not aware that the metro link from the airport was down for six months so that they could add three new stations, but these are the things that surprise us when we least expect it.
Waking up late today, I leisurely took my time and after checking out leisurely strolled my way down to the Railway station, using a different route to the one I had taken to get there. What I found was a wunderful Irish Pub called the Druids Rock and featured the image of Getafix as its mascot. Brill, and only yesterday I was wondering where Asterix was!
I could not pass this by without popping in for a swift coke and was only denied the delights of using its pool table due to it being out of order at the moment. Instead I got to eat fish and chips while listening to Jim Bowens 100 super smashing party tunes, which dragged out one hit wonders galore.
Just before I left I spotted a group of attractive women through the open doorway at just the moment when fate decided to shake lose a few small branches which came crashing down on them, not enough to cause any seriuos pain but I bet it scared the beeezus out of them. I have no idea why but it suddenly reminded me that I forgot to mention that yesterday just before I had my pizza I was caught in the crowd of a passing music video shoot for a very blonde lady wearing a bring pink scarf to some very cheesy pop noise in the background.
Anyway, back to today. I finally made it to the train station where I was gobsmacked that they want to charge 80 cents for using the little boys room, a thing that should always be free unless they expect you to open up and let rip in the middle of the platform. I decided that I would rather hold out that pay and got caught out buying my ticket at the station as I somehow ended up at a travel agency ticket booth and not an outright railstation booth ( though it took a long time to notice the difference ) and thus had to pay an extra EU $1 commission to the agency, despite the main signs for buying tickets pointing in this direction.
The longer I was staying in Rome the more I was having mixed feeling about it, and I was glad to be on a train off to the airport before I found out that I actually didnt like it as much as I would have hoped.
There was a few things to do in the airport, but as I arrived around 4pm and my check in time was 5:30am I still had a looong night ahead of me, made all the longer as I could not see anywhere to easily plug in and recharge my laptop. I checked the wifi but it wasnt free, another pain and when I tried to send a text using my phone it failed. I tried again a few times and then deduced that as I had canceleed my direct debit in order to prevent myself oing overdrawn and paying charges that I must have run out of time and thus would not be able to use my phone til I returned home and reactivated everything.
This night, my last abroad, will likely be a long one and thankfully I managed to hold onto at least EU $40 plus change so any last second expenses should still be able to be coverd when they turn round and say that they wont accept credit card. Which again reminds me, considering that Italy is a pretty well developed country I was very surprised at the amount of old style slide and print credit card voucher machines I had seen still in operation, even in the big places like the hotel. I would have thought a place that could charge EU $95 per night for nothing more lavish than a broomcloset with a bed could easily afford to update their payment system, but apparently not.
After convicing a freindly waitress to let me into the cordoned off area of the restaurant I was able to finally find a place that I could recharge my laptop which meant that I could watch the last of the Harry potter films that I had with me, and have enough juice to run unplugged for another hour after they chuck me out. Only 9 more hours to go now, not long ... I have never liked waiting for things to come but I am always more in control when at least I know how long I have to wait, its the indefinite / uncertain delays that get me going.
The night was not the easiest as there was nowhere in the airport where the lights were turned off and still accessable to the public. I did find a quiet area upstairs where I managed to snooze on and off for a couple of hours til a loud and annoying Italians started chating up this girl around 4am, I could have killed him. I was also glad that I had forseen the night time chill in the airport and doubled up on my clothing, although a good jumper would have done equally well had I not posted them back home weeks ago.
Once awake I decided that I would complete another first, and be the first person to check in on my particular flight, so went downstairs and just sat right infront of the check in desk. Although checkin wasnt until 5:30 the female attendant got my subtle hint and being ready herself a few minutes after 5am they processed me and that just left security and passport control before waiting at the gate to board my very final flight, the 2 hour 40 minute flight home.
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