Amanda and Megan Do Europe Day 12: 4th Day in Rome and Trip Home!

Megan and I woke up in Rome on Sunday August 6th, 2017 with nothing on our agenda except a flight that left at 7pm. We took our time getting ready and had a leisurely breakfast of croissants and coffee in our hotel's restaurant. We packed our backpacks which were now busting at the seams with our dirty clothes and the few souvenirs we'd picked up along the way. I ran out of underwear when we were in Italy and I had to wash a couple pairs in our bathroom sink. We did the whole 12 day trip with just what we could fit into hiking backpacks and small purses. My purse broke the day before and I left it in the garbage can of our hotel and packed up my new big red Italian purse with more souvenirs. We left our backpacks in a closet of our hotel's entrance and went out to explore a little more of Rome while we still had time. We found a cute coffee shop and I felt like I hadn't quite had enough Italian coffee. Megan and I each got two shots of espresso served in cute little mugs and Megan who is used to sugary mocha-chino-lattes was like "Gross, why is this so strong?" and I was like "It's espresso, it's supposed to be strong, silly American." We walked a little further and found a cute little street market. Fruits and vegetables were for sale as well as handmade items like scarfs, journals, and blankets. Everything was so cute but I had to remind myself that I had literally no room left in my bag so I couldn't buy anything.

Around 1pm we found a place to have our last Italian meal. I got a margarita pizza and Megan got classic spaghetti and we figured we might as well get some wine with lunch. "When in Rome!" One of the things I liked the most about Rome was how cheap the wine was. They had little boxes of wine at convenience stores that were like 87 cents. I don't know what the laws were (and I should have probably been aware of them) but we saw lots of people walking around drinking so we figured it was fine. We each got a box to sip on as we walked a little more and saw some cute shops. We found a giant book store and looked at some cool books and there was a cute little store that was like a miniature IKEA. We were a little tired and sat down on a bench to relax and Megan noticed that her wine was all over the inside of her purse. It was such a hot day that it had seeped through the sides of the box and gotten on her wallet, passport and everything in her purse. We had to take everything out and lay it out on the bench to let it dry in the sun. We looked like a couple hobos sitting there with all our stuff all over the place. A woman walked by and gave us a disgusted look and Megan jokingly said so the women couldn't actually hear "What lady, you've never spilled your purse wine?! Good for you!"

After the wine stained documents in Megan's purse dried out in the sun (thankfully there were no major damages) we were tired and ready to head to the airport. We knew we'd be super early but we had done everything in Rome we wanted to do. Plus it was a hot day and the airport air conditioning sounded lovely. We walked back to the hotel and grabbed our bags and looked up an Uber to take us to the airport. We opened up the app and were astounded to see that Ubers were at 2.5 surge pricing. The $40 price we were expecting to see was over $100. We wondered "why heck is it surge pricing at 2:30 in the afternoon?" We sat like little hobos in our hotels entry way with our giant backpacks and Megan's wine stained purse. We were so tired, hot, and ready to go home. I didn't know if the surge pricing would last all day or possibly go up even higher. We really didn't want to have to spend over $100 on a ride to the airport but we would if we had to. I vaguely remembered that it was a thing for Italians to take naps in the afternoon and I googled it and found out it's a big thing. It's called "riposo" and from about 1-3 every day in Rome a lot of businesses, churches, and museums shut down so people can have a long lunch followed by a little nap. We waited there in that dark little hallway and kept checking the Uber app and finally a little after 3pm the prices returned to normal and we called our Uber. Thankfully our flight didn't leave until 7 so we weren't in a big hurry.

As we drove to the airport I took in all the sites for the last time. I loved the beauty of this city so much. I loved that almost everywhere you turned you would see 2000 year old ruins and beautiful architecture on every street. I hope I can return someday and see more of Italy. We got to the airport a little before 4 and began the longest day of travel I have ever done. There were short check in and security lines so we made it to our gate quickly and sat to wait for almost 3 hours for our flight. I had brought a book with me and lugged it across the Atlantic Ocean and through 3 countries without opening it once until then. We had dinner in the airport (I think we had pizza again), and boarded our short flight to London.

We landed in London a little before 9pm their time but it felt like it was so late. When we booked our flight, the options flying home from Rome to Seattle were not the greatest. There were no direct flights available and none with short layovers. We had to be in the London airport for over 12 hours. If I could do it again I would have booked us a hotel to sleep but I didn't because I didn't want to have to go out of customs and security and back. It turns out we had to do that anyway because the terminal we landed in closed for the night at 10. So we left security and tried to go back through in the terminal we were flying out of but it didn't open until 6am. I looked up hotels on my phone but everything at that point was pretty expensive and not that close to the airport. We spent the entire night in uncomfortable chairs outside of security. I managed to get about 4 hours a sleep, but woke up like every 10 minutes in a panic to make sure I still had my purse with my passport inside it and my backpack. Megan stayed up the entire night reading my book and keeping watch. At one point a police officer came up to her and asked what we were doing and she had to show him her boarding pass to prove that we were flying somewhere eventually and not just hobos off the street. Finally at 6am I awoke to see signs of the security gate opening and even though we still had over 3 hours until our flight we went through security in hopes that we could find a more comfortable spot to relax while we waited. We bought a snack and looked for chairs but all the chairs had the divider arms on them and we really wanted to lay down for a second. We found this little alleyway between some restaurants and laid down on the floor again like a couple hobos. (I've mentioned feeling like hobos like 4 times in this blog, but on these long travel days when you're kind of in limbo it does feel like you're a little homeless) This time I let Megan get a couple hours of sleep while I kept watch. I was too nervous to fall asleep and miss our flight. At 8:30 we went to our gate. It was running a little late but at about 10am we finally got on. It was such a relief to finally be on our flight home I almost forgot that we had to be on that plane for over 9 hours. Thankfully our British Airlines flight was so comfortable after sleeping in airport chairs and the floor all night we both fell asleep right away. We woke up when lunch was served (I love airplane food) and had our last glass of wine of the trip. We were exhausted, hadn't showered in over 24 hours, and ready to be home but we enjoyed each others company and had a good time those last few hours of our trip. Our flight attendant looked like Charlie from Lost and since I was thinking about becoming a flight attendant I asked him some questions about being a flight attendant and how long he had to stay in Seattle. He thought we were flirting with him and flirted back. We about died laughing about that, especially since we literally looked like death. We watched a movie together, I read my book for a little while and then finally at about 11:30am Pacific time we landed in Seattle!

We went through customs and parted ways. Megan had Josh waiting for her outside of security. I had one last short flight to take to get home to Spokane. I was flying standby for that flight and when I opened up the app the check on how many open seats my flight had (last I checked it had plenty) I saw that it was cancelled. All the flights to Spokane for the rest of the day were booked solid until 10pm and I almost burst into tears. I was so ready to get home. I was exhausted, and I missed my family. I looked at flights on other airlines, and they all looked full too. I looked into renting a car, $800. I asked my Facebook friends if anyone happened to be driving from Seattle to Spokane that day. I thought about hitchhiking. There was a Delta flight leaving in 20 minutes that had a frown face next to it (meaning it was not a good option for standby travelers) but I decided to head to that gate to see if there was any possibility of an open seat. Of course it was on the opposite end of the airport from where I was so I did the classic running through the airport scene with my giant backpack in my disheveled state. Even if I made it on time and there was an open seat I wasn't even sure if I could get on it since I wasn't on the standby list for the flight and it was too late for me to get on it on my phone. I ran up to the gate as they were just finishing boarding and the gate agent was calling standby passengers. "Hi, I'm an airline employee and I was wondering if there's any room on this flight. I haven't listed for it yet, and I'm not sure if it's too late, but I just want to get home." As I said the words with tears in my eyes I knew it was probably impossible and I sounded like a psycho but thank the heavens this gate agent was the sweetest woman I have ever met. "We have one seat left, show me your airline badge and we'll get you taken care of". I literally started crying. That woman was probably seconds away from closing the flight when I got there and she didn't have to let me on because it meant a little more work for her. But she added me to the standby list, and gave me the last seat and I am forever grateful. I got on that flight and found my seat (it was even first class) and took my last flight of our long journey. Being able to get home to my family at a reasonable time was the icing on the cake of our amazing trip to Europe. Being able to go to London, Paris, and Rome with my sissy was literally a dream come true. We had been talking about it since we were little and I am so glad that we finally got to make it happen. Hey Megan! Remember that time we ate a lot of soup? :-)

Amanda and Megan Do Europe Day 11: 3rd Day in Rome

On Saturday August 5th, 2017 Megan and I woke up in Rome. We both slept in until about 9 and then took our time getting ready. We had breakfast in our hotel's restaurant and then got on a bus that took us near the Spanish steps. There was a bunch of fancy shopping on the streets nearby. There were stores like Gucci, Cartier, and Louis Vuitton. We walked around and didn't go in anywhere until we saw a familiar place: McDonald's. We weren't really hungry since we had just had breakfast but I wanted more coffee. I love how McDonald's is always the same but a little different in other countries. This one had an upstairs with the usual McDonald's stuff like big macs and mcchickens, but the downstairs floor was like it's own upscale coffee shop with espresso drinks and a display full of macaroons, croissants, and other fancy looking pastries. I got 2 shots of espresso in a cute little McDonald's cup and Megan got some mcbites that we were curious about that turned out to be just mini chicken nuggets.

When we finished our snack we walked over to the Spanish Steps. It was a beautiful area with a cool fountain. I walked to the top of the steps and back down, and we sat and drank some water. Then we looked at each other like "Well, we did it, what now?" The steps were cool and all but not something we needed to spend a lot of time at. We didn't have a plan for the rest of the day so we looked at a map and saw that we were near a huge park so we decided to go check it out.

We walked up a huge hill and at the top we could see miles and miles of the city. We walked through the park not knowing what to expect but it was so beautiful. It was another hot day and the park was covered in trees so it was really nice to cool off in the shade. We found a row of statues of famous philosophers like Thomas Aquinas and some other priest dudes. Then we found a place that rented out those little pedal karts for 2 people and I was so excited. I had always wanted to rent one of those. We got one for 45 minutes and it was the best 45 minutes of my life! I had so much fun peddling that thing around and that way we could see so much more of the park and gardens. Megan was gracious and let me drive almost the whole time. The thing had two steering wheels but only one actually steered it. We drove through gardens and winding paths and found a restaurant in the middle of the park.

After our 45 minutes were up we decided to grab some lunch at the little restaurant. Almost all of our dining experiences in Europe were amazing but this one was not. They had a menu posted with reasonable prices like sandwiches for 5€ but when we sat down they gave us an entirely different menu with outrageous prices. I got pesto pasta which was OK but not worth 13€ for a small portion. Sodas were 6,50 each so we didn't order drinks, and the waiter literally rolled his eyes when we said we just wanted water. Oh well, we didn't let it ruin our day. Megan took a cat nap in the park and then I had to pee and we couldn't find any bathrooms in the park. We went back down the big hill into the busy part of the city and found our friend McDonald's with the free bathrooms and euro menu.

After our pit stop we walked all the way back to our hotel. We were pretty tired from all our long days and averaging 20,000 steps a day so we allowed ourselves to just rest in our hotel room and watch some Italian television. In a couple hours we were ready for dinner and we found a place nearby that had really good reviews. We shared a giant delicious charcuterie platter and split a bottle of Italian sparkling wine. It was one of those meals that I will forever be trying to recreate but I know I may never eat something that delicious again. At some point that day my purse broke so I was in the market for a new one. So after dinner we decided to walk through the bustling shops and see if I could find myself a nice Italian purse. We went to a few stores and I eventually found one that I loved from a guy with a stand on the street. I hate haggling with people but that seemed to be the norm with the street vendors so we eventually settled on a fair price and I got my new red Italian purse. We went in another shop and did a little limoncello tasting. We were near the trevi fountain so we stopped by one more time to see it at night and make another wish. It was our last night in town so we toyed with the idea of going to an Italian nightclub because we had heard that they were fun. We walked by one and it said it didn't even open until 11pm. It was 9pm and there was no way we would want to stay up that late to go to a club, we're too old. Instead we went to a grocery store (I love foreign grocery stores) and bought grapes to eat back in our hotel room and watch TV and finish off our cheap wine. It was an absolutely lovely evening.

Amanda and Megan Do Europe Day 10: 2nd Day in Rome & Vatican City

On Friday August 4th, 2017 my sister Megan and I woke up at our beautiful hotel room in Rome and got ready for the day. We enjoyed a breakfast of juice, coffee, and pastries at a table for two sitting outside enjoying the warm air and people watching. It was already warm at 9am but since we were going to The Vatican that day we had our shoulders and knees covered. We got on the Big Bus stop near our hotel and got off at the stop nearest Vatican City. It was a big beautiful place. It took us a little while to find what entrance we wanted. We had already purchased our tickets for the Vatican museum with a lunch but everyone on the street was trying to sell us something else. We tried to ask someone who was trying to sell us something if we were going the right way to the main entrance but he would only help us with directions if we paid him. We found the Vatican Museum entrance, waited in line for about 20 minutes, went through security and we were in! It definitely saved us time having bought our tickets online.

There was so much to see. I didn't really know what to expect in going to the Vatican. I didn't do enough research beforehand, but it was so much bigger than I anticipated. We saw lots of art by Raphael, da Vinci, Caravaggio, and of course the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. That's what I was most excited to see. We went through so many winding rooms with signs leading to the Sistine Chapel, it was like a maze (and probably a fire hazard with so many people in small rooms and a bunch of narrow staircases). Finally we found the big room with the beautiful Michelangelo paintings covering the whole ceiling. It was breathtaking and serene. No loud voices were allowed and no photography. We enjoyed that peaceful room for a few minutes until our tummies started rumbling and we were ready for lunch. (Don't make fun of my socks and sandals in the last pic, we were walking about 10 miles a day so comfort took precedence over fashion)

We had prepaid for a full course lunch inside the Vatican with our museum tickets. We weren't exactly sure where to redeem our lunch vouchers but I was expecting a 5 star restaurant and that we'd be having lunch with the pope. After asking around we finally found where to get our lunch and it was in a big cafeteria and not with the pope. We each got a big tray full of pasta, chicken, rice, veggies, a roll, an apple, and a water bottle. We were both starving and ate most of our food. After we were finished we made our way out of the Vatican Museum and towards St. Peter's Basilica. Lines to get in took about 20 minutes and admission was free. There were people near the entrance trying to sell us tickets though (these were either skip the line tickets, even though the line wasn't that long and everyone had to wait in line to go through security or guided tours or just total scammers trying to take your money). We walked by the guards in their colorful outfits who we found out were members of the Swiss military. We walked around the huge, beautiful building filled with lots of beautiful sculptures and paintings. There was a long line to go to the top of the dome inside the basilica but neither of us felt like waiting. After walking around for about a half hour we were ready to get back on the Big Bus and see more of Rome.

On our walk to our bus stop we walked by the big wall that divides Vatican City from the rest of Italy. We learned in the Museum that parts of these walls were hallow and had secret walkways that connected Vatican City with a nearby castle. Two popes had used the secret passageway to escape when Vatican City was under attack. Megan reenacted what we called "the sneaky pope".

We got back on our bus and decided to head to The Catacombs of Saint Sebastian and do an underground tour. The winding road there was so beautiful. We passed under old aqueducts that were 1000s of years old (maybe, I don't know that for sure, but they looked old). When we got there the next guided tour started in 20 minutes so we bought some much needed coffee while we waited. We started our English speaking tour of the underground catacombs. In France and Italy pretty much everyone we came in contact with in the tourism industry spoke English so that was nice. There was a group from Germany on our catacomb tour and they spoke English as well so it seems to be a second language for a lot of Europeans. Photos weren't allowed underground out of respect, but I can remember vividly the rows and rows of tombs and the remnants of a city that had long since been buried by the passage of time. The little loop on my fit-bit that the strap goes into fell off while we were inside so I like to think that it got swept up deep within the catacombs and is now a piece of history. On top of the catacombs there was an old catholic church (I guess 'old' is relative in Rome, it was only 300 years old) that of course was beautiful and filled with art. After we had seen enough we went to wait for our bus. According to our schedule there was supposed to be a bus every 45 minutes but we called the company to see when the last one came add we had just missed it. We had to wait over 45 minutes in the hot Roman sun for the next bus. Thankfully we had water bottles and there was a fountain where we could keep refilling them, and Rome water was so delicious. Finally a bus came and we finally got back to our hotel at about 6pm.

We were so tired and hungry when we got back to our room we were faced with the first world problem of whether to take a nap or power through and go out to eat. We rested for about an hour in our air conditioned room then put on our nice dresses and got dolled up for a fancy dinner in Rome. We enjoyed a glass of our cheap wine (seriously, cheaper than water) on our private terrace then ventured out to find a place to get dinner (after a photo shoot in our hotel's hallway). We wanted to find some classic Italian pasta which was obviously easy to find. There was a pasta restaurant on pretty much every corner. We found a reasonably priced place and sat outside and enjoyed the warm evening. We split a bottle of red and I had tortellini and Megan had lasagna. It was a beautiful, almost perfect evening. We got back to our hotel around 10 and Megan fell asleep practically as her head hit the pillow. I stayed up and called my family back home. I was having the time of my life but I missed my husband and 3 kids so much. I was so thankful for this trip but also excited to get home to those cuties. I eventually pushed my homesickness aside and got some sleep.