I don't even know how to possible explain what my life has been the past 12 hours. But I'll try.
First. We wait until our friends get back from their trip to head into Rome. They are too tired to join us. Vanessa, Abby and I continue on because we are suppose to be meeting SAS people for a "Pub Crawl" between 9 and 10 on the Spanish Steps. We don't have anywhere to stay in Rome, but at this point in time, thats ok because we'll be with lots of people and the crawl goes until about 4am at which time the train station opens again.
We get on the train and know we'll be cutting it close. We get to Rome at about 9:46. So we have 14 minutes to get to the Spainish Steps. Which is totally doable because the metro is basically in the train station and its super fast.
As it turns out, Line A is under maintenance. So now we have to find a bus. The bus is late. We get to the Spanish Step at 10:11....aka we miss the pub crawl and all of our friends.
So we hang out on the Spanish Steps for about 10 minutes until we realize we all need a bathroom. Find a McDs. (On the way I found a cheap souvenir shot glass for my collection yay!) We are hungry / need comfort food so we get fries and burgers excepts I dont get a burger, duh.
Then we make the executive decision to go back to the train station and back to the boat since we are no longer with a big group, have no where to go and nothing to do.
The bus is late again. We get to the train station 5 minutes after the last train back to Civitaveccia. Crap.
Then I find a nice english-speaking guy and ask him what our options are. He is also the owner of some taxi service. He siad that the cheapest taxi we'll be able to find is going to be about 150 euro. It is clear that even if we get mugged, we will not lose 150 euro mostly becuase we don't even HAVE that much on us, so we dont take the cab.
The next train back is not until 6:39.
Then we find out that the train station closes in about half hour and McDonalds is the public place that stays open the latest and its only open until 2 am. The train station doesn't open again until 4am. The train station is also in a really bad area.
That cab ride starts to sound like a really good option...
But then - !!! A group of 5 British (I think) girl college students overhear me trying to speak to an Italiam McDonalds worker. Turns out they are in the same predicament and didn't even realize it! They thought the McD's and station were both open all night. So we all make mugging jokes for a little while. After about 4 minutes of that, it gets old and 2 of the British girls, Vanessa, Abby and I go out to see if we can find any rooms open. The plan is all 8 of us will just split the price and sleep on the floor or whatever because thats gonna be alot safer than the streets of Rome!
After about an hour of being told theres "no room at the inn" we stumble upon a 1 star hotel in the Roman hood. The owner feels really bad for us. In Europe you usually have to pay per person but we explained the situation and he agrees that as long as we're out by 4, we can just pay 125 euro total for all 8 and there will be 5 beds - 2 in one room, 3 in another. So the group of 5 gets the 3 bed and we get the 2. Everyone ends up paying about 15 euro - not a bad price for my life! Vanessa, Abby and I push the little beds together in our room that looks a little bit like Aladin's Palace and has a huge window without screens. It actually wasn't too shabby, there was a TV, our own bathroom and shower, but there was a really sketchy pair of tennis shoes in the closet... hahahah I know WHAT!?
But other than that, it was fine. After thoroughly examing the room and hysterically laughing because we were so happy we weren't going to get kidnapped, we got to sleep for about 3.5 hours off and on. Then we woke up at 6, walked to the train station and got on our train. Got to Civitaveccia, walked back to the boat - just in time for breakfast!
It was an insane day / night to say the least. The kind of situation that is only funny because nothing bad happened! And we learned our lesson - plan ahead, leave early and always check train times!
As for an update on my computer - still broke as a joke. Which will ironically be something my computer and I have in common after I pay for a new laptop. But I have many wonderful friends onboard who have all offered me their computer / iphones to use whenever I need them! Plus we have a computer lab onboard.
The next 2 days are class days as we sail to Croatia!
I hope everyone's night was less eventful than mine! Miss you all <3
