My Journey to Italy

September 16, 2005; Bologna, Italy; Friday Afternoon; Cafe at SAIS

I had intended to start this blog a little earlier in the month, but lack of internet access has prevented me from doing so. However, my friend Naveen has shamed me into getting my act together, so here we go....

My trip to Italy 3 weeks ago was a great experience. I mean this sarcastically. The things I will do for a free plane ticket! I left my apartment in DC at 3:30 AM. American Airlines has a 70 lb weight limit for suitcases going to Europe. The weight of my suitcase? 69.5 lbs!! I was so proud....

I first flew to Boston and then to London (my first international commuter flight; no frills, no fun, no free drinks). I knew I was going to have to spend the night in London, but I had planned to just camp out in Heathrow for the night and then be there for my flight out the next morning. However, not only was Heathrow not open all night, but my flight out the next morning was from a completely different airport. So, it was then 9 PM and I had no place to stay and an early flight the next morning. This was my first international trip traveling with a wireless-capable laptop computer. So, I opened up my computer, found a network, and 35,000 Hilton points later, I had a great place to stay in a nice downtown Hilton in an executive suite.

The next morning, I caught a cab at 5:45 AM to the London City Airport. From there, I flew to Basel, Switzerland in a lovely Swiss Air prop plane. Then I caught another flight to Roma, Italy, where I spent an afternoon and evening in Rome. The pictures are still in my camera, so I can't post them now....

Now we are at Sunday. I had been traveling for 2 days and I was still not in Bologna. Finally, I went to the train station to catch my train to Bologna. At this point, I was so sick of lugging my suitcases around, I wanted to just set them on fire. Plus one the of wheels on my heaviest bag was broken. But I got on the train and 3 hours later I was finally in Bologna. Of course, I was staying at a youth hostel way outside the city, so there was a lovely hassle of trying to get my cumbersome luggage on a bus and to the hostel. But this is a boring story that involves me whining a lot, so I will just end my first blog and the story of my trip to Italy here....