Layover in Rome

Layover in Rome

This morning I did my laundry again to make sure I had clean clothes to get me through the Middle East. I think I mentioned before that Ryan's dryer is the most useless piece of junk ever created, so it takes litterally all day to wash clothes. The two of us had a nice quiet day inside the house eating top romen, and watching movies while waiting for my clothes to dry. You probably wouldn't really want to go out side today anyway because the weather had changed for the worse, and it was cold and stormy all day. The cold was a lot more like I'd felt in Ireland and Scotland than what I had seen in England, and Ryan agreed that it was unusually cold for England.

When my clothes had finally dried, I packed them up into my backpack, and it was about time to leave for the airport. However, upon entering the tube station we saw that all the direct routes to Heathrow had been shut down for the weekend, and the only way to get there was through a tangled knot of tubes that went completely in the other direction and then back around to take the Heathrow Express at Padington Street. We now had to rush our way through crowded tube tunnels in the hopes of getting me to the airport in time to check in, find where I'm going, get strip-searched, and get on my plane to Rome. When we had finally made it to the Heathrow Express, it was just about to pull away from the station, so I leaped on board and I said my goodbye to Ryan through the window of the train. As it pulled away from the station, Ryan ran aside my window for a moment yelling after me, like in the classic movies. It was a bit excentric, but it was nice to have that little moment.

At Heathrow I had no idea where I was going. I just had my confirmation printout in my hand and it said terminal 2 on it, so I walked on following the signs to terminal two. Turning left, and then right, upstairs and down stairs, I followed the white rabbit through a labarynth of tunnels and corridors leading into an infinite abyss of more tunnels and corridors. Finally I somehow ended up in front of Alitalia's check in point, and I showed the lady at the front desk my printout and asked her if she knew what I was supposed to do now. She took my printout and studied it for a second, and asked for my passport which I then handed forward. She smiled a truly relieving smile, and typed away on her keyboard. She seemed tickled by the way I looked so flustered and lost, but over it enough to just go along for the ride. We made small talk about where I was going and where I perferred to sit on the plane. She asked if I was going to sleep in the airport in Rome (since my layover is about 10 hours) and I told her "that would be great, as long as it's free." Then she told me about how I need to buy a visa as soon as I get in to Cairo (15 US Dollars) and she asked when I'll be coming back from Cairo. I stopped for a second and said, "I won't be coming back from Cairo, one way is all I need." Her face did that thing when you don't know the answer, and she looked back up at me and repeated, "One way? You don't have your ticket back?" I explained to her that I was going to take the bus from Cairo into Jordan and Isreal, so I didn't book a return flight, but I also havn't bought my bus tickets yet either. I knew right away what the problem was. It's the Egyptian Government's policy that travelers have to have proof of a return trip or that you are not staying in Egypt indefinately in order to get on a plane to Egypt. But since the website that I ordered the tickets from had let me purchase them without a return trip, I figured I'd be ok. The woman at the front desk looked up at me for a moment, and then typed something on her keyboard. The boarding passes for the trip shot out of the slot, and she handed them to me looking around carefully to make sure no one was watching. She bit her lower lip and sat up in her chair, "ok goodbye!" She said in a loud voice. I hesitated, confused, and she gave me a "get the hell out of here" look so I did. I made it through security, and onto my plane with no trouble, and arrived in Rome a couple hours later.

The fiumacino airport was all but barren when I walked up to my next departure gate where I was to spend this night. I had to go through security again unfortunately, and I got to the guards at the security check and asked them if they knew where my gate was. They told me where it was, and asked if it was just the two of us. "Two?" I said and wheeled around and sure enough there was a girl about my age right behind me. "Oh, no she's not with me, I'm traveling alone." I told them. "I'm actually going to that same place too" she said back in a beautiful british accent. "Well two then, I guess" I replied back to them, and made my way through security. She obviously finished before me, and stood by me while I started putting all my things together and getting myself back in order. She asked me why I was going to Cairo, and I told her about my 3 month journey, and she said that she was going on a tour there. I was still dressing myself as she passed by, and she said it was good to meet me, and she'd see me again. I said I'd see her at the terminal. As she rounded the corner it occured to me that I never asked her name, So I quickly finished dressing, grabbed my stuff and headed after her, but she was no where to be found. Even as I reached the gate, I was the only one there, and she was no where in the area.

I'm sitting here at the gate right now, and in the morning I fly to Cairo. I hope I see that girl again, I'd love to ask where she's staying at, and maybe I could get in on that tour she's doing. It'd be great to have a friend in Cairo, and one that's not so hard on the eyes at that.
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