The Odyssey (well, Kenny's Odyssey), pt. 3 - Stuck in Rome

So let's try to get this straight...it took me a while to fully grasp the magnitude of the situation we found ourselves in. Turns out that Iceland wasn't satisfied with wrecking their financial system, so they decided to blow their island up. Actually, they might not have had any control over that although I'm still a bit suspicious.

So that's pretty cool. Big ol' volcano. Except that it blew it's lid so hard that nearly every flight in Europe got canceled because it turns out that volcano ash is not good for planes. Go figure.

In addition to the tremendous hassle, there were some good things. Although we spent most of our time either in line at the airport or traveling to the airport to get in line, we certainly got a pretty good trip to Rome out of the ordeal. Rome is a really sweet place. Oozing at the seams with landmarks and relics of one of the coolest civilizations of the ancient world. I thought it was an interesting coincidence to see Egypt (and the remnants of another of the coolest ancient civilizations) before visiting Rome to explore the civilization that managed to conquer the Egyptians.

Stuck in Rome. We've already been out for nine days. Everything I have with equals 7.7kg. This should be fun.

One of our first experiences dealing with a volcano cancellation was rescheduling our flight (and standing in line). They were optimistic and offered to reschedule us for the next day. Sounds good! Oh, and we get a hotel for the night? Volcanoes aren't so bad.

I got to sit in the front seat of the bus on the way to the hotel. Never got to do that before.

Oh, fun! Another line. It was apparent right away that lines would be a theme.

A guy Tyler talked to on the bus told us about the beach that was close to our hotel. I think I could get used to volcano delays...

And free dinner?! How can I get involved in volcano delays more often?

We went to the airport the next day and were not really surprised to learn that our flight was cancelled again. We decided to check on the train option when we learned that Italians can be quite eccentric when setting opening/closing times for train ticket offices.

Another line. My enthusiasm for volcano delays is diminishing.

At the end of that wait, we learned that the airline would not be providing us with another night in the hotel. Or any hotel. Even better, all hotels in Ostia (town near the airport) were completely full. In fact, the only hotels with space were in the center of Rome, and only the expensive ones at that. And all the trains are booked. And the busses. My opinion of volcano delays had officially changed at this point.

Says it all...

We found some internet so we could start making people aware of our predicament.

So here's our situation at this point. No place to stay. No way to get out of Rome. We had to figure something out. Well, we explored the hotel we stayed at the night before and found an abandoned conference room in the basement. I guess that's home until this volcano business clears up... It was actually a pretty sweet deal. The hotel had free (and really fantastic) breakfast in the morning. And we were able to sneak in for dinner for a second night by hanging on to our dinner ticket from the previous night.

Later that night, we found some better internet at little family run coffee shop. We would be spending a lot of time there, and we actually became pretty good friends with the people in there.

There was this dead lizard next to where I was sleeping in that conference room. I thought it looked pretty cool.

The next morning. Looks like home... (although, a bit blurry. sorry.)

Fantastic! Another line. Funny story: That guy with the white hair...he completely flipped his lid when the airline people herded like six people to the front of the line that we all had been standing in for an hour or more. He was yelling and screaming and he even got another guy riled up enough to threaten calling the police about the line unfairness.

Back in Ostia before we set off to see some more Rome, I saw this pretty flower.

And this silly toilet.

I can't get enough of the Italian subway warning stickers.

First thing we saw for our second pass of Rome was the Vatican. These guys were scattered about, guarding the place. I think they might be Swiss.

Yep. That's one heck of a Vatican. We should get in it...

To get in to the basilica, there is a dress code. The signs tell you that.

There are also lots of priests...

...and lots of good looking ceilings.

We knew that we wanted to see this statue. We were on our way out, thinking we would miss it, but it turns out that we walked right past it on the way in and just didn't notice. Good thing we saw it before we left.

Heh.

After the Vatican, we went to see this castle.

Obelisk! In Egypt, our tour guide for the pyramids told us how all the obelisks got stolen by the Romans...

Another one! They're all over the place. Romans love their obelisk.

There's the pantheon. One of the perks of traveling off season (as experienced big time in Belgium...) is that everything is under construction.

Look at that sneaky Mc Donald's! I guess they have to disguise it for the Romans to allow it to be literally across the plaza from the pantheon.

Walking around that night, we came across this (extremely drunk) American father-daughter team. They were hanging out with that bum (on the right) and begging for credit cards. The dad bragged about how rich he actually is (I think he said 7 or 8 MILLION) and that it was just a joke.

Next day, we went back to the Vatican to see the Sistine chapel. This globe was out front. Look closely at that reflection. That's me!

More beautiful ceilings! Kind of a theme at the Vatican..

The mother of all ceilings, and I'm not allowed to take pictures? Shucks.

Tyler wasn't as scared of that dumb sign, though, and got this picture. Good ceiling...

It started raining after, so we ducked into this shop for some delicious coffee and ice cream. An interesting aside: see my glasses? They were the unfortunate victims of an accidental stomping at the hotel and they lost one of the ear-hooks. They actually still work pretty well, though.

After a little while, the rain turned to hail. Crazy...

It was probably one of the best places that we could've chosen to wait it out, though. Swanky.

This was a pretty typical scene for the center of Rome. Ruins scattered about. Definitely a cool city to be stuck in.

Round two for the Colosseum. We actually got to get inside this time.

The Colosseum was probably my favorite thing to see in Rome. A real testament to how ridiculous Romans were. One of their hobbies: Step one: round up hundreds of ostriches and put them in that colosseum. Step two...and I couldn't believe this...: BEHEAD them with ARROWS! This was in addition to naval battles...INSIDE (!) the Colosseum. Oh, and another fun fact that I got a kick out of: the term "arena" comes from the Latin word for sand because they used it to cover the wooden platform in the performing area of the Colosseum.

The reports seemed to indicate that our flight would leave in the morning. So we took a picture with the staff in that coffee shop in Ostia where we had been hanging out for the past several nights.

What?! The flight's NOT cancelled? I was a bit skeptical.

But it was no joke! Here we are in the last line we would stand in during our stay in Rome...

...the line to get on a plane!!

Good bye Rome!! (That’s not actually Rome…just some suburb.)

One last flight on a real plane equals one last treat during the flight. Well deserved, in my opinion.

Exciting indeed. We finally escaped Rome and were on our way back to Amsterdam (according to our original flight bookings). At this point, we decided to join up with the next trip that we had planned (which was to Berlin) since we had already bought tickets to a concert there. The concert was a few days out, though, so we devised a plan to fill the time with some other goals... Check back soon for part four.