Day 30 (Oct 2nd) - We took an express train to Rome today.
I'm very glad that I splurged and purchased 1st class tickets for the 4 hour train ride. With all of our luggage, we needed the extra space. Oddly, 3 of the girls had seats reserved together and Ruth Ann had a seat across from Renae and I. The Chinese man who had the 4th seat next to the other girls gladly switched with Ruth Ann.
We were very worried about pickpockets at Rome's Termini station. We had all of bags locked up with luggage locks. With all of the graffitti on the walls and train cars, I knew I wasn't in Germany anymore.
A major iritant was getting our subway tickets. Standing around the 4 ticket machines were 4 people "offering" to help purchase tickets (for a tip, of course). I ignored the one lady at a machine. She cursed me out in Italian and brushed me off to another machine. (The machines have an option to select English). The lady at this machine kept on trying to push the buttons for me. I finally gave her 1€ coin, and we got all of our tickets.
I had a map of the directions from the Cirus Massimo metro stop to our apartment. It was hotter than I expected, and we weren't entirely sure if the Garmin was guiding us correctly. After walking about 3/4 mile. We finally found the apartment.
The owner's uncle was there to let us in and show us how to use the appliances. His English was great. We then learned that all the grocery stores were closed on Sunday. Fortunately, we brought some left over can food from Germany with us. I was also unhappy to find out that the Internet only worked on the old XP computer in the apartment'--and the keyboard didn't work! It took me about 45 minutes to figure out how to email the owner without a keyboard and ask for help.
Her husband came over the next morning promptly and replaced the keyboard. And, now I can blog!
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