Rome, Day 13: Sunday
This is the last of the Rome posts so be sure to scroll down and see the other two!!!
Today. Yep this is where it gets mighty interesting! haha. We all got up and made our way to the Colosseum where we had another 3 hour tour lined up, this time of the ruins and the Colosseum. It began at 9:00. (keep in mind, right now, that our plane was to leave at 2:35). We wandered the streets of the ancient Rome Forum that was the center of life in Rome at the time. Then we made our way to where the palace of Nero and Augustus sat, encompassing an incredibly large bit of land. To imagine it at the time was nearly impossible, but with the help of our guides book (which i later bouhght) we were able to see before and after pictures. Our last stop was the Colosseum. Amidst a huge MOB at the entrance (I'm not kidding, someone could have been trampled!) we finally made it in. Oh I forgot to mention that our Austrailan friends happend to be on the same tour again! And we met some people from Dubai who were pretty dang cool as well. But anyways, the inside of this place was just as incredible as the outside. To sit there, with 75,000 people cheering on a death match. I really couldn't imagine anything like that. But here we were, standing in the same place that millions of people prior had stood, with only our intentions and a barrier of time seperating us.
Here's a video of thr stadium, but I'm not sure if you can see it.
Here's the stadium
The tour ended at 12:15 (our plane leaves at 2:35, you MUST bear this in mind) so we left, taking the Metro (subway, mom) to the main terminal so we could catch a train (which we were told was 8 euros) to the airport. We arrived there by about 12:40, but we couldn't figure out where to get tickets or where in the world the trains even were. At this point, it was only me, Kara, Tim, and Andrew because the girls had a different flight than us. But we finally made it to the right location, finding a self service ticket machine and the correct platform. The only problem now was the train didn't leave till 1:22. And was at least a 25-30 minute ride. But we sucked it up, seeing as it was our cheapest option (which turned out to be 14 euros, actually) and got on the train. Get this. IT BREAKS DOWN for at least ten mintues, putting us at the airport at 2:05. Thirty minutes before the plane leaves. And we still had to find out a place to pick up our tickets (just to check in and get our boarding passes, we had already bought them). Well, we were flying Czech Airways which must be pretty obsucure because it took us about ten minutes to finally find them. And you know what they said? "Check in closed 45 minutes ago." At this point I was nearly panicked (which is ironic considering me and Kara had been trying to chill out the twins for about an hour). We said "Our flight leaves in less than 20 minutes!" Yep. He, thankfully, understood and said "Gate 4, fast! Your boarding passes will be at your gate!" So, we ran to security who let us in front of everyone. Heres where it gets tricky. "No boarding pass, no entry." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So that little lady's supervisor said that if we had proof of reservation (which we did) that we could come through. But. The other one, like, hated me and Kara, haha. I had to go through the thing twice and she nearly didnt let Kara through with her reservation paper despite it being perfectly clear. Then, the twins made it through (after some seriously funny mix ups) and then the lady says "we must look in your bag" to me. I was like why?! We are gonna miss our plane! So Tim runs ahead (with less then 10 mintues before take off at this point) to stall the plane while i have to take nearly everything out of my backpack for her. Yuck. Finally she lets us go, and Kara and Andrew are scooping up my stuff, and we start sprinting through this airport, up two flights of stairs to the FAR END before finally making it, just before they closed the door to the loading dock. WOW. I have an entirely new respect for people who are running through airports to catch their flights. ENTIRELY, haha.
We touched down in Prague by 4:30 and wanted to eat, since A: we deserved it and B: we hadn't eaten anything all day. So we wandered the streets of what felt like home, enjoying and appreciating its beautiful simplicity even more after being in the crowded streets of Rome. We climbed to our favorite lookout and sat for nearly two hours, before looking for ice cream and finally coming back to school by about 11:30. It was such a nice day, that ended with stories from other groups, one of which nearly missed their connection like us and another which almost didnt make it back to Prague after sleeping outside a train station and losing all communication with the outside world from the tiny town they were in. haha. Needless to say, we all came back with some fantastic stories from our long weekend away but all of us were definitely glad to be "HOME."
It had just rained on Prague and the way the fog settled made it look positively magical (:
I know it isn't the clearest picture, but this is walking back over the Charles bridge to the subway at night. So beautiful.
Okay guys, I head home tomorrow. Our plane leaves here at 2 and lands in Tennessee at Nashville at 9:07 at night. Don't forget to pick me up! ;)
Today. Yep this is where it gets mighty interesting! haha. We all got up and made our way to the Colosseum where we had another 3 hour tour lined up, this time of the ruins and the Colosseum. It began at 9:00. (keep in mind, right now, that our plane was to leave at 2:35). We wandered the streets of the ancient Rome Forum that was the center of life in Rome at the time. Then we made our way to where the palace of Nero and Augustus sat, encompassing an incredibly large bit of land. To imagine it at the time was nearly impossible, but with the help of our guides book (which i later bouhght) we were able to see before and after pictures. Our last stop was the Colosseum. Amidst a huge MOB at the entrance (I'm not kidding, someone could have been trampled!) we finally made it in. Oh I forgot to mention that our Austrailan friends happend to be on the same tour again! And we met some people from Dubai who were pretty dang cool as well. But anyways, the inside of this place was just as incredible as the outside. To sit there, with 75,000 people cheering on a death match. I really couldn't imagine anything like that. But here we were, standing in the same place that millions of people prior had stood, with only our intentions and a barrier of time seperating us.
Here's a video of thr stadium, but I'm not sure if you can see it.
Here's the stadium
The tour ended at 12:15 (our plane leaves at 2:35, you MUST bear this in mind) so we left, taking the Metro (subway, mom) to the main terminal so we could catch a train (which we were told was 8 euros) to the airport. We arrived there by about 12:40, but we couldn't figure out where to get tickets or where in the world the trains even were. At this point, it was only me, Kara, Tim, and Andrew because the girls had a different flight than us. But we finally made it to the right location, finding a self service ticket machine and the correct platform. The only problem now was the train didn't leave till 1:22. And was at least a 25-30 minute ride. But we sucked it up, seeing as it was our cheapest option (which turned out to be 14 euros, actually) and got on the train. Get this. IT BREAKS DOWN for at least ten mintues, putting us at the airport at 2:05. Thirty minutes before the plane leaves. And we still had to find out a place to pick up our tickets (just to check in and get our boarding passes, we had already bought them). Well, we were flying Czech Airways which must be pretty obsucure because it took us about ten minutes to finally find them. And you know what they said? "Check in closed 45 minutes ago." At this point I was nearly panicked (which is ironic considering me and Kara had been trying to chill out the twins for about an hour). We said "Our flight leaves in less than 20 minutes!" Yep. He, thankfully, understood and said "Gate 4, fast! Your boarding passes will be at your gate!" So, we ran to security who let us in front of everyone. Heres where it gets tricky. "No boarding pass, no entry." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So that little lady's supervisor said that if we had proof of reservation (which we did) that we could come through. But. The other one, like, hated me and Kara, haha. I had to go through the thing twice and she nearly didnt let Kara through with her reservation paper despite it being perfectly clear. Then, the twins made it through (after some seriously funny mix ups) and then the lady says "we must look in your bag" to me. I was like why?! We are gonna miss our plane! So Tim runs ahead (with less then 10 mintues before take off at this point) to stall the plane while i have to take nearly everything out of my backpack for her. Yuck. Finally she lets us go, and Kara and Andrew are scooping up my stuff, and we start sprinting through this airport, up two flights of stairs to the FAR END before finally making it, just before they closed the door to the loading dock. WOW. I have an entirely new respect for people who are running through airports to catch their flights. ENTIRELY, haha.
We touched down in Prague by 4:30 and wanted to eat, since A: we deserved it and B: we hadn't eaten anything all day. So we wandered the streets of what felt like home, enjoying and appreciating its beautiful simplicity even more after being in the crowded streets of Rome. We climbed to our favorite lookout and sat for nearly two hours, before looking for ice cream and finally coming back to school by about 11:30. It was such a nice day, that ended with stories from other groups, one of which nearly missed their connection like us and another which almost didnt make it back to Prague after sleeping outside a train station and losing all communication with the outside world from the tiny town they were in. haha. Needless to say, we all came back with some fantastic stories from our long weekend away but all of us were definitely glad to be "HOME."
It had just rained on Prague and the way the fog settled made it look positively magical (:
I know it isn't the clearest picture, but this is walking back over the Charles bridge to the subway at night. So beautiful.
Okay guys, I head home tomorrow. Our plane leaves here at 2 and lands in Tennessee at Nashville at 9:07 at night. Don't forget to pick me up! ;)
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