Day 1
My dearest love. I am writing you via blackberry on the train from Rome to Florence. Words cannot describe how long this day has been. I will start from the beginning, as time is not a constraint for me at this very moment. My day started with a jolt from my blackberry alarm clock. I was a little sad all night, so sleep was hard to come by. I got out of bed at seven and started this marathon adventure. We packed up the rest of my stuff, struggled with the backpack zippers and headed out. Of course our highway exit was blocked off, alas! Sooner or later we made it to the airport. After checking through with some slightly over friendly security guards, I was on my way to philadelphia. In the seat next to me was a very animated woman heading to Napoli of all places! She asked me how old I was and saw my giant backpack and naturally inquired what I was up to (in a raspy yellow smoker's teeth kinda way). I told her all about our backpacking adventure and she went nuts!(In a good way) we had a great conversation the rest of the flight. Simon, I hope all the people we meet are as animated and caricatury as she was. If they are, I really believe our trip will be even better than we so idealistically fantasize. I made it to philadelphia and got a little lost. I walked a solid mile to and from baggage claim only to walk outside to the international building and check it through again. My layover was six hours. The philadelphia airport is sketchy. I had six whole hours to perfect my lexicon of sketch. (If I have to hear gross men tell me I have pretty eyes one more time I'm going to take the ace bandage off my wrist and glue it to their faces permanent blindfold style.) Fast forward Six hours later...on the plane to roma! Smallest. Plane. Ever. I was sitting next to a rather tall guy to exacerbate this limited claustrophobic cargo carrier they shoved us in. The good news...the guy was cute. The bad news...he didn't understand a word I was saying. At first I though he was just weird, eventually I figured out there was a smidge of a language barrier when he whipped out what I'm sure must be the italian equivalent of war and peace. Eight cramped hours later...plane landed! Woot! I hate when people clap after landings by the way...its just weird. Oh, I forgot to mention the currency exchange lady and I made friends! She asked me to sing for her...it was awkward. Then she went off on a tangent about how she wanted to go home to Bei Jing. Eventually I had to just take my money and go. Anyhoo, Rome. Get to airport. Try to look like a badass. Follow clueless people. Eventually get to baggage claim. Get bag. This was a celebration in itself considering italian airports are not good with the whole "we have your luggage" thing. Walked around for a while looking for the train from the airport that would take me to the train station. I was told specificallly several times it was a train. What do I do? Get on a bus. Ugh. A few brief seconds of "liz what the f*** are you thinking" and the bus was moving. Ah well, it is what it is, just ride this confusion train (er...bus) and let the chips fall where they may. The first stop was definitely not the train station and I wa scared stiff when two ladies started clawing at eachother. The good news? I understood all their curse words. By some miracle of God, Romulus and Remus (there are posters of those two crazy kids everywhere) I ended up at roma termini (the train station). VICTORY! Kinda. Finding a ticket in that place is like searching for the holy grail having been given only Dumbledore's sorting hat and a map of the lost city of atlantis. After consulting almost every passer by who spoke even a little English...I got a ticket to florence. Don't ask me how, its a moment in my life I'd rather keep hidden in my deep dark past (aka some british girl helped me). I'm now here on treno 9520 to firenze passing through the hazy roman country side. I haven't slept since sunday and have only eaten two apples in over 24 hours. I'm sweaty, gross and messy but I feel more alive and real than I ever have before. I can't wait to share this with you. Love and miss you madly.
Ti amo
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