656 Miles of Bad Road

According to Airport Accomodations, the distance from Athens to Rome is appoxomately 656 miles (1055.5 km).

This is where the problems begin.

We set out early (too early) for the Athens airport after bidding farewell to Adrienne, who was leaving for London later that day. There was more adventuring in the metro, which can even be more exciting at six in the morning when you're not sure what you're doing! Gyaaaah... _-_ Lee didn't force any of the students to lead --YAY-- because none of us were awake enough. We made it to the Athens airport, through the ticket desk, through security, and then we waited.

And waited.

It wasn't an incredibly long time, but in the morning my sense of time is a little, er... disoriented. So to pass the time, some slept, others wandered around in search of food, and still more shared mp3 players. Now, thanks to my Comedy playlist, I think Naomi, Abigail, and Patrick won't be able to walk through a metal detector straight-faced ever again. Bwahahaa...

As we sat in the airport, we suddenly heard a loud -WHUMP- from behind were Naomi and Patrick were sitting. We all turned to look just as Katina sat up (on the floor), looking around wildly. She had been sleeping on the bench and, unfortunately, rolled off onto the hard floor. We tried not to laugh, honestly we did... but it couldn't be helped ^^a Poor Katina.

So we finally boarded the plane, injuries and all, and were on our way to view the wonders of Rome. The flight was a bit rough on both Miss Teri and Katina, and while I didn't have much fun myself, the airsick ones took most of my attention (especially because Miss Teri was beside me, and I was afraid I'd join her if she decided to revisit her breakfast). Katina had fun napping on Patrick's shoulder. o_O Cozy, were we?

But we were about to get very, very uncomfortable.

See, there's a bit of backstory. We were invited (through a series of e-mails) to join the yearly Founding of Rome parade; all of us, a little group of homeschoolers from Alabama, were going to be the first group of Americans to ever walk in the parade. It was a great honor, and a few of us were excited about it. Now... the arrangements Lee had made with the historical reinactors (Groupo Historico... no, I'm not joking) were that someone was supposed to meet us after we landed and made our way through customs. When we finally got our luggage and walked past every sign-carrying pedestrian, there was no member of the historical group to meet us. Odd. So, we sat in the airport until Papa Phil realized they had been waiting for us outside. Our spirits lifted. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad...

*involuntary eye twitch begins*

Exiting the airport, we were hit head-on by a steady rain and a cold wind. Oh, joy. It took me a minute to realize that the strange Italian guys wearing the nuclear highlighter-yellow vests were taking our luggage because they were from Groupo Historico, and I hoped to heaven that their cargo van had seats enough for all of us. Unfortunately, I was wrong: it was a van with only seats in the front and room for luggage in the back. Ha. It was awkward for the first few seconds, but when the first drop of rain made its way down my neck, I was willing to sit ANYWHERE that would be potentially dry.

So, with five in the front (counting the driver) and the rest in the back (including Mr. Blinding Vest who didn't speak a lick of English) sitting on top of luggage, we set out. And when I say "set out", it's because "drive" is too good a word for our method of transportation. I was very, very glad I was sitting in the back staring at fogged-up windows, because if the swerving was any hint, I did not want to see where we were going. At one point, the van went into the emergency lane almost on top of a motorcyclist, who protested a bit at the driver's act of playing the "I'm Bigger Than You" card. o_o Eeek...!

It should be known that, in any part of Europe, the lines on the road are only for perspective.

We finally arrived at Camping Fabulous, where we were to stay with the other traveling reinactors. Unfortunately, the van dumped us out in the rain with only our luggage and a prayer before leaving for more... er... duties, I guess. And while Lee went into the welcoming center to get the keys to our rooms, those of us with umbrellas stood outside in the mud. We were still cold, half-drowned, and our luggage was getting very wet as well. My inner cat's ears were flat on her head.

[note: some in our group still consider "fabulous" to be a mild swear word in Italian. Long after the trip, we continued to use "fabulous" in a sarcastic manner... or just to hear someone else from our group laugh.]

It seemed an eternity until Lee and Phil emerged with keys and directions. Now, the place where we stood had promise: the so-called "bungalows" nearby looked like glorified trailers, and made me feel like we were back in the South. However, when we were led through the rain and mud dragging our suitcases behind us, ours were a bit less, well.... just less. We really didn't care, though; it held promise of a dry, warm place out of the rain.

Well, at least it was dry.

All of the rooms were cold, had non-working heaters, no blankets, and no hot water. Whee. So, we (myself, Chrissy, and Jennifer) put our muddy suitcases in the dryest places possible, stashed our umbrellas in the shower stall, and headed nextdoor to Naomi, Katina, and Abigail's room. They made us wipe our feet and remove our shoes before we could venture farther in, and while the room was warmer than ours had been, it smelled of sweaty feet in there. Jennifer disappeared to find Jordan so she could talk to Lee (I will refrain from any sarcastic comments I might have), and I stayed for a little bit before leaving with Katina and Chrissy to visit the guys. I was getting tired of smelling other's feet.

Okay, so my intent was to visit... Katina's was to so if they had enjoyed the watered-down juice she'd given them earlier. They hadn't, but didn't let on; actually, they had a bit of fun about it with her. ^^ Very amusing. But, when we all tried to visit Lee, she was clear in communicating her disatisfaction with Camping Fabulous and further frustration, and literally kicked us out before we had chance to set foot inside.

Hmm. Our Fearless Leader is not having a good day. It was our job, then, to keep our spirits up and maintain a cheerful outlook. At least none of us had died of hypothermia yet! ^^a

I asked Patrick to come look at the heater in my/our room, because we had seen from the doorway that Lee's was working. He and I headed back around to the cold room, and upon investigation, we flipped the circut breaker and Viola!, it lived! Almost. It still wasn't putting out warm air, and would reset itself when we tried to adjust it. Ha, ha, very funny.

However, now comes the tangent dealing with the doors. All of our doors had at least one issue with them: two of them would not latch unless locked with the deadbolt, one's handle would fall off in your hand (though Katina was able to climb out the window and open it from the outside), and the door to my room would latch a little too well. As in, I had to throw my shoulder against it the first time before it let me out. Patrick thought that our door was like his, and that we'd latched it upon entering the first time. Whoops. He accidentally locked the deadbolt, and then we couldn't remember which way to turn it to open the door again!

So, as Patrick patiently fiddled with the lock, he turned his head to grin at me. "Oh, by the way, you're trapped for now."

My first thought was, 'Oh my. I can't wait to explain how I ended up in a locked room with the most eligible bachelor on the trip.'

And just as he was readying himself to climb out the window, I shoved against the door and (luckily for me, who could've ended up with a broken shoulder) it finally opened. o_o Boy, that was fun.

Another crisis averted. But when we had all regrouped in the warmest, least threatening room (the other girls' room), Lee came in to give us very bittersweet news: we were still going to the banquet for the reinactors tonight ...we kinda had to, anyway... and by the time we got back that night, we should have hot water. With that carrot dangling in front of us, we almost didn't notice when she reminded us to dress in costume.

Hang on... what was that? Costume? The students had all been under the impression we could wear our warm, comfortable streetclothes instead of our non-rain resistant Roman garb. Evidentally not... Lee had been told that the reinactors should be in costume. Well... fine, if everyone else was doing it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

And that was the point we relearned the phrase "Famous last words."