Rome Feb 7 (Sat)

Good grief, do I have an interesting story now. First, I wake up at 3:55am because I hear people banging around. I’m pretty disoriented at this point because it is ungodly early, so my first thought is “holy crap! We’re being robbed!” When I realized that was not happening I got out of bed and got ready and we left the hostel at 4:30am. Armondo told us the Metro starts running at that time, but it was gated up and closed! Two girls standing by told us it wouldn’t open until 5:30am! They suggested that we just take a taxi to the airport, saying it would only be 40 Euro. So we walked to St. Peter’s Basilica, because there is a large taxi stop in front of it, but there were no taxis to be found! The one time we actually need one, there are none in Rome! So, we are sitting in a large phone booth in front of the Vatican, waiting for any taxi to show up, but none do. We decide we will wait there until 5:30am and then walk back to the metro station and go with the original metro & train plan if one doesn’t show up by then. At about 5:20am we realize, “hey, it’s not that late back in the states,” so we all call home. Mom answered and thought our situation was pretty hilarious. She told me about the Stars/Rangers game that she just finished watching, we had won 10-2! Oh, I miss my hockey. At least next season I have a jersey to wear to the games (I got it for Christmas)! As soon as we hang up with our parents to start the journey back to the metro, guess what shows up? A taxi.
Oh my God we got to the airport in record time, only about 19 minutes. We actually saved time and money, the taxi ended up being cheaper per person than the metro/train would have been. Apparently, this early in Italy, red lights and speed limits don’t apply to taxi drivers. We blew through at least three red lights and flew past 70 kilometers per hour signs, reaching top speeds of 120! We still had two hours until boarding time so we just hung out at the gate. We were going to fly Alitalia to Milan and then change flights to an AirEuropa flight to Madrid, our layover was no more than an hour and a half long.
Our flight from Rome to Milan left 30 minutes late because of maintenance issues. During the flight the three girls were put together and the boy was across the aisle by himself. I took a power nap and ate some chocolate chip cookies that they gave us. When we landed we got off the plane quickly because we only had an hour until our next flight took off. Unfortunately, we exited the plane onto the tarmac and had to ride in a very crowded shuttle bus to the terminals; this took a lot of time. Then we had to figure out how to check in for the next flight, and there were no AirEuropa signs to be found. Apparently we had to check in Alitalia again because this flight was partnering with them. By the time we received our boarding passes we had ten minutes until boarding started, and we still had to find the gate, find bathrooms, and find food. It all worked out though! We found the gate, toilets, I got a Panini, and we boarded the plane in less than ten minutes. However, “boarding” consisted of riding another very full shuttle bus miles out to the plane and getting on it from the tarmac. Maybe in Madrid we will actually get off at a real terminal. This plane taxied forever and we finally took off at 12:20pm (the flight was scheduled for 11:55am). The take of from Rome was the best though. As we took off we flew a little over sea and I could see the coast of Italy for a good while. It was actually nice weather for a change so the view was gorgeous. The worst thing though was landing in Milan and seeing people from our flight meeting up with family/friends/loved ones and there was no one to meet us. This made me a little bit homesick for people.
So the plan was to arrive in Madrid and go to the bus station and get the last bus to Granada. Then we would find lockers to put our stuff in and go explore more of Madrid for a while. However, rarely anything ever goes according to plan. First, we took the metro from the Madrid airport to the wrong bus station and had to get back on the metro to get to the correct one. Our plane had landed in Madrid around 2pm and by this time it was already after 3pm. When we got to the correct bus station we inquired about the buses to Granada. There was only one left today and it was leaving in an hour! Guess we would not be hanging out in Madrid like we thought. Instead, we found food in the bus station and hung out there until the bus departed. The bus left Madrid at 4:30pm and we arrived in Granada at 9:30pm, and that was with a half hour stop at a gas station on the way. At the bus station the girls shared a taxi home, since Whitney and I live together and Cassandra’s home is close by. After dropping our stuff off at home we went to JuanMi’s (the bartender that rents a room from Cassandra’s host mom) bar, Obelisco, for one round of tinto de verano and tapas to celebrate our return home.