August 22, 2009 10:40pm Pearson Int'l Airport- 多謝劉天立！ 我地又有得坐頭等啦！ 好開心！ kakaka!
10:50pm on plane
- Take off! Glad I brought my watch this time!
1:20am during flight
- Just finished having some nice prosciutto with parmesan and a really fiery pasta with too many peppercorns. Funny that I'm not too tired, but Tinlop looks like he has passed out already.
Earlier, Tinlop wanted to take pics while take off so I passed him the camera since he was sitting at the window. Poopie! The lens cap fell onto the floor and since it was during take off, it must have slid all the way to the back of the chair and now it's gone la! Of course one of the best things with first class is the wonderful spacious seats that move to your desired position, but unfortunately it also means you won't be able to find ANYTHING if you happen to let it slide underneath. Apparently some guy lost his passport that way...yikes...
One of the flight attendants was nice enough to get on her hands and knees to help me look, but to no avail. I guess I will just have to wait until we land to see if it will slide my way again. ai~ excuse for a new lens (just for the lens cap)? LOL~
5:44am during flight
- Almost there la! we're landing in about an hour! Just woke up from quite disturbed sleep. I thought I'd be able to sleep a little better, but I guess the caffeine from the Coke @ dinner got to me =P. Breakfast is now being served. I think I'll go for some OJ...keke!
Recap of the rest of the day
- Hmm, where do I start? We landed at 12:35pm local time, which is basically 6:35am EST and the first thing I tried to do was find that lens cap. We had the gate attendant as well as an Air Canada technician come in and look but we couldn't find it!! -_-" Oh well, new lens :P
Well, we're in Rome! First impression: HOT HOT HOT! Second impression: OLD OLD OLD! We wondered why the airport was so tattered, worn, weathered, old...you get the point. We wondered why there was no AC! We wondered why the majority of the places we visited today had no AC! We wondered why the immigration officer didn't even bother TOUCHING our passports, let alone stamping it. We wondered why there are always two service charges. Our introduction to this great city of Rome starts off with a lot of wonders.
Let's begin our wonderful adventures with the foreign exchange counter. I had to do some exchange at the Osaka airport a few years ago and even though the rate wasn't the greatest, it was reasonable. Well, this is not the case in Rome. They RAPE you before you even know it! To make a long story short, my $300CAD translated into 152Euro and change after two different service charges, making my rate at almost $2CAD to 1EURO!!! Outrageous!
Next in line is our marvelous train ride from the airport. Can you feel the sarcasm yet?? The horrendous train ride into the city was painful. Painful is actually an understatement. Unfortunately, very painful will still be an understatement. First of all, 5 of the 6 ticket validators at the station didn't work, and if you didn't validate your ticket, you weren't allowed on the train. The train attendant was less than helpful and rather rude. The Leonardo Express was supposed to be the fastest way to get into the city stopping at the only destination of Termini station. At a fare of 11Euro, you'd expect to get a seat on a decent air-conditioned train. Not the case here as we were shooed onto a stuffy, old, dirty, non-air-conditioned train full of musty, smelly sweatbuckets known as tourists. Okay, no AC? Fine, but no fresh air?!?! Unbelievable! Now I know why people would pay upwards of 50Euro to take a cab. 30 minutes seem like 3 hours as the train made its way into the Rome with me sweating 5lbs off. I felt trickles of sweat pour down my chest and back and I normally do not sweat easily! The 37C actually felt cool once we stepped off the train.
From the Termini station, Tinlop and I decided to walk to our hotel which was supposed to be 15 minutes away. Not 5 minutes from coming out of the station, I was showered with pigeon poop! You'd think, wah one "plet" of pigeon poop like in TO while driving under a bridge? No, I said I was showered! Meaning this:
I wouldn't have known until I got to the hotel if this kind man didn't offer me some tissue to clean it off. My body was sweating so much I didn't even realize the "extra" wetness. Gross!Things starting looking better when we arrived at our 4-star Hotel Duca d'Alba. We had no problems finding it and we're quite pleased with our clean, smell-free, buffet breakfast included, free wifi, two-bed, air-conditioned room!! After a quick shower and some clean clothes, I was all smiles. We went out again and walked around the vicinity, heading towards the great Colosseum which we knew is only 10 minutes from our hotel. After walking 1 block, we turned our heads and there it was! Wow, really close.
It was late in the afternoon already and Tinlop and I were really hungry so we stopped for pizza at a local pizzeria near the Colosseum. Wah, I really can't complain since the pizza was big and filling (and good), but needless to say I must give a little rant...$54CAD for two pizzas and a Coke!! Breakdown as follows: Cheese and sauce pizza - 6euro, Cheese and sauce pizza plus funghi (mushrooms) - 7.5euro, large Coke 7euro (yes, 7euro for a freaking Coke) = 20.5 + 20% service (4.1) + tip = 27euro!! So at my ripped off exchange rate, $54CAD!! Outrageous! I was so in awe and hunger that I forgot to take a picture of the two pizzas that were the size of our medium pizzas in TO, which we both managed to finish.
After "linner" we went back to the hotel again and decided to head to a supermarket to stock up on some snacks since we both refused to do $54 pizza again. McD combos happen to be at a low low price of 6.4euro but who knows if tax is included? We ended up buying more drinks than food and trekked back to the hotel and enroute, we grabbed some gelato! Gelato stores are EVERYWHERE! Tinlop had a strawberry one and I had fig flavoured...yum!We were going to power nap and then head out to see the Colosseum at night, but we are both too tired to go. So after a nice long shower and more hard cleaning of bird poop, I sat down to write my first day in Rome...
Then Blogger decided to be stupid and erase 3 paragraphs so I had to rewrite them. Stupid Blogger. (Aug.24.09 1:31am)
