Week One
September 15, 1998:
We left home (Portland, Oregon) and flew to Saint Louis, Missouri. We had to wait until the next morning to get the flight to Rome.
Sep. 16: We spent this day on the airplane.
Sep. 17: We made it into Leonardo Di Vinci airport (just outside of Rome) at about 7 am, and we rode the train into the city. This was the worst morning of our trip, we started by trying to go to some of the hostels and hotels listed in our guide book, but of the ones we could find they were either full or way too expensive. We went to at least a dozen hotels and the cheapest price we could find was $100, and the guy wouldn’t let us look at the room before we paid.
So, we were sitting at this plaza (above picture) and we saw in our guide book that there was this tour agency that could help travelers find accommodations. It is called Enjoy Rome and they helped us find the wonderful Hostel Rita, which is a nice place to stay if you enjoy cold showers. It was 80,000 Lira ($53) for a double room or 25,000 Lira ($17) each for a bed in the dormitory rooms.
Sep. 18: There are a few main “tourist sites” in Rome that shouldn’t be missed. Among these are the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps and the Roman Forum (below). We saw all of those sites this day without any rushing around. However, when we got to The Vatican, it was closed. They stop admitting people pretty early (around 3 pm) so everyone has enough time to see everything. So if you want to see everything in one day I suggest going to The Vatican in the morning.
Sep. 19: We left for Brindisi at 7 am from the Roman Termini. The night before we asked the desk guy to wake us up a 6 am. Thomas’ watch had an alarm in it, but naturally the battery went dead on the plane ride over. So of course the next morning comes around and luckily we woke up on our own because there was never a wake up call. Basically, Brindisi’s only purposes is a port. There is not really anything to do in the city that is very exiting. We went to a local movie theater and saw Godzilla. Our ferry to Corfu left at night so we had lots of time to kill. We got a two person cabin on the ferry, it was an eight hour journey. We paid 65,000 Lira ($44) each for the cabin. The price for a comfy airline type chair was 55,000 Lira ($36) and the fare for sitting up on deck was 35,000 Lira ($23). There were also discounts for different types of rail passes. The cabins were nice, they were just bunk beds and then there was a bathroom with a shower down the hall. There was a bar on the upper level of the ferry too. This is also Thomas’ birthday. We spent his twentieth birthday enjoying European transportation.
Sep. 20: As soon as people begin getting off the ferry there was a barrage of people trying to get people to stay at their hotel/house. We decided to go to The Pink Palace, because a few people we had met on the ferry were going there and there was a Pink Palace bus at the port to pick people up. However staying at the Pink Palace was a learning experience for us. The people who worked there were really nice to us until the next morning when we decided we wanted to leave. A few of our complaints about the Pink Palace first though. I got bed bug bites from sleeping in the bed. Also the shower used salt water, (and we were right next to the ocean, imagine that!)
Sep. 21: Since the ferries arrive at 7 am, there is an early checkout. Because the Pink Palace wants to get the new people into the rooms of the people leaving. Now, we didn’t have anything against this except that they woke us up early and told us it was time to leave. We went and tried to get breakfast, and finally did after a brief argument with them as to whether or not we had a meal left. Then we wanted to go into the beautiful Corfu Town, and they told us the wrong directions as to where to get on the city bus. But overall it wasn’t too bad, it was safe and everything. Corfu town was very nice. We spent the day wandering through both the old and new fortresses. We also stumbled upon a church, right when they opened up a little room, we went in and saw Saint Spyros mummified body. Then we headed out for Athens on the Pink Palace bus. We left that evening (five pm I think) and we got to Athens about five the next morning.