Holy shit, I cannot believe that just happened. There we were, walking the 7 minute walk back from he laundromat to our hostel. Looking up, the sky had turned ominously dark and stormy. But we were used to that; all of our days in Rome had ended with a thundery sky and the occasional sprinkle of rain. So we kept walking until little droplets spattered on our heads. We all hastily opened our daypacks and brought out the umbrellas. After another 10 steps or so, the wind roared and and tore all the umbrellas inside out and upside down, threatening to rip them from our hands. And then came the rain, unlIke anything I've experienced. It turned from small, dense drops into a horizontal, pounding mix of water and hail the size of globe grapes. The wind yanked our umbrellas in every direction and we ran.
A large set of arches sits halfway between the laundromat and the hostel, and under them we took refuge along with two oher soaked Italians. We too were pretty wet at this point. Within seconds of gaining cover under the arches, we realized our mistake: they had turned into wind tunnels. The wind's intensity quadrupled and Michael shouted, "let's make a run for it!". We were still about a 4 minute walk away. So we ran.
It was like jumping head first into a raging river. The rain was all I could hear and taste, and it was so thick that I could not see Alex in front of or Michael behind me. All there was was rain and hail smashing into my face, stomach, and legs. The onslaught was so severe I could barely breathe while running. About a minute from the hostel doors the wind ripped my umbrella apart and it flew out of hand into the air, disappearing into the rain. It was amazing how much faster I could run without the umbrella bucking and pulling me with each wind gust.
Alex arrived at the hostel doors first. I burst through the doors seconds later, and Michael after me. We were all soaked to the bone. We literally had not one centimeter of dry on us. Shirts clung to skin, pants seemed to weigh 20 pounds, hair covered eyes, and the puddles of water in our shoes squished loudly with each step. We got quite the audience of onlookers in the hostel as we clammored soaking through the doors and made our way to the common room downstairs to dry off, collect ourselves, and retell our story.
But that's not the end of it. Not even close.
After showers, blowdryers, and food, it was time for us to head to the train station to catch our 10:36pm night train to Venice. So we gathered our still-damp belongings and headed out to the bus stop, about a 9 minutes walk, to catch the 105 bus to the Roma Termini station. After an uneventful but traffic filled bus ride, we arrived. It was around 9:50 at this point. Michael got some food, we stopped at an ATM for some cash, and then we went to look at the departure board to find our track. But there was no train to Venice listed anywhere. Crap. We confusidly consulted our reservation paper wherein we discovered that our train actually left from Roma Tibertina on the other side of the city. And we had less than 30 minutes until departure.
Thinking quickly, Michael briskly walked out of Termini into the street while Alex and I jogged to keep up. "Where are we going?!", I yelled ahead. "Taxi." Oh, nice. An excellent plan.
We jogged to the front of the station where we were met by a dark-skinned, semi-Italian looking man who offered to taxi us for 25€. Skeptical, Michael asked him many questions to confirm price, speed, and location. The man, clearly flustered, held out a questionable lamintated card that claimed he was a licensed taxi driver. We hesitated, then followed. But he took us away from the taxi stands and to the street. I told myself we'd turn around if the car was unmarked. He led us straight to a black, unmarked hatchback parked alongside the curb. I shouted, "no way! We're going back!" I hastily about-faced and my companions did the same. We hightailed it back to the taxi stand with the illegal taxi driver in toe trying to convince us to go with him. Fat chance.
We saw a driver get out of a marked taxi cab. He saw us hurrying in his direction so he approached us and asked where we were going. While Michael told him we needed to get to Tibertina in 25 minutes, the illegal taxi man approached us and the real driver, STILL trying to convince us to go with him. The gall! We ignored him and threw our bags into the taxi's trunk. The ride would be 40€, but that was a small price to pay.
Let me tell you something. You think NYC cab drivers are insane? They are sheep compared to the Roman ones. That was the most exciting cab ride I've ever taken. We flew through the city like lightening, taking bends and turns while dodging traffic at speeds I don't even want to discuss. But we made it, and with 15 minutes until departure.
Roma Tibertina is a sketchy hole of a train station. We had a brief scare there as well: Venice still wasn't listed on the departure board, and apparently the station doesn't believe in posting train numbers. Turns out Venice simply isn't the terminal stop of our train. No biggie. We headed down the end of a long hallway toward track 17. And of course, we were met by an impassible construction wall at track 16. So we hauled ass all the way back, following the yellow detour signs we had failed to notice. We ran now, full out sprinting through the station in our sandals with all our bags. Hallway after hallway, it was like being in a movie complete with music echoing fom every direction from the buskers' guitars. After running through 4 long hallways, up a movable ramp that most certainly was not moving, and up a flight of stairs, we made it. Track 17. And as the train arrived we once again had to sprint to the far other side of train to car 9 where I now lay in my somewhat comfortable couchette. There is no air conditioning and it is hot as hell in here, especially after all that running. To top it off, the train arrives in Venice at 5:26am. It is now 12:25am.
In short: this was the most ridiculous day ever. I freaking love this trip!!!!!!!!!!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment