Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...

Well, I finally made it to Rome, but not without a good story...

After a quick tour of the Georgia State Capitol by "Represenator" Bob Smith (a story in and of itself), Robert and I arrived at the Atlanta airport around 5:00pm to scoot through security within 30 minutes. We, of course, found a place to grab a bite to eat and a cold beer to drink and waited for what we thought was a 7:30 flight. As we got to our gate, we realized the flight had been pushed back to 8:30. "Oh well," we thought; "What's another hour?"
After boarding, we crammed our bodies into two tiny seats in the center of the plane. In true character, I packed as much as flight regulations would let me, so I couldn't stretch out my legs the whole time because my oh-so-packed bookbag was taking up every last inch of the foot space in front of my coach seat. Reeeaaal comfy, let me tell 'ya. So this lasted about 9 hours, the last of which the pilot announced that we would not be able to land in London for our 2 hour layover because the terrible weather had shut down the airport temporarily. The second dilemma we faced was regulations which do not allow plane crew to work for more than a certain amount of time. This caused the powers-that-be at British Airways to divert our plane to Newcastle, England. The only thing I know about Newcastle is that there is a beer called Newcastle that I occasionally enjoy. :) I overheard one of the British flight attendants saying "I've never been to Newcastle in my whole life." This was not a good sign...
We landed in Newcastle with no guidance at all, only to be herded onto charter buses completely left in the dark. For all I knew, they were taking the entire group to Kazakhstan to be sold on the black market (that was for you, Dad). Luckily, that was not the case, and 6 cold, boring hours later, we arrived at the airport in London. Naturally, we couldn't get on a plane straight to Rome. No, we must wait again...we rebook our flight, and continue to wait to figure out our accomodations for the night. Luckily, we discover they are taking us to one of the nicest hotels in London...steps from Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. Room service, the TV in the shower, and the soft robes were all covered by British Airways. Yeah, so BA, thanks for making up for the 24 trip that should have only been 8 by putting us up in a 5-Star hotel. Too bad we weren't there long enough to explore the sweet area. Anyway...moving on...
We finally leave England the next day and arrive in Rome in the late afternoon. Thank you, God! This place lives up to everything I imagined...Can't wait to discover all it's wonders over the next four months!
Ciao!