Mediterranean Cruise -- Part One

[theoriginalblurker]

Let me start by saying that the trip was amazing. We had a great time everywhere we went. However, there were several adventures that must be described. They will be described separately in order to avoid tl;dr and boredom.

• 4/15: Ash cloud – everything closes


• Weekend before we are scheduled to leave – depression – we are not going


• We pack anyway – just in case


• 4/19: IAH to Frankfurt 1 out of 5 flights opens (FRA to Rome – nada)


• 4/20: IAH to FRA 2/5 (FRA to Rome – nada)


• 4/21: IAH to FRA 5/5 (yay!) (FRA to Rome – nada, although they say on the website that inter-European flights should open the next day)


• 4/21: whilst driving back from lunch, we get a call from schroedingerbat (our ride) saying that his fiance's ID had been stolen, and he’s going to stop at the house to “check everything out” – we consider a taxi


• schroedingerbat calls back and things are good. We’re on our way!


• IAH: they check us through to Rome, but we have our backup plan of getting stuck in Frankfurt and panicking until we find a way to purchase a rail ticket over the Alps. I have decided to take my computer in order to contact my boss’ sister who lives 3 hours outside of Frankfurt (our CDMA phones do not work in Europe). Yes, panicking is part of the plan.


• Lufthansa - time to board! Announcement – “technical difficulties, we’ll get back to you in 45 minutes with more details.”


• Five minutes later - “Just kidding, don’t kill me!” Apparently it was a mistake. We board!


• Guy on the aisle is sleeping, so we spend a pretty painful trip to FRA. Lufthansa seats are like concrete!


• Did I mention drangelo was sick? Yes, and was on antibiotics, which were now causing stomach issues. Poor guy. We decided to look for a pharmacy whilst in the FRA airport (which was HUGE and demanded several security checkpoints -- they actually stamped out passports even though we weren’t staying in Germany).


• Pharmacy found – Imodium acquired. Whew!


• Gate A24. Um….nobody’s here. We look forlorn, and then run around trying to find a board to tell us if we have the wrong gate. The boards are confusing. drangelo finds a nice man who types into a kiosk and determines that our gate has changed. Not that this information was on any of the main boards. We run run run to the real gate (A38) and make it with a few minutes to spare (which drangelo spends in the restroom).


• We make it to Rome. No one cares to look at our passports. I find this a little lax, but then, this *is* Italy and not Germany.


• Luggage? What luggage? Oh, you mean *this* luggage (after 45 minutes).


• Search for our driver amidst all the other guys with signs. Hmm. No sign. We search the entire area. No sign.


• drangelo applies for sainthood by figuring out how to use the digital payphone with his credit card and getting the woman on the other end of the phone to send us the driver that was supposed to be there. (He rocks, doesn’t he?)


• Driver is apologetic, but speaks no English. We have no idea what went wrong, but we get to the Hotel Grifo, only an hour and half later than expected.


• The desk clerk at Grifo sends us up to our room. Which is...uh...occupied already. Back down the winding staircase to find out we have been given the wrong room key. New key acquired! We are in Rome!

And that was just the first leg of the trip, folks. It didn’t get much easier from there.