Part 1: Getting to Europe

October 18th-19th 2010

Woke up at 4am on a Monday morning and got ready in relatively efficient manner.  Including taking in a much-needed cup of coffee, I was ready to go by 5:15, with Sam and my dad close behind.  Around 6am, we headed out for the airport.  Traffic was non-existent, parking a breeze, and check-in quick and painless.  We sat around for a while, chatting and people-watching.  We saw a guy run like mad through the airport, take a nice leisurely ride on the escalator, then take off at full speed again.  We laughed at his inconsistency and silliness.  A short time later, Sam and I decided to get to our gate, even though we still had tons of time.  

Our first flight (from Sacramento to Philadelphia) took off on time and was fairly uneventful.  I did some reading, Sam played some video games, and we worked on some crosswords together.  We had a little bit of time on our layover in Philly, so we had some cheesesteaks.  It seemed only fitting (and tasty).  We made our way over to the gate, chilled out, and I called my brother, seeing as it was his birthday and all.  

And so began our second flight.  We boarded on time, but ended up taxiing for a long time because of some customs paperwork issue.  We were the only two people seated in a row of four seats, and greatly looked forward to utilizing the extra space for napping and stretching out.  Sadly, it wasn't long before two ladies (one of them seemingly drunk) came along and asked if the seats were taken.  Sam told them no, and they remained there for the rest of the flight.  Oops.

There was video gaming on both our parts, and some zoning on mine.  Then came dinner.  We had some chicken with rice and veggies, with chocolate cake for dessert.  Hardly gourmet, but surprisingly edible for airline food.  Poor Sam had to consume his food like a T-Rex, as he was wedged between me and Senora Drinky.  We followed our meal with some good old-fashioned Looney Tunes.  A Pepe Le Pew cartoon, though one of the weakest skunk episodes I'd seen.  He spoke no French.  He spoke not at all, in fact.  After the cartoon, we transformed back into adults and synced out screens up with a movie.  Cyrus, in case you're wondering.  It was a very engaging flick that had us dosing off by the halfway point.  We were awoken by the movie being paused for an announcement - "Is there a doctor on board?"  Apparently, there was a medical emergency at the back of the plane.  We were not given any further details (understandably so), only asked to not use the rear lavatories for a bit.

Things really got exciting then.  Sam commenced some video gaming and I tried to sleep as much as possible.  We're pretty wild.  I'm not at all sure when it became Tuesday 10/19.  All I can tell you is that we were somewhere over the Atlantic.  Shortly before the end of the flight, we were served a light breakfast of coffee and cheese pastry.  Again, surprisingly acceptable.  We were seated one row behind a guy who felt entirely too entitled to NOT follow instructions.  As we were preparing for descent, he had his shoes off, seatbelt unbuckled, and tray table down.  When the flight was just about over, he full-on unbuckled his pants to retuck his shirt.

We finally were down on the ground around 9:45am.  We had a connecting flight to Catania at 10am.  The pilot informed us that there would be an agent at the end of the jetway to help direct anyone catching another flight.  When we got to said agent and told her where we were headed, she got a concerned look on her face and told us we had missed the flight.  She instructed us to go on ahead and she'd catch up with us to help rebook our flight.  This did not please us, but we went on our way.  After walking a short distance, we had to get on a tram to head to our gate.  The clock said it was not yet 10am, and I refused to believe that we couldn't still catch this flight.  After all, they knew our other flight had been late, and our luggage had to be transferred.  And so the rushing began.

It started out as a brisk walk, but it wasn't long before we were jogging, then running through the Rome airport.  We followed sign after sign toward our gate.  Every time I thought we might be almost there, there was another sign, telling us to keep going or make yet another turn.  Plus, we had to go through security, then the passport check.  And still, the running continued.  Down corridors, through a little shop, and even down an escalator.  We both had visions of the Amazing Race dancing through our heads as we sprinted through that airport.  Finally, we reached the gate, and found out we had made it!  We were directed outside, where we boarded a shuttle.  "Sam and Malvina, you are the first team to arrive."  We sat there a while, and no one else boarded.  We started getting nervous that maybe we'd misunderstood and had needed to go elsewhere.  Thankfully, the bus started moving and took us to our plane.  We walked up the little stairway to the plane (no jetway for this flight), super relieved.  Because we were the last to arrive and space was limited, the attendants made us check out carry-on luggage.  It wasn't until later that I realized that I had put my purse in my suitcase, and that if anything happened to that luggage, I was in huge trouble.  I had put all my money and identity (minus my passport) in the hand of the luggage handlers.

Sam and I didn't even have seats together on this particular flight.  He found his seat first, and I continued several rows back.  Someone was already sitting in my seat.  Ack!  I hadn't studied enough Italian to properly convey this to the flight attendant, so I put on my most confused look and simply pointed at my boarding pass.  She noticed the problem and just pointed to the closest empty seat.  As I sat there, relieved that we'd made it, but also desperately clutching my passport and panicking over the safety of my bag, the captain declared the boarding of our flight "a mess."

Okay, so we made it to Catania, Sicily.  There, we had to alternate between two baggage claims - one for our original checked luggage, the other for our last minute checked carry-ons.  Once we confirmed that everything had made it safely, we were again able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Until we realized our cell phones didn't work internationally (not that I would have wanted to pay for that service), and that we hadn't agreed upon a specific spot to meet D (our lovely hostess).  Curses!  We wandered around the arrival terminal for a while, feeling completely helpless.  And then, the voice of an angel, the voice of Ben (our fabulous host, D's hubby), "Sam?"  Thank the heavens!!  We could finally relax.

The drive to B and D's was calm and uneventful.  When we arrived, D was at the playground with G (their baby), so we took the short walk over to greet her, and meet the baby.  That afternoon was spent relaxing, catching up, and fighting to stay awake.  (We had all agreed that the best way to adjust to the time difference would be to not nap upon arrival.)  In the evening, we got takeout from Alphio's, the little restaurant across the street from the base.  (B is in the Navy, and we were staying with them in the military housing.)  The meal consisted of:  NAS II pizza (hot dog and fries), pizza Erica (cured beef), pizza pistacchio (different and oh so yummy!), and some olive oil fries and Sicilian appetizers, and an eggplant pasta (Pasta Norma, I think).  Dinner was definitely plentiful and super delicious. 

B and D took some time to give G a bath and put him to bed.  Afterwards, we started to watch "Sherlock Holmes," but everyone was ready to call it a night by 8pm.