We made it

After months of anticipation, countdowns, giggles, excitement, anxiousness, lists of things to pack, several shopping trips, debating whether or not to exchange money.... we made it to Italy! Ahh, what a relief it is to be here!

Okay, so many know how much Paula and I have been anticipating the arrival of our big vacation. Once we had said our goodbyes to our families and found ourselves past the security point and walking into a long tunnel to make it to our gates, it still didn't hit us that we were there.

Our first stop was London. We boarded our flight on an enormous British Airways plane, we still found ourselves not believe we were headed for our first destination. Being a first time traveler with BA, I found that they were definitely my new favorite airline. They're friendly, provide great service, comfortable seating and new movie releases for you to watch. Paula and I were happy. They even showed you facts about the altitude, how far we had traveled, what was left, etc.

While we were unable to get a full night's rest, we did manage to catch some peaceful slumber in intervals. However, no trip can go unhitched. Unfortunately for Paula who suffers from motion sickness, being in a 6+ hr flight wasn't the greatest. She wasn't feeling too great. Our knees hurt from being in the same position, I even thought for a moment I didnt have my lower right leg attached to me anymore due to the lack of circulation. Thankfully however, we finally made it to London, 5 hours ahead. It felt weird! Anyway, we finally made it out of the huge plane (we were in the back), managed to walk up and down all sorts of escalators leading to our transfer point. We took a shuttle that led us to the right place. Once there, we found ourselves in another security point, but with interesting shops ahead. There was Harrod's (super chic), Chanel, Bvlgary, Coach, etc.

Finally it was time to board our scheduled flight of 12:40 pm (UK time - about 7:40 am DC time). Now we took another British Airways flight, but this time it was different. I was expecting the nice comfortable seating, etc as before, but rather found ourselves crowded, nearly the back of the plane, no space to put our carry on and we were starting to feel the sleep deprivation.

Unfortunately, Paula once again suffered motion sickness and while I tried to help her as much I could, the only thing that helped her was finally landing in Rome and getting out of the crowded plane. I felt so bad. She was just overwhelmed with not feeling her greatest, I wanted her to bask in the moment of the realization of where we had finally arrived. Luckily and thankfully, she was able to get past her nausea soon thereafter and enjoy the fact we had landed in the place we had dreamt of being for years!

We were ecstatic! we couldn't believe we were in Rome! What a dream come true!

Our next task was finding my cousin. Actually, it was finding a meeting point for her to pick us up. After dragging our heavy luggage across the airport, Paula being the awesome person she is and her knowledge in the Italian language managed to help us find the right person (my cousin's friend Antonella) and eventually communicate with my cousin. Unfortunately for my embarrassment, after Antonella handed me the phone to speak to my cousin, instead of saying "grazie" like any other person would know how to say, I said "prego" PREGO. Why? I dont know! I wasnt thinking straight. Its funny cause I said it as confident as I possibly could fooling myself into thinking I was doing something right. Prego means your welcome. Not thank u! Ay ay ay... i know! Utter embarrasment. I told Paula and she laughed at me. Not with me...just at me. Fine. Its okay. I laughed too.

Ok, I have to end my story here. Its late, almost 11 PM local time, so that means its about 7 PM back in DC. Oh man. Jet lag is no fun.

Until next time... arrivederci! (and yes, that is actually right. I just asked Paula)

Toodles from somewhere close to Rome.