And I say “finally” because it has taken me 30 minutes to get this to load at the internet spot around the corner from my apartment. Finally just switched computers.
Oh, and do not look for many contractions and such in this post. These Italian keyboards. Too much trouble to search for an apostrophe when you need it.
All right. I am sorry I do not have photos. As I said, I’m at an internet point and not on my own laptop. When I dig up some wifi, which I will, I’ll send some photos your way.
So here I am, running on not much sleep, about ready to turn in and rest up for the first full day in Rome. Here’s what’s been going on: (okay, so I got use to the apostrophe.)
The journey began on Saturday in Atlanta, with both Katie and I heading overseas, but to different destinations. Michael and the little boys to Florida to see animals like Gators and Jaguars.
I had decided to do this trip maybe two weeks ago. Thanksgiving plans were firming up, and they were fine Thanksgiving plans. But I made that final mistake of late one night, searching airfares on Kayak. Gee  – I wonder how much it would be to go to Rome. Hmm.
And guess what? It wasn’t bad at all.
So then to VRBO and Craigs List and such. Apartment? Off season? Maybe away from the Center? Hmm. Not bad. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t stay at the Comfort Inn down the street for that.
“Just get it out of your system” was the response.
Gladly!
Besides, as I alluded in a previous post, David had thought he was probably going to Vietnam after his training, so didn’t take his jacket. Needed his jacket. Might as well take it to him.
So back to Saturday. Katies’s plane and mine left from different gates, both in the E terminal, just about a half hour apart. Mine was British Airways, and I’ve got to say it was the smoothest flight I’ve ever taken, anywhere. Perhaps it was just luck of the draw, but we were on time taking off, the flight was smooth, and we got to Gatwick 30 minutes early. Plus there was wine.
Not that this helped me sleep, unfortunately. It was doubly aggravating because I had a whole row of seats to myself, and could stretch out with the three little pillows I snagged. No go. I finally realized that I was trying to go to sleep at about 9 and 10 my time, which is not when I normally go to sleep anyway. In fact, at my normal bedtime, we were just landing at Gatwick.
So, no sleep. And at that point, I wasn’t really feeling it, either.
After a rather confused trek to immigration – confused on my part because I had no idea where to go after I got through – a very nice fellow directed me in the correct direction (and I’ll say that everyone who helped me at Gatwick – and there were a few, directing me here and there – was incredibly nice) I spent a while looking for free wireless. I had a plan for later in the morning (it was a 7-hour layover), but at 7am I was just ready to see what was up back home and get this blogging started. Nope. I had read that the McDonald’s at Gatwick had free wireless, but darned if I couldn’t find the McDonald’s. Turns out it was after the departure gate in the South terminal, which is not where I could go.
Oh well. So I charged my computer at least and tried to load pics onto that. Then I had to make my decision as to whether or not I was going to follow up on my original plan. The tide was turning against it – I was starting to crash. As we landed, I saw that the temperature outside was around 0 C. Yikes. I wasn’t really ready for that.
But then I decided – I had 5 hours to kill, I was barely conscious, and my only hope for not passing out in the terminal was to get out there in that brisk air and head to Brighton.
Why Brighton? Well, because the Catholic needed to go to Mass, you know, and I remembered about St. Mary Magdalene at Fr. Ray Blake down there, it was a very doable trip within my timeframe…so let’s go!