So after the pizza incident, we went back to the hotel and waited for Michelle and Brittany to get there. They had cooking classes in the morning, so couldn’t make it until later. We got them checked into the hotel and brought them up to the room. They loved it too! We all wanted to go to the Trevi fountain, so we hopped back on the metro. When we got off at our stop, some of us needed to get money out from an ATM (for gelato, of course!). We found an ATM- it was really cool! It was inside a bank, kind of. You had to swipe your credit card to get in, then these glass swishy doors opened, and then another set opened, and then you were in this private room with the ATM. I think it was for safety purposes- it was cool! Brittany needed money the most, so she went first. She went in…..and stayed in….and then about five minutes later we see her appear on the other side of the glass frowning- the ATM ate her card! I swiped my card to get in, and we tried to decode the Italian on the screen. I don’t remember the word, but something made it seem like something wasn’t right about the machine- well, duh. Brittany needed to call her credit card company, but the number was on the back of her card…inside the ATM. Luckily I also have a Citi credit card, so I whipped mine out of my money pouch (from under my dress- hope the cameras enjoyed it!) and she was able to call. Eventually all of the girls came in, and we made it our little territory. Finally, someone else came in to use the ATM, walked in, looked at the screen, and said it was out of order. OH. That makes a lot more sense. You’d think they would put it in a couple different languages since everything else in Rome was. Nope! After about an hour on the phone, Brittany finally made a little progress. Meanwhile, the rest of us were scrambling to find the address of our next two ports so a new card could be sent there. We visited plenty of hotel lobbies looking for internet, then I finally resorted to using some of my precious (few) text messages. Thank you Syd and Michelle for texting me the addresses so promptly! They were so helpful! Finally, the cards would be sent!
Actually, I should probably explain a little about the hour on the phone. Now, I don’t mean to judge the person on the other end of the line, but this is just what I heard from my end. Poor Brittany had to say her name 7 times in the first 5 minutes, and retell her story just as many, being transferred from person to person. She would be asked to say her credit card number, look for the security number on the back…come on people, she just said it got sucked up by the ATM! That’s why she’s calling! If that wasn’t frustrating enough, this sure was. The person on the other end of the line didn’t know OR believe her that Croatia was a country. Yeah, it was that bad. Then when she FINALLY convinced her that it was a country, giving the address was a whole different story. The address was complicated and 5 lines long since it was to a port and ship. Unfortunately. It took about fifteen minutes for Brittany to tell the person the address. She spelled the entire thing out, every single letter on every single line, with words that corresponded to the first letters, two or three times. Then had to go back and do some other words! “Semester at Sea. S-E-M-E-S-T-E-R-space-A-T-space-S-E-A.”—giving words for each letter along the way. “No, Sea, S-E-A. Like the ocean. Sea. No, no. S-E-A.” Then the same for Semester, then “at” then every other word. Then “sorry there’s no room for the last line.” “No, the ocean. Sea. We’re on a ship, a boat? Floating on the water. Sea. S-E-A.” Alright, so finally it was settled and her new card was on its way.
After that experience, we all needed some gelato. So we got some. :)
We walked to the Trevi fountain and each made our wishes. It is so pretty! And huge! Then Katie and Kristin had to go catch a train back to Civitavecchia before it got too late- they had SAS trips in the morning. They left, and Michelle, Brittany, and I decided to stroll around to shops and grab some dinner. Now, don’t forget about the half kilogram of pizza I ate earlier. I wasn’t hungry at all! They picked out a cute little place and we ate there. Then we walked around some more and did some souvenir shopping. We started to plan out our next day- we wanted to see the Coliseum, Roman Forum, and Pantheon. And leave BY 1:30 or 2 at the latest. We realized that might have been a bit of a stretch, so we thought maybe we’d do the Pantheon tonight. But then we realized it was really late and probably closed, and we did want to go in. We asked a policewoman how to get there, but it was kind of far to walk in the dark so we asked her if the metro was still running, and ran all night long. We were surprised, but hey the cop would know, right? We walked to the metro station, and noticed that the gates were closed. So we found another station. Closed. Then two more. All closed! What?! We went into a hotel lobby and asked the concierge, and he told us the metro stops running at 9. Ugh, thanks policewoman. He told us where to get the buses, so we went to the stop (still confused) and were apparently staring at the signs looking confused, because a woman asked us if we needed help. She lived in Rome last summer and was fluent in English and Italian, so she really helped us! On the bus, she told us she is a teacher and we talked a little bit. She told us where to get off, and we were on our way! We got back to the hotel, got onto our free wifi for a little bit, then realized how exhausted we were so went to sleep.
Actually, I should probably explain a little about the hour on the phone. Now, I don’t mean to judge the person on the other end of the line, but this is just what I heard from my end. Poor Brittany had to say her name 7 times in the first 5 minutes, and retell her story just as many, being transferred from person to person. She would be asked to say her credit card number, look for the security number on the back…come on people, she just said it got sucked up by the ATM! That’s why she’s calling! If that wasn’t frustrating enough, this sure was. The person on the other end of the line didn’t know OR believe her that Croatia was a country. Yeah, it was that bad. Then when she FINALLY convinced her that it was a country, giving the address was a whole different story. The address was complicated and 5 lines long since it was to a port and ship. Unfortunately. It took about fifteen minutes for Brittany to tell the person the address. She spelled the entire thing out, every single letter on every single line, with words that corresponded to the first letters, two or three times. Then had to go back and do some other words! “Semester at Sea. S-E-M-E-S-T-E-R-space-A-T-space-S-E-A.”—giving words for each letter along the way. “No, Sea, S-E-A. Like the ocean. Sea. No, no. S-E-A.” Then the same for Semester, then “at” then every other word. Then “sorry there’s no room for the last line.” “No, the ocean. Sea. We’re on a ship, a boat? Floating on the water. Sea. S-E-A.” Alright, so finally it was settled and her new card was on its way.
After that experience, we all needed some gelato. So we got some. :)
We walked to the Trevi fountain and each made our wishes. It is so pretty! And huge! Then Katie and Kristin had to go catch a train back to Civitavecchia before it got too late- they had SAS trips in the morning. They left, and Michelle, Brittany, and I decided to stroll around to shops and grab some dinner. Now, don’t forget about the half kilogram of pizza I ate earlier. I wasn’t hungry at all! They picked out a cute little place and we ate there. Then we walked around some more and did some souvenir shopping. We started to plan out our next day- we wanted to see the Coliseum, Roman Forum, and Pantheon. And leave BY 1:30 or 2 at the latest. We realized that might have been a bit of a stretch, so we thought maybe we’d do the Pantheon tonight. But then we realized it was really late and probably closed, and we did want to go in. We asked a policewoman how to get there, but it was kind of far to walk in the dark so we asked her if the metro was still running, and ran all night long. We were surprised, but hey the cop would know, right? We walked to the metro station, and noticed that the gates were closed. So we found another station. Closed. Then two more. All closed! What?! We went into a hotel lobby and asked the concierge, and he told us the metro stops running at 9. Ugh, thanks policewoman. He told us where to get the buses, so we went to the stop (still confused) and were apparently staring at the signs looking confused, because a woman asked us if we needed help. She lived in Rome last summer and was fluent in English and Italian, so she really helped us! On the bus, she told us she is a teacher and we talked a little bit. She told us where to get off, and we were on our way! We got back to the hotel, got onto our free wifi for a little bit, then realized how exhausted we were so went to sleep.
Crowded Metro
ATM Room- Credit Card Incident!
Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain at Night
No comments:
Post a Comment