The Longest Day

Day one of our vacation actually lasted 35 hours; from central time, it ran from 4 am on a Saturday to 3 pm the following Sunday.  It involved entering into a new country, and a ton of travel via "planes, trains, and automobiles."  It was less than optimal, but both of us were too excited to allow the temporary tribulations offset the zeal for the land for which we were seeking.  Were that it was always so easy to be so longsighted.

As mentioned, our day began with a 4 am wake-up call in order to be at the airport in time.  Alex noted how easy it was loading for our flight in our small regional airport, which actually got us to Dallas 10 minutes early.  Not that the 10 minutes did much for us; we had a 5 hour layover anyway.

We both wanted to try to stay awake as much as possible so that we'd sleep better on our 10 hour international flight, so we did a lot of walking around the airport.  Arthur, thirsty for adventure, took to exploring some of the fancier stores and was surprised that Alex did not want to join in the fun.  When asked where her sense of adventure way, Alex replied she was going to a country where neither of us spoke the language well and advised Arthur not to push it.

We finally loaded the plane and found ourselves sitting next to some Texas Aggie fans who were present during a certain dark day on our own Alma Mater's history back in '98.  We politely stated that it was nice someone had a good time during that particular event and set about the task of falling asleep, a task which neither of us were particularly successful in achieving.  Alex might have got an hour in or so; Arthur never could quite find a way to fall asleep.  At least they had a good selection of movies on the flight and the food was good.

Finally, we touched down in Rome.  For Arthur, this was a first European encounter.  Alex was once in a Parisian airport trying to get to Atlanta, so that hardly counts.  Here the new experiences came quickly.  We found an ATM to get some European currency, went through customs were a bored looking guy pretty unhesitatingly stamped our passport, and figured out how to purchase train tickets from an automated machine by playing a little "monkey see, monkey do" with the couple ahead of us.  That got us to the main terminal in Rome, from which connected with our five hour ride to Bolzano.

Heading out of Rome, we really didn't see all that much; mostly residential apartments and a little industrial area.  Then we went past the ancient wall of the city, and we were reminded of the age of this city.  The train was actually very comfortable with plenty of leg room and Arthur finally got some sleep as we passed mile after mile of grapes and apple trees.

In Bolzano, we found our bus stop and began deciphering how exactly to tell what bus to get on.  With some help from Tom, an Oregon man who flew out specifically from the hiking, we concluded that we ought to ask one of the locals.  Fortunately there was a young political science student who spoke excellent English there to finally get us squared away.  We enjoyed chatting with her until our bus arrived, and then it was off to Castlerotto.  Also thank goodness for some kind Germans on the bus that helped us get off on the right stop.  Each town had two or three stops and not sleeping as well as not being able to read German was impairing our decision making ability

We were now in basically German territory.  Italy gained sovereignty over the area at the end of WW1, but everyone speaks German, and it was interesting viewing the architecture of the buildings.  The feeling was much more like exploring a fable land from the Brothers Grimm than the Roman forum.  We couldn't wait to explore further, and we finally got to our hotel.  Believe it or not, we are now in early afternoon of day one.

So our day is not quite over, dear reader, but this particular post entry has run longer than a post should, and so you'll have to turn in next time to continue the adventures of Alex and Arthur.  Until then, Omnia Vincit Amor.