"Tempesteuros" E-Log #5: Roamin in Roma

Rome

Punti BolleBlu' (Laundromat/Internet Access)
Rome, Italy 

Buongiorno!

Ever since Crete, the Quest for Adventure had been forced to share the stage with the Quest for Laundry, as the hero and heroine's garments have been stinking as much as their Greek and Italian (repetitions of "Dove lavanderia?" - Italian, "Where is the Laundromat?"- have not improved the latter much at this point). It was a great stroke of fortune that Milos had a place that would do our laundry for us, though we had not encountered anything similar since (we kept being falsely directed to dry cleaners) until this evening!

Si, we are in Italy!

Foosball at Pyrgos bus station, Greece

Ironically, moving between countries was the smoothest, most spontaneous transition we've made yet. After a pleasant few days in Olympia, we caught the bus back to Pyrgos (where we played foosball at the station with an hysterically primitive and monolithic wooden table- hi, Portia and Wadrien!), then on to the port city of Patras. Fortunately our Eurail Passes gave us substantial discount on ferry tickets, as it was another over-nighter and we were both adamant in having a cabin this time. Also fortunately- and as if to deliberately contradict everything we'd been saying being our other ferries' backs- "Blue Star 1" was more cruise liner than ferry, equipped with three bars, two restaurants, a casino, Internet access (which we didn't make it to before the signal went out), and apparently, naval technical somethingerather that would probably be of great interest only to my dad (hi, Dad!).

Landing on the port city of Bari in Italy was akin to landing on another planet. All of a sudden there was a whole other language to deal with, and we may as well have been Greek for all of the Greek that kept instinctfully coming to the edge of our tongues. After a rather harrowing time getting to the train station- not to mention negotiating the train station itself- we decided on a direction and went with it. Our delayed arrival in Italy required us to bypass the Amalfi Coast- and unfortunately, as a result, Pompeii- due to sky-rocketed high season prices (not to mention our being short on time), so we made for Rome and got as far as the coastal city of Pescara that day. As a result, my first impression of Italy was half carnival, half horror circus: Pescara certainly knew how to have fun, but it was in such an over-the-top, in-your-face fashion that one wasn't sure whether to jump in or run the other direction... Particularly from the kilometers and kilometers of umbrellas with two lounge chairs apiece lined up in military fashion down the length of the beach. Some of these people had to walk a kilometer just to take a swim, but it didn't seem to deter them from enjoyment!

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Pescara, Italy

Another train ride through the breath-taking Tuscan countryside and we arrived in Rome- we were at an entirely different station than we had anticipated, but we were here. After all, would it be a true MarandAr entrance if we didn't have to do a 60 minute clueless dance?

Regardless, we managed to get ourselves to Pensione Ester, which is in a positively magical and charming old building and requires clearance through three different gates/doors and buzzers (and is ferociously guarded by the sweetest little bundle of canine since Toto), and speaking of which, we have to get back before midnight curfew!