Our arrival in Rome will be a memorable one. After a 12.5 hr flight from Hong Kong we boarded the shuttle bus to the Sheraton Hotel and lined up to check in for our 4 star evening.
Lets reverse here a bit and I can tell you how we ended up in this place.
Three nights ago we enjoying an evening at a friend of our friends in Hong Kong. The topic was Rome and places to stay. A few beers and few minutes online and we had found ourselves lined up for a classy evening at the Sheraton Hotel here in Rome for a very good price (better than a hostel rate). All the T's were crossed and the I's dotted and on we went.
Fast forward to the other morning, we have arrived and we knew that checking in was going to be a bit of a hassle as we were quite early (in fact 7 hours early). So obviously our room was not ready but we were sent upstairs to the sixth floor to enjoy the benefits of the Starwood Room, compliments of the friend in HK that helped book the room on some of his points, which was fine by us.
Once upstairs we were met with another desk as part of a last formality before entry. This girl then dug deeper into our reservation at which point she found out that it was booked under the actual owner of the Starwood points card holder (the friend in HK). They asked who he was and Andi blurted out hastily, my father. All good, Andi was sorted, I on the other hand was not allowed access to the room as I was not included on the booking. Then she mentioned that we were a month early for our room.
I am sorry, “A month?” I questioned. Yes, sir, your booking is for May 28th, 2009, not April 28th. I guess in our online binge searching we inadvertently choose the wrong month. The hotel on the other hand was completely booked with a conference. So long story short, we buggered up the date online, which equates to no 4 star night in Rome and we are back on the backpacker trail tired and hungry.
HAHAHA – sometimes being an idiot can only make me laugh.
Well we thought we were in the clear as we disembarked from the hotel in search for the metro station “150m” away. I am not going to sugarcoat this, we got turned around and got lost. Going completely the wrong direction the hunger started to compound and the situation turned from funny to this seriously sucks. After about 20 minutes of walking with all of our gear getting heavier and heavier with every step we finally got onto the trail that leads to the metro. All was good for about 2 minutes, then it rained. It was the kind of rain that makes you curse the existence of all that is good and evil. We had almost made it to the station when the sky opened but we ended up soaked, no sympathy for the devil.
Once we got shelter at the train station all started to go our way, until we realized that we had no money for a train ticket. I guess during our gross over assumptions of Italy we figured we could find a bank machine near a train station...nope, wrong again. The nearest one was 200m away at the top of the hill, which would mean fighting the monsoon outside.
By this time Andi was shooting death darts with her eyes at me, which meant: “Dion you better sort this out in a hurry or I will stab you with something.” So I did what anybody would do, I reached into my wallet and pulled out the 4 American dollars I was still carrying from San Francisco and talked to every person I could until somebody would trade me for 2 Euros. I was that guy in the train station, but finally somebody took pity on us and helped us out. This was the turning point. From here we got to town, got a room and climbed into bed. I have never been so stoked for a nap, what was even better was that this nap turned into 5 hours of solid sleep, very welcome after a over night flight. Rome gave us a couple of swift jabs to the face to start, but we managed to duck and weave.
Lets reverse here a bit and I can tell you how we ended up in this place.
Three nights ago we enjoying an evening at a friend of our friends in Hong Kong. The topic was Rome and places to stay. A few beers and few minutes online and we had found ourselves lined up for a classy evening at the Sheraton Hotel here in Rome for a very good price (better than a hostel rate). All the T's were crossed and the I's dotted and on we went.
Fast forward to the other morning, we have arrived and we knew that checking in was going to be a bit of a hassle as we were quite early (in fact 7 hours early). So obviously our room was not ready but we were sent upstairs to the sixth floor to enjoy the benefits of the Starwood Room, compliments of the friend in HK that helped book the room on some of his points, which was fine by us.
Once upstairs we were met with another desk as part of a last formality before entry. This girl then dug deeper into our reservation at which point she found out that it was booked under the actual owner of the Starwood points card holder (the friend in HK). They asked who he was and Andi blurted out hastily, my father. All good, Andi was sorted, I on the other hand was not allowed access to the room as I was not included on the booking. Then she mentioned that we were a month early for our room.
I am sorry, “A month?” I questioned. Yes, sir, your booking is for May 28th, 2009, not April 28th. I guess in our online binge searching we inadvertently choose the wrong month. The hotel on the other hand was completely booked with a conference. So long story short, we buggered up the date online, which equates to no 4 star night in Rome and we are back on the backpacker trail tired and hungry.
HAHAHA – sometimes being an idiot can only make me laugh.
Well we thought we were in the clear as we disembarked from the hotel in search for the metro station “150m” away. I am not going to sugarcoat this, we got turned around and got lost. Going completely the wrong direction the hunger started to compound and the situation turned from funny to this seriously sucks. After about 20 minutes of walking with all of our gear getting heavier and heavier with every step we finally got onto the trail that leads to the metro. All was good for about 2 minutes, then it rained. It was the kind of rain that makes you curse the existence of all that is good and evil. We had almost made it to the station when the sky opened but we ended up soaked, no sympathy for the devil.
Once we got shelter at the train station all started to go our way, until we realized that we had no money for a train ticket. I guess during our gross over assumptions of Italy we figured we could find a bank machine near a train station...nope, wrong again. The nearest one was 200m away at the top of the hill, which would mean fighting the monsoon outside.
By this time Andi was shooting death darts with her eyes at me, which meant: “Dion you better sort this out in a hurry or I will stab you with something.” So I did what anybody would do, I reached into my wallet and pulled out the 4 American dollars I was still carrying from San Francisco and talked to every person I could until somebody would trade me for 2 Euros. I was that guy in the train station, but finally somebody took pity on us and helped us out. This was the turning point. From here we got to town, got a room and climbed into bed. I have never been so stoked for a nap, what was even better was that this nap turned into 5 hours of solid sleep, very welcome after a over night flight. Rome gave us a couple of swift jabs to the face to start, but we managed to duck and weave.
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