ChickSpeak

The story of the departure day could be an entire novel, but I’ll give it to you in a nutshell. The trip consisted of flying from point A to point B. As we wandered in Rome airport without a clue of how to make our trip from the airport to the train station, we lost all sense of time. We finally arrived to the train station a little, well, a lot too late; who would’ve thought that the Rome airport and station would be on total opposite sides of the city?

At the train station, we were met with complete chaos. What monitor do we look at, what does that word mean, where is the departure/arrivals and why is this man taking my luggage from my hands? (Yes, I mean that, he was offering his muscular strength to carry our bags in exchange for a few Euros—fat chance buddy and AVOID this when traveling)! WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH? After booking the wrong train time (for the next day) we were stuck in Rome. Not the worst case scenario, but with no Euros on us, the inability to speak the language, and the fact that we missed our friend’s big night out before he got married, the whole scenario set us back a bit. After we gathered ourselves and realized we had to do something, we made the best of it.

Making the Best of any situation—ANYWHERE!

RELY on train/other public transit attendants. These people are dressed in uniform attire; do NOT trust the ‘not so put together’ man telling you he knows all about the transport options. For safety reasons, you want to ask the employees of the station. If you are stuck . . . ask them what they would do. They know the areas and are concerned for your safety! If you don’t speak the language, do not underestimate the power of body language; be polite.

Take advantage of the locals’ knowledge, especially business owners. After trying to solicit the advice of a hotel reception, which was less than helpful, we were lucky enough to run into a café owner who spoke English. When he learned of our misfortune, he picked up the phone and rang 3 or 4 people, found us a hotel room for the night and gave us directions and contact info. We walked down the Roman streets and ended up at a historic apartment building. An elderly man met us, guided us to our room and set us up for the evening. His family owned hotel was charming, quaint and a perfect price! The business locals know people and lots of times have connections; they are business owners!

Repay them with your generosity. Give them your business. They just helped you immensely and alleviated a lot of pressure. I say, regardless of how tired or distraught you may feel, returning to their shop will change your entire mindset. We returned to the café and Rubens (the café owner) was delighted and so considerate. We were wined and dined the rest of the evening and morning (Romans don’t sleep). He continued to say “Welcome to Rome, Enjoy yourselves, Relax.” With that as a constant reminder, we had no choice but to sit and listen to the hustle and bustle of the city and forget all of our misfortunes along the way!

Sit outside. While you might have the option to sit inside and as much as you may feel like you want to escape into a corner to unwind with your fellow travelers—RESIST. Do yourself a favor and learn by observation. Sitting outside and watching the mopeds fly by and hearing the language and the interactions of people from a culture other than our own, was perfect entertainment and made us realize, ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore.’ Take the new culture in and do as the Romans do; sit back and relax! On the contrary, do not do as the Romans do and speak English with an Italian accent. (Not that you would be as careless to succumb to such seemingly entertaining mockery) Just bear in mind: it doesn’t make you sound like you know the language; as fun as it may be, it just gets you weird looks and eyebrow raises; been there, seen that.

In retrospect, these series of unexpected events at the airport and train stations ended up being one of the greatest nights and for that I say planning was unnecessary. On the flip side, the moment we realized we had missed the night and therefore the next day to relax at our final destination, we were totally taken aback. Although planning would have relieved a lot of twists and turns, we would have missed out on one of the greatest nights of our trip. So here’s the advice: if you want to avoid the craziness of mishaps then you can plan ahead by doing some research on public transportation and keeping that handy on your person. Otherwise, learn how to make the best of any situation. Above all else, don’t panic. Use your resources around you; the locals, the train station staff, the businesses in the area, and remember that you’re on vacation. Making the best of it and ‘going with the flow’ brings the unexpected events full circle—an experience to remember forever!