Saturday.....Oh my

This has probably been my worst day in Rome, which considering I'm sitting in an airport grinning like the Cheshire cat waiting for my flight to Dublin tells you just how blessed I am.
Today Stu and I woke up at three thirty in the morning, yuck you might say, and in all honesty it wasn't that bad. Once we were outside in the beautiful roman morning air especially. I heard birds singing for the first time this morning. I think once the traffic starts up you just can't hear them anymore. So I started my morning off with a stroll down the river with the man I love. We walked for thirty minutes before reaching a night bus that would take us by my apartment and within half a block of the train station. We took a bathroom break, dropped off my bags and were back out the door. We only had to wait a minute or two for the train which was nice. The ride over was pretty quiet as we only had three and a half hours of sleep, it was worse for Stu as he needed to stay awake until he boarded his plane at nine. We had planned a quick breakfast at the little cafe in the airport train station followed by goodbyes, but it wasn't open yet. Instead I walked him to his terminal which was in a weird, slightly distant location. As it turned out the check in line was out the door, and there was nowhere to eat :( I wasn't going to wait tin line with him, so Stu and I said goodbye, a had to be the one to walk away. It sucked. There's no other way to put it; After five amazing days together I was going to be on my won. I started crying almost as soon as I turned away from him. My first real tears in Roma. I looked back several times and continued to cry all the way back to the trains. once home I went back to bed and slept for two and a half hours until nine thirty. I put together an email for my parent and Stu detailing my spring break trip plans with flight numbers, addresses and telephone numbers of my hostels. I know the fact that I'm traveling alone scares mother, so I was hoping this would make her feel better. While I was working on that I uploaded Stu's pictures from the week, he officially has more pictures of Rome than me :) The link is posted up on the right. I also emailed my adviser who volunteered to register me for my classes for next year. I showered and by the time I was out Becca was awake so I could start packing. I'm pretty impressed with my abilities to efficiently pack a weeks worth of thinks into a school bag. It makes me feel like an experienced world traveler( which is hilarious considering this is my first time out of the states) I realized I had accidentally printed one of my flight boarding passes twice, and that my hostels recommended printing the reservation. I went to the school to find that it was closed, not a big surprise, but it could have been trouble if the boarding pass I needed wasn't my flight out of London. I'm betting Becca has access to a printer. On the way home I stopped by the grocery store and bought granola bars for the trip (following Stu's lead) I also withdrew some more euro's to start and end my trip. I attempted to call the bank to warn them of my trip but was unsuccessful, instead I emailed mom and asked her to save the day, as I've had to do many times before.I left my apartment at three giving myself five hours before my flight left, Thank God. Ryanair only flies out of the smaller roman airport, and to get there I needed to take a train from termini. I took the 75 a familiar bus to the station, or so I assumed when I got on. Instead this bus did not follow it's route, for reasons unknown to me or the rest of the passengers on the bus who were freaking out. I had no idea where we were, and we weren't stopping, I got off at the first stop I recognized, which was outside the city walls, not close to termini. I'm not sure how I kept it together at this point, but I managed. On Saturdays the two main shopping streets pretty much close to cars and buses ( I was on one of them) I booked it down via del corso, against the crowd turning down a road I knew would have bus stops. I waited for twenty minutes for a bus that suddenly disappeared off of the arrivals list. I decided to walk. I don't know how to get to termini on foot, mostly because approximately fifty buses from around the city go there. If followed two signs and got thoroughly lost. right at the peak of my mental freak out a bus went by that said termini on the front. I continued on the road and found Via Vennetto (Hard Rock Cafe Road) I didn't know which way to go and decided to take a taxi. I knew the station was close, and that it wouldn't cost much. I was pretty upset at this point, but it only cost me five euro to get there, and I'm not sure I would have found it any other way. Once inside the train station I found a ticket machine and a man behind me helped me through purchase process. He then pointed me int he right direction of my train, and asked for change, I gave it to him, he deserved it. I found my platform and asked a lady if the current train went to ciampino, she checked her list and assured me that it did. Once on the train I couldn't hold back anymore, I cried, for the second time that day. I was very stressed, which doesn't happen very often. It took forever for the train to take off and when it did I discovered I hadn't stamped my ticket, the ticket man wasn't pleased. I felt bad for the people on the train with me who had to watch me silently and awkwardly crying to myself, eating a sucker in attempt to make myself feel better. Once the train got going, Ciampino was the first stop. It literally took five minutes to get there. (I had been warned it took forever to get there, and was expecting an hour on the train) After leaving the train I had to talk a bus to the airport. I checked in, discovered that my bag was well within the space limitation, and went through security. I wandered the little shops not planning to buy anything until I saw them: crispy m&m's. That's right, the best kind of m&m's ever, that they stopped making in America about a decade ago were sitting pretty in this tiny airport. I bought a bag even though they only came in the maxi size and cost almost six euros. I couldn't be happier, or so I thought until I went through the passport check and got it stamped!! That put a huge smile on my face. I had heard nothing particularly good about ryanair flights but mine went quite smoothly. I sat next to the Irish version of Woody Harrleson(awesome) and his friend. All three of us slept through the flight. The landing was smoother than either of my British Airways flights, and the airport was incredibly easy to navigate. Outside there was a man who would tell you which us you needed based on your destination. I paid my seven euro and was downtown in thirty minutes. Because of my nap on the flight I wasn't tired and it was nearly midnight. I checked into my hostel which was pretty awesome. It had music influenced pop art everywhere and comfy beds. I decided to explore dublin for a bit before bed. It was wonderful, everyone was loud and friendly and it was such a huge switch from Rome. I fell in love with the city immediately. I had subway for a very late dinner and took a few pictures. I didn't wander far from my hostel, and I eventually turned in for my first night of spring break.