Today was the day Sarah's sleeves made us miss our train to Austria. If you remember when I was at an internet cafe in Austria, I mentioned her sleeves... well now I have the time to tell you what happened!
After waking and packing our stuff we dropped it off in the back room of the hostel, then went right over to the train station to get tickets for that night to Austria. We decided to do the 5 euro sleepers for the overnight train, got our confirmation and then we caught the Metro over to the Vatican museum. There was no line at the time (and we kind of snuck around it anyway) and then once thru security, went directly over to the student ticket place (also no line) and so we were in the museum in a snap! (Unlike last time where it took FOREVER!). We then just spent a few hours strolling thru, wondering why the Pope owned so much art and taking fun pictures. For a little while, we sat by a fountain and wondered why people throw money into them. Then we wondered where the heck the Sistine Chapel was... because we followed signs forever thru the entire city of Vatican-ania, up some stairs, around a corner, thru this hallway, down more stairs, across walkways... until we finally ascended the last staircase.
We entered a dim, very large and surprisingly noisy room. It was crowded, wall to wall, with people (not surprising) who were talking (huh?) taking pictures and videos (what?) with flash! I think the most surprising part was the booming voice over the speakers announcing that this was a place of worship and please do not take any photos or videos (which everyone was completely and blatantly ignoring). Sarah and I had a whole plan about how to cover each other while we took pictures, assuming the museum people would be more aggressive and vigilant about enforcing the no photo policy, but we needn't have bothered. We both snapped a picture (covertly, just in case) and then moved on pretty quickly. The Sistine Chapel was... not what I expected. It was a lot bigger and all the people taking pictures was off-putting (as well as the loud announcements).
After finally finding our way back out of the museum, we decided to eat at a pizzeria. It ended up costing us a whole lot more than we expected (tho we did sit down there to eat- must have been a killer service charge!). We got enormous gelatos to top it off then sat in St. Peter's Sq, in the sun for a while. Since we were in the area, we wanted to check out the basilica. So, we waited in a long line which was really hot (we were in the sun) which was also full of old ladies who were literally pushing and cutting to get thru the line to get in!
Once we got thru the metal detector, we started noticing that people we breaking out sweaters and long-sleeved tops. Sarah adjusted her sleeves and hair and we got up to the Decency Police tent and walked thru! We were relived-- until we heard "Bella! Bella... mi scusi!" We pretended not to hear them but then it was obvious they were yelling at us, so we turned around and they pointed to a little sign with pictures and then at Sarah and told us she was not allowed to go in. They told me it was alright if I went in and if Sarah wanted to come in, I had to go purchase her a covering that they conveniently sold in some shop. One of the Decency policemen pointed vaguely inside, so Sarah took a seat and I attempted to find this store to BUY Sarah something that was appropriate to wear into the Basilica. Problem: there was no store. None that I found, anyway. So I snagged some toilet paper (just in case) and went back out. Sarah pointed to another woman who was indecently attired (she was wearing a tank top- what was she thinking?!) and said that one of the Decency policemen had gone somewhere to get the other lady a covering. We waited and watched (Sarah didn't like the toilet paper idea) and eventually, the three original policemen were replaced or wandered off. So we seized our chance- when none of them were looking, Sarah got up, arranged her sleeves and hair to cover her shoulders and we leisurely strolled up the stairs.
We paused for a moment and looked out at St. Peter's Sq and then once we felt brave enough, I blocked the patrolling Decency watchmen's view of Sarah and we walked into the Basilica! I'm glad we went in, because it was pretty awesome- it was so huge inside! The ceilings were high, there were beams of sunlight shining in and there was enormous columns down the nave. I tried to identify the style of the building and name some of the architecture but it wasn't English... so I had little luck!There were more patrolling Decency police inside, so after having a little look, we swiftly got out of there. The Vatican inspired a deep conversation about religion and how very interesting it all is. We pondered and grabbed more gelato on the way back to the train station. We got to the Metro and noticed that we were going to just barely make it. It was one uncomfortable ride. We were crushed in with about 50 million other people-- all the weight from so many people combined with the fact that we were in a hurry made it for a long, aggravating ride.
We got to Termini and bolted out. We ran thru the station- not even joking!- and twice I had to go back for Sarah since I was pretty much sprinting (so we got separated) and I knew where we had to go (and she didn't!). We were both mad and sweaty at this point (I couldn't believe she wasn't keeping up with me; she was mad that I kept leaving her behind) and so I ran as hard as I could back to the hostel, about 4 blocks from the train station. Our train was scheduled for 7:05 or so and I was running to the hostel around 7:03.
Well, as you can tell, we missed the train. We had those huge backpacks on, sweating our butts off and could not find the platform. I checked for our train on the big sign and in my frenzy saw that it was leaving at platform 18- which was on the opposite side of the station! Ever the optimists (even though it was something like 7:14) we ran over- and found platform #17 next to #19. We made reservations for a train that doesn't exist! I remember thinking. But then I spied a tiny sign that pointed to #18 400 meters down the track. I couldn't see a train, but being crazy, I ran that 400 meters down to platform 18. Where there was no train.Sweating, fuming and panting, I threw my bags down and tried not to cry. Of course in my head I was blaming it all on Sarah even though I was the one that owned a watch and didn't plan for a horribly slow Metro ride. So, after I calmed myself down we tramped the 400 meters back down the platform then over to the ticket booth to find out when the next train to Austria was. We made another 5 euro reservation and went to a new train station, 3 stops away on the Metro. We decided to go right there so as not to be late (we had about an hour and a half to kill). We had a rough night- our 9:55 train finally showed up at 12:30, poor Sarah sat in gum (twice!) and when we finally got on, the compartment that we reserved our seats in already had 3 people and a little kid in it.
Story of the Ensuing Train Ride to be continued...
