Nightmare in Rome

A picture's worth 1000 words...

but if you'd rather read through one thousand six hundred and three, here you go:

03:43
Our trip began at 3:43AM with a train taking us to Rotterdam, where we were to take the plane to Rome. It is a very normal connection, running about 60 mins and this should not have been any different. However, somewhere along the way we noticed that we had double backed to Den Haag and was headed back for Amsterdam, and finally decided to ask one of the drunken night-train people what the heck was going on.

Apparently, the wind was so bad that it had blown off the roof of some station between us and Rotterdam, thereby obstructing the rails, so the train was going all the way back to Amsterdam. People who had to go to Rotterdam needed to wait about 1 hr for a connecting train to Gouda, another city which woulda made us miss our flight FOR SURE!

So, we managed to find a train to Rotterdam Hofplein, which was "only 5 mins away from Rotterdam Central Station" according to the train lady, but as we had no idea where we were when we got off, we walked into the black night with all our luggage, while it was pouring rain and before we knew it, we were almost blown off our feet walking on some highway with hail balls hitting our faces like bullets!!!! This lasted for about 5 mins, and finally we found a taxi which we told to book it to the airport. LUCKILY, we made it there 2 mins before the check-in counter closed. (PHEW.)

Rain, rain and more rain
So we get to Rome, and it is pouring rain. We manage to find the hostel and things are fine, we decide to go to the Colosseum and check it out, but it got so bad that we ended up huddling under some kind of arch and staying there for 20 mins or so. Finally, we decide it's best to move on despite the rain and so we walk a bit further. At this point, muddy water is everywhere on the ground, the rain is coming down in big plops and we decide perhaps its a good idea to just go back to the hostel at least for a while. We decide to take the bus, just to save time and not get even wetter, and so we see a bus coming our way and we hop on, each of us with 1 euro in our hands, ready to pay the ticket.

The Incident with the "Police"
Dave goes up to the front of the bus and tries to get the bus driver's attention, but she has already started driving. So, he raises his eyebrows and shoulders, and we all just put our 1 euro in our pockets. Ten minutes later, to our absolute horror, the transit authorities come on board and request to see our tickets. I look at Ching-Yin with extra-wide eyes and then at Dave, who is mouthing the words, "Get off." But it was too late, cuz the bald italian man with a stern expression was already hovering over me. I stared at him and showed him my 1 euro coin, but he was emotionless and asked for me and Dave's identification (passports).

I tried to delay giving it to him as much as I could, by saying things like, "we were going to pay for the ticket but there was nowhere to buy it! We tried to get it from the driver!" etc. but nothing worked. We gave him our passports and he started to write us up. He told us, it would be 50 euros if we paid him now, or 100 if we paid him later, and he would bill it to our embassy according to our passports. I was thinking, there is NO WAY i am going to pay this asshole when we didnt do anything wrong, and meanwhile Dave was trying his best too, with his now signature line, "C'mon...You don't have to do this...seriously (repeat 2-3x)" but that too failed.

At this point, I was getting really annoyed. I told the guy, "this is ridiculous!!!" and apparently I had said it quite a few times beforehand, because the Italian dude took a pause from writing us up, and said to me, "You say the word ridiculous one more time, and i will take you to the station." I was standing up at this point and I stared long and hard at him, and he continued to write us up. So... I said it: "This is FUCKING ridiculous."

The bus stopped at Termini station (last stop), the man grabbed us and told us to get out, to follow him to the station, and he was pissed mad. Hetal and Ching-yin had already been fined by the other transit authority (female) and Hetal was very very compliant and polite. She tried to ask the lady more questions like "So... does this happen often to tourists?" when she had already paid the fine, I just wanted to pull all her hair off of that transit woman and give her a nice kick between the legs!!!!! (ok maybe not in real life but u know what I mean)

So now we're outside and the transit authorities are standing together and the bald guy said , "NO you do not say FUCK YOU to me, I AM A POLICE!" and here I said to him, "I did NOT say FUCK, I was speaking CHINESE, you dont even know what I said, you have no idea what Chinese even sounds like!!!" and now Dave was trying to stop the conflict and he starts to argue with another guy, telling him that we had NO clue how to pay for the bus ticket, etc. and anyway, the bald guy continues to write the receipt up and gives it to me, tells me to calm down and I continue with "This is NO WAY to treat visitors to Rome!!!" to which he doesn't give a shit anyways, but in the end, Dave goes, "Do me a favour? Come to Canada one day, cuz then you'll see how much better we treat people there." [Yea I know, that one hurt the cop real bad.] Finally, we got to leave and we trudged off in the rain.

I was a bit relieved, because I was holding a fine receipt in my hand, of 50 euros which I didnt even pay, and I was like, stupid Italian man!! :) Didn't even remember to collect the 50 euros from me in the midst of all that chaos. But then, when I mentioned this to the guys, they told me that Dave had given 100 euros to the authorities somehwere along the way, and they were like, "You thought they just let you go?? Why do you think we're allowed to go right now!!!?!?!?!" @#$#@%@%#!!!!! I am still so pissed!! I SO WAS NOT GOING TO PAY.

ARRRRRGH. We SO should not have paid, but since Hetal and Ching-Yin already paid, it was hard for me and Dave not to pay too. We were also freaked out because they had our passports, but cmon, we shouldve just let them bill us and not pay the stupid fine. As if not paying 1 euro for a bus ticket would look that bad on our "record", not like we killed someone!!!!! But it was reeeeeealy hard to argue all this when the rest of ur group paid the fine, and especially when someone paid the fine on ur behalf!!!!!!!!! GRRR!!

Okay, so we decided to put this behind us, so no more about this. If you have questions please just email me.

##vent over##

Sidenote: we also found out how bad we are at being bitches/bastards. Our lines at the police were sooo lame. Hehe. We so need to become more gangsta.

Smooth sailing
The next few days were fine, with the sightseeing and everything. I mean, it couldn't have gotten any worse after what we endured the first night. BUT...

On our way back 'home', our train to the airport departed WAY later than expected, causing us to arrive at the airport just 30 mins before take-off time. Right as the train pulled into the airport, Hetal also realises that she forgot her purse (and all her documentation) back at the breakfast place next to the hostel!!!! (AHHHHHHHHH)

We ran to the transavia.com counter but it was just too late, and no one was there anymore to check us in. So.. basically, we missed our flight. :(

We quickly found out that if we wanted to take the same flight out, it would be the next day, same time and with an additional charge of 160 euros!!! (each) KLM was 800 euros and so was Alitalia for the same day flight. Luckily tho, we found a flight out with VIRGIN express for 92 euros to Amsterdam (still bankrupting us).

Hetal and Ching-yin went back to get the purse, but they couldnt get back in time for the next flight out with Virgin Express, so they were forced to stay an extra night in Rome and take the once-a-day Virgin flight out tomorrow. So, they are still there and worse of all, Hetal's bag was with us when they went back to the hostel, so she is there with NOTHING at all... cept (very little) money of course.

---
All in all, a LOT went wrong in Rome and well, me and Dave dont feel like traveling again for a while. We are SO. BROKE. :-(

Last word: F#$% the transit police in ROME!!!!!!!!!! and boycott TRANSAVIA!! THEY SUCK!!