The disembark day of the cruise is always an unhappy day. For one, you wake up early to wait for them to call your name. For us, this usually takes a long time. So, we woke up early and got our food and then sat around for like an hour to wait for them to call us out. Once they did, we got our luggage, and then went outside to sit around for another hour for our ride to pick us up. Uncle Alex, Chicca, and Nicole were leaving separately since they had driven there, so we said our goodbyes. The car came to pick us up and to drive us to the Rome airport. The ride to the airport was fun and we reminisced about our fun cruise trip for most of the ride.
When we did make it to the airport, we unloaded our stuff and said goodbye to Nonny, Nonno and Chabba and went inside the airport. We were 6 hours early and could not check in our bags, so we just had to sit around and wait. By some strange coincidence, we actually sat next to the Super Family. Umma went around and shopped while I tried to get blog entries done so I could post them when I got to the Internet.
This leads us to the next problem with the day you disembark. After being pampered with constant food for however long you were on the cruise, you suddenly realize that the cruise buffet or 24 hour pizza bar is not just an elevator ride away from you and that you actually have to go out and search for food yourself. So, we did just that. We found some obscenely over priced restaurant in the airport and ate there in shifts. I was really only happy because I finally got my mozzarella di bufula.
We sat around in the airport in that way until about 2:30, when Oppa thought it would be okay to check in. We went downstairs to the British Airlines counter to check in, only to find that we could check in but couldn't turn in our bags for another hour. So we sat around in that area and waited for that hour. I got acquainted with Nintendogs, which is actually a lot more addicting than I had initially imagined.
We finally get to check in our bags and then go through security, which is a lot less lax than it is in the US. They thought we were stupid when we asked if we had to remove our shoes. We went through passport control, which also took a lot longer than it should have. Once through all the security madness, we sent everyone to the main terminal except for Oppa and myself who went to the British Airlines snob lounge to use the Internet. That ended up being a little harder than I had imagined, but I got online and was able to upload a few blog entries and make sure everything was running smoothly with school paperwork. Also, I thought it was cool that British Airlines gives its snob passengers free alcohol. Not that I had any. I've had a cough since Athens or something, so I drank a lot of tea and had a tuna sandwich. I also smuggled a diet coke out for Andrew.
We left around 6 to meet up with everyone at our gate and waited until we boarded the plane. The plane ride took about 2-3 hours. It was weird being in a plane again after traveling around by train and boat. We got to London Heathrow around 8 or something. This is where things got slightly complicated. Oppa's car would not have been able to fit all eight of us and our luggage. We sent most of the luggage, Gianni, Andrew and Halmony with Oppa. Mia, Umma, James and I took a bus from the airport to the Reading train station. We sat in the back, which we thought was cool at first, but it was disgustingly stuffy so I was dying by the end.
We got there around 11, at exactly the same time that Oppa had made it to the train station to pick us up. He drove us to his flat and I almost immediately fell asleep on the couch until I got yelled at to go to sleep for real. Between all the traveling, the early wake up, the lack of constant food, and the fact that I'd developed some strange cough, it had been a long day.
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