And all the locals refused to let us roll down the windows on the train. Imagine a 9 hour train ride in a sauna with no wifi.
Our last train ride from Szczecin to Berlin.
Needless to say we were all pretty cranky when we arrived. We checked into our hotel and had high hopes of drinking our last German beers at the indoor pool. This idea was vetoed when we learned it was closed. We ended up in one of our hotel rooms with beers from the store. This was our last night with Darius and Freddy. They would head out to Spain the next day and we were heading to Italy. Funny enough we were kinda sad about it. Darius and I haven't spent longer than a few weeks apart since we met in nursing school so many years ago. But we were excited to have some adventures to share later.
Dana outside Santa Maria's Bascilica
Miss Delia outside Santa Maria's
Rhianna in front of Santa Maria's. It's more beautiful at night.
Trevi Fountain 
Ancient ruins at night
The next morning those going with us to Rome met in the lobby at 07:30. Our plane was leaving at 0920 so we had to catch a train to take us there. The hotel employee said the next train would leave in 15 minutes. As we prepared to go outside we realized it was SNOWING outside!!!!
By the time we added our layers we had 10 minutes to find our train.
It was cold outside and we couldn't find the train station. We looked and we asked and finally found the station but the platform didn't have any ticket machines! We had to run down to the main area (lots of steps) and buy tickets. By the time the tickets printed the train was pulling up. I ran as fast as my legs would go up the stairs and desperately tried to validate our tickets in the stamp machine. I wasn't fast enough. The train left without us. The next one would arrive in 15 minutes which means we would be cutting it close to our flight.
Poor Miss Delia was really sick and the running was making it hard for her to breathe. She had a coughing fit all the way to the airport. We also noticed the snow was coming down harder as we left the city. When we arrived at the airport we had to run a long distance outside to get to security. I kept telling everyone to run and whoever got to the gate first would stall the plane. I said bend down and tie your shoe or unzip your bag and pretend everything fell out-anything to stall the plane.
Super Nel stayed behind to help Miss Delia with her bag so that she would make it to security. When Super Nel made it past the boarding pass check point I realized he was alone. He said that when the security officer scanned Miss Delia, Pamela and Rhianna's ticket it turned out they had bought tickets for the wrong day!!! They were stuck in Berlin!!
We were still desperately trying to get to or gate. After security we ran to the gate and then the attendant informed us that the plane was delayed. Sigh. This meant time for one more German Beir and we could try to help our friends get on our flight. We were sending them texts but they said our flight was full. They were trying to catch a flight through another company.
Our airline informed us that we would be delayed for an hour because the landing gear tire was broken and required fixing. I told the mechanic to take his time and that we were willing to wait. I'd rather be safe than rushed and unsafe.
When we finally landed in Rome it felt so good to remove our layers and enjoy the sunshine. While we checked into our hostel for the night we learned from our friends that they had found an alternate flight that would land in Rome in the evening. This was after waiting in lines and using their phones to purchase tickets (which proved to be difficult because the websites are in different languages and kept deleting their info.
We were only Rome for one night. We would meet up with Shane, Pedro and Josef (they had arrived a few days earlier in Rome) and together we would all go north to Cinque Terre in Italy. I was extremely bummed to have missed a much wanted tour. I had obtained tickets for an underground Scavi tour. Only 200 people are taken under St. Peter's Basicilica. It was a tour I was looking forward to immensely. Our friends who were already in Rome were able to go due to my planning. I might have been a little bitter about it. Especially when Josef kept telling me how amazing the tour was.
We enjoyed some lunch outdoors by a beautiful Basicilica called Santa Maria's.
After lunch I was feeling cruddy so chose to go back and nap. Super Nel and I had toured Rome on our last Eurotrip and since I was getting whatever Super Nel and Miss Delia had I chose to rest and try to boost my immune system. When I woke up Miss Delia and her group had arrived!!! I'd never been so happy to see them. The told us all about their adventure in getting to Rome while we walked to dinner and tried to find the Trevi fountain (which is under construction).
You're bound to get lost in Rome-it's part of the experience. But our short trek out that evening ended up being an hours long walk back to the hostel. My calves and shins were burning from the cobblestone streets when we got home.
At this point Dana was starting to get sick too. I think all the cold weather and travel strain was catching up with us. We all fell asleep and woke up ready to travel to the Cinque Terre.
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