Before in Rome.

The ancient beautiful Rome

Rome, before seeing with my own eyes, I would say “ancient ruins, lots of churches and a city that is so rich with incredible arts and historical facts”. I remember watching a HK TVB drama called “Triumph in the skies” and I could only daydream to myself going there only when I start earning my money in another 20 years.

So despite didn’t excel in my studies anymore right after high school, didn't achieve my childhood ambition I am very grateful to be blessed with the opportunity to spend even just one short one semester in UK through a mobility programme under my university and this is definitely one of the best experience ever happened to me in life. It was short but I had the blast of my lifetime discovering and doing many things I never did before in life and somehow turn me into whom I am today.

Jye , the only friend came for this same programme also agreed on picking Italy to be the first country explored. We had Crystal from Canada and together we formed the travel buddies. Just three very inexperienced girls! We had few ups and downs during our three weeks of travelling but I totally missed every moments and I am very glad we did this together before and hope we will have the chance to travel again together. Anyways I am going to travel to South Korea with Jye very soon in June. And Crystal I hope we will meet in the States very soon too!

 Three of us together in Rome - Jye and Crystal.

Our choices of cities were easy, we just picked based on what we want to see – so never missed  the one of the most religious and historical site of all time; the capital city of Italy – Rome and Vatican City; the leaning Tower – Pisa and also Florence where most of the famous artists hailed from like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo and many more! Probably the best place for Crystal to learn and appreciate great arts as she herself has very deep passion and a very talented in creating her own arts. Booking cheap budget airlines tickets and had our accommodation booked were done in one month in advance. And the rest and itineraries we left it to planning only when we arrived in Rome itself by buying some pocket map of Rome with places of interests being indicated.

I remember even the night before our departure; we had no time to anticipate for our trip at all. We were so into finishing our Chemical and Phase Equilibria coursework and looked for a classmate staying nearby to help passing up our works. We started to pack our luggage only after we were able to finish our work past midnight, and to be honest the feeling wasn't that excited at all .We were tired and I think our flight was very early in the morning of before 7am. We were too looking forward in getting enough sleep as it would be another long day for us in Rome since we would be arriving in the morning.

After few hours of sleep, I remember my alarm was set to only allow me to have 5 minutes to wear my socks, my boots, wearing another layer of sweater and a trench coat. I didnt even accommodate extra time to clean myself in the morning.  Okay I admit I was lazy and it is always freaking cold especially early in the morning. So we boarded the taxi to the airport still in our sleeping mode.

The scanning, immigration procedures oh my gosh, we had never expected the line could be so long at this early freaking hour. We had like approximately 35 minutes left before boarding and it took us like 20 minutes to clear! So phew 15minutes which sound sufficient to get on board but then we realised we were so screwed up as our boarding gate was like at the other end! Furthermore we had never taken any flight from that airport and there were like some stairs to take, seemed like neverending turning to right or to the left and then just walk straight and straight but it seemed like we never reach the gate ! At one point we were so panicked we didnt even care if people gonna look at us running with our quite huge handcarry when we left like more or less of 7 minutes. The thoughts like heading back to my room spending the whole easter break studying instead already start playing in my head. No more Italy and Greece in the spring!

When we finally arrived at our gate my heart almost fell out when the waiting hall was already emptied and quiet. There was a lady in uniform on the doorway though. We ran to her and asked her if we had missed the flight. She told us the plane was about to take off like anytime and then she opened the door to check out and we were so lucky as some traffic men waved us signal to hurry up on the plane.

We were like the final passengers and the door shut immediately after that.  We felt so lucky we were able to make it at last! We flew in just less than 3 minutes sitting down; feeling more excited to be fallen asleep anymore and finally we were able to get our head to start anticipating what to do the moment we arrived.

Stay tuned for the next post.More troubles coming when Mek conquered Rome. xoxo