Heathrow = Hell
Help I'm being eaten by snakes: detail of Lacoan's sonAfter weeks of stressing and packing finally we left San Francisco for Toronto. Leaving San Francisco was no small feat. It involved attempting to sell, and in the end give away, most of our stuff (thank god for www.craigslist.org), and packing for this trip. Toronto was meant to be a reprieve from the chaos of packing where we could knuckle down and take care of the remaining chores, finish remaining work obligations and get the gear that we plan to travel with sorted out. Sadly, this was not to be. The need to unwind with the addition of other unforeseen drama derailed these plans entirely. After 6 days in Toronto we boarded our British Airways flight to Rome with 50kg of luggage in 3 bags, very few chores completed, and dangling work that will not get finished. Not quite what we had in mind, which was as you can imagine: everything perfectly taken care of, and less luggage.
One mundane transatlantic flight later we arrived in Heathrow. Word of advice: don't go through Heathrow, even if it costs a little extra. Our flight was 25 minutes early and ground crews made sure everything was on schedule by not arriving on the scene to open the plane door for 25 minutes. Two buses, a security check point and “choosing very carefully which escalator” to take (we took the right one) we ended up in Heathrow's giant shopping mall where we were to await our flight. With flight gates assigned only 20 minutes prior to departure, and the amount of time required to pass through the second security line being 40 minutes, all the flight's passengers were late, and our flight to Rome was delayed.
Rome, on the other hand, was easy. Even sleep-deprived and hungry we made to our hotel, had two 15 euro sandwiches, and went to sleep with very little effort.
Woke up at 5am, got up and paced around the room until I woke up Nicole. After an aborted attempt we found the right path along the side of the highway from our hotel to the metro and proceeded to take the subway downtown for a coffee and some sightseeing at the Borghese Museum. The coffee was good; the museum was sold out until July. No matter, Rome is a rich ancient city with tons to see. We walk...