Thursday, June 4th (Day 12)

Despite our attempts at a good night's sleep, it wasn't. There were some noisy people in the room next to us, and the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling. This is the first time this has happened on our trip. They would leave, come back, leave, come back. Before I know it, it was 1am and had only dozed a little. Then I think I slept for a few hours before Abel woke me up at 4am to head for the airport.

We walked to Barceloneta, a place where a shuttle bus was supposed to pick people up for a 30 minute ride to the airport at 5:05. We talked to a bus driver who told us the bus came at 5:30! We were already cutting it close with a 5:05 bus! After some deliberation, we decided to take a taxi. It would cost us 25 Euros instead of 2.60 Euros, but it was worth it (in my estimation) to avoid missing our flight. We didn't know our way around the Barcelona airport, and our ticket didn't even tell us a terminal or provider. The taxi got us there in 15 minutes and we managed to get to our gate in plenty of time. Abel and I are still debating if we would have made it on time had we taken the bus. You decide who takes which side on that issue!

The flight was about 90 minutes and uneventful. We arrived at the airport, found our way to a shuttle that brought us to the train station in Rome, bought our tickets for Venice on June 7th, and hopped on the Metro to our hostel. It's a nice place, and we're right across the street from Vatican City. Tomorrow we will probably see the Vatican Museum, including the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.

We took an afternoon nap, walked around town, bought some groceries at a "supermarket," and just finished a really nice meal of cheeseburgers, fruit, iced tea, a rice dinner, and (for me) a bananna. I went from being starve to stuffed in about 30 minutes. Tonight we will probably walk around Vatican City (the world's smallest nation with 550 residents).