Day #79 in Orvieto (Edinburgh trip!)

May 12, 2013 – Sunday

We woke up at 3:30am on Sunday morning (we went to bed at 2am… so we pretty much just took a nap). We got a cab at 4am to the bus station and then took the bus to the airport so we would be there by 5am. Laura and I sat on the top of the double-decker bus and it was scary because we sat in the very front and it felt like we were going to crash into everything. At the airport, we were pretty hungry so we each got a falafel sandwich AGAIN (I’m seriously obsessed) and then I got another iced coffee. I have about four pounds left to spend and I didn’t want to carry all of the change around with me once we left Scotland to go back to Italy, so I ran around buying a bunch of candy bars and then a few postcards to use up the rest of the change! At 6am we began to board our plane. There was a middle school field trip on the plane and a mother and her baby sat next to me. For the first twenty minutes of the flight, the baby (he was probably a year and a half old) continued to hit me every few seconds. I was trying to sleep so I pretended to ignore him but it just seemed to make him even more aggressive as he swung his arms around. I tried to sleep during the flight, which is around three hours long, but I was wide awake by this point! Laura slept throughout the entire flight, though. We arrived in the Rome Ciampino airport and then took another bus for 40 minutes to the main train station in Rome. The next train to Orvieto was two hours away, so we bought our tickets and then went nearby to sit down and buy some pizza. Soon it was 1pm and we got on the train, but the train didn’t leave on time and we ended up being twenty minutes behind! We arrived in Orvieto around 2:45, raced to the funicular along with a very large tour group, and then made our way from the funicular to the monastery. Sara, Jenna, Becky, and Ariel greeted us at the gate – mostly because we were locked out and they were the ones sitting in the courtyard. Once again, it was a dramatic reunion after being separated for a few days and for the next hour, Laura and I took turns talking about our trip, showing pictures, and laughing at the dancing videos.

Prof Doll’s son, Silas, had a birthday party in the monastery courtyard this afternoon so there was a lot of face painting, cake, and a piñata. Laura and I were hanging out at the party, eating cake, talking with everyone about their weekends, but the second the party was over, we crashed. I was going to take a nap but then I decided it might be better just to go to bed early instead of trying to wake up from a nap, go to dinner, and then try to go to bed right after. Although I was pretty alert for most of the day… running on only one hour of sleep has finally hit me!

Laura is thrilled

4am bus to the airport... it was a struggle