After passing through four countries, riding eight trains, catching a few subways, two flights and 5 LONG days of travel - I made it home!!!  The silver lining in all of this was definitely the chance to spend almost 24 hours with my host family.  That was a treat!  I boarded a train to Rome on Tuesday, 4/20 and was there by 7pm that night.  I wasn't able to venture into the heart of Rome (unfortunate, I know) but left my bag at the station long enough to try to find something to eat.  I really wanted a delicious pizza.  Well, I found a restaurant - and they had pizza - but it wasn't as good as I know it can be.  That was a little disappointing, but I knew it was a risk of eating relatively near the station.

I took yet another train from the station to the airport where I had planned to catch the shuttle that ran to the Courtyard Marriott that I had a reservation for.  Turns out the shuttles run only once an hour and I had just missed it.  So I had to pay 15 lousy Euros for a 5 minute taxi ride.  Once I got to the hotel I was SOOO grateful that Lee had set up a room for me days in advance.  I waited in line for over 30 minutes to check in.  In front of me there were 10 Chinese travelers looking for rooms - the hotel could only accommodate 6 of them if they doubled up.  And for one night only - not two.   There was also an American couple having an argument - the husband had apparently left the wife's luggage either in the taxi or in front of their previous hotel.  She wasn't happy about that (who would be?) and all of us in line had to wait an extra 15 minutes while the hotel clerk sat on hold trying to call the other hotel (she never got through).  The phone at the counter was ringing off the hook.  The clerks often wouldn't answer - or they would just pick it up long enough to hang up.  Then there were the 7 American men who apparently had booked 10 rooms and the clerk could only see one in the system for the following night.  IT WAS A ZOO!!  I was so happy to get out of there! When Lee Skyped my room that night it took him several attempts and a fair amount of time on hold to get through -- what a nightmare!

I slept very little on Tuesday night - about 4 hours. I was afraid of how crazy the airport would be after seeing the madness in the hotel.  I was there by 6:30am and then waited (first in line) until 7:30am when the United agents finally came to work.  Everything went smoothly from there.  Our flight was an hour late - but I made my connection in DC just fine and came home to find my cutest husband waiting for me at baggage claim.   He truly is the most thoughtful boy ever.  He had planned and shopped for meals for the following 5 days (one of the things I hate the MOST after coming home from a long trip is coming home to an empty fridge and having to go shopping - he made it so I don't have to!).  He even had an amazing candlelight dinner waiting for me too.  I am so glad to be home! Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and good wishes that got me here.

For those of you interested in hearing from an eloquent writer about what life as a volcano exile was like - check out this link.  It's a blog from the Financial Times that I copied into our site.  I definitely related to it.