"It can sometimes lead to a sense of panic. Sometimes a very British type of panic... I'm talking about queuing."
Apologies for the apparent lie in my last post - I really hadn't intended to take this long to post about Rome, but I've been caught up in who-knows-what (I finally finished unpacking today) and I didn't have nearly as many pictures worth sharing as I thought I would, so, that's that.
I flew Kuwait Airways to Rome, because the departure time was infinitely more convenient. The Alitalia and Air France flights leave at 7 am and 7:15, respectively, and getting to the airport by 6 am is too incredibly inconvenient to be considered. So, Kuwait it was. The flight left from Terminal 1 at CDG, which means you go through security at the satellite where you board, resulting in security being pretty much flight-specific. I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact that the flight was Paris-Rome-Kuwait with less than 30 of us disembarking at Rome, but I haven't been through such lax security in 7 years - maybe even longer. I was the ONLY passenger with a little plastic bag of liquids in less-than-100ml containers, several people set off the metal detector but were waved through without further attention, a bunch of people were carrying drinks and huge bottles of lotion and perfume through the detectors. One woman had these big ol' scissors (six-inch blades, at least) that were simply run through the scanner by themselves, not that I get exactly how an extra scan prevents her from stabbing someone? I have some theories as to why this may have been, but instead of sharing them, a tip: if you're one of those people who *really* needs to carry his mini pocketknife with him at all times, apparently that option still exists in some places.
Once I got *on* the plane, I focused on the odds of a plane hijack, and how they're way lower than, say, a carjack and how I was the only American on the flight (or so the woman taking boarding passes said) and that probably would bode well for me. The flight felt waaay longer than two hours, what with the creepy dude on the far left staring at me and the armrest-hogging guy to my right who dug the in-flight radio enough to make sure we could all partake. I didn't actually DO anything on the flight but sit there (which may have been why it seemed longer) but there was something nice about just sitting there and trying to decide which Bollywood movie soundtrack my seatmate was listening to. After they served a bit of leek quiche and lukewarm water for our mid-flight snack, I had plenty of time to stare at the metal rods supporting the bulkhead separator, as they had created large-ish holes in the plastic ceiling covers from the violent vibrations during takeoff, landing, and turbulence. The plane? Old and rickety, so even though I'm not normally nervous about flying I found myself a bit anxious, what with the non-existent security, the plane falling apart, and the staring Italian guy on my left. Of course, he got up about 40 minutes before we landed, went to the back of the plane and never returned (which seemed a bit odd itself) so for the last part of the flight I didn't have to think about the staring.
My point? I took a plane to Rome.
I'm drawing a blank on what my mom and I did that afternoon/evening, so we'll finish this the next time I feel like writing about it. And because I feel like mentioning it, last night I saw
Run Fatboy Run. I must say, I enjoyed the lowbrow humor, although I should maybe mention that I generally love Michael Ian Black and Simon Pegg. David Schwimmer actually makes for a pretty good director; the composition was impressive. I wouldn't make a blanket recommendation because it's not the kind of thing everyone would love, but I dug it. Oh - if you do see it, I'd say don't do it with a Frenchman, because he'll shush you when you're laughing loudly as you (and Americans in general) are prone to do. Of course, you won't care because you don't see comedies in order to not laugh and you figure that the Frenchman needs to let loose and just LAUGH when something is funny, but... it might annoy your companion. You're a better person than me if you'd actually do anything about it.
