Daty 15 - Rome/Amsterdam/SFO - Sleeping my way through Europe

Waking up at 3 am is inhumane.

Apparently the Italians agree. Arriving at the airport at 4:00 a.m for an International flight proved to be earlier than the people who work the ticket counter, earlier than the TSA screeners who were all sitting around on chairs chatting - nothing better to do, and most importantly earlier than any of the vendors who sell much need COFFEE!!! So what did I do instead? I caught a little shut eye. 20 minutes to be exact. Harumph.

By the time I arrived in Amsterdam, I was greeted by the fact that my flight had been delayed 2 additional hours, making my total layover 5 hours long. Working on 3 hours of sleep from the previous night and now the additional 20 minutes at the airport in Rome, I decided to make the best use of my time - I wound the straps of my luggage around my legs (that'll keep those thieving Dutch away), sprawled out over 3 pleather seats squeezing my "american thighs" underneath the arm rests and curled up into a contorted crescent shape (technically more croissant after all the pastries I have been injesting) and dozed off for 2 additional hours making my grand sleep total 5 hours and 20 minutes. Whoo hoo.

Ah well, at least I would have the 10 hour airplane ride to get all caught up. Not so fast. Unfortunately, this leg of my journey was not as blessed as my first as it seems the plane was full, chock full of MENT WHO LIKE TO KICK THE BACK OF MY SEATS and the legroom between the seats seems to have shrunk over the past two weeks (see aforementioned comment). I mean seriously, would it kill them to take out 1 freakin row? How much do we pay for airfare these days? Over the 10 hours, I probably slept anouther 2, bringing me to a grand total of 7 hours and 20 minutes. Hallelujah. One would think that would be plenty, but when you arrive at 6:00 p.m. and your body thinks its acutally 3:00 a.m., it begs to differ.

Finally home after such a long journey, I happily crawled into my sweats and hugged the one thing I missed most while I was gone - my bed. There really is no place like home - especially when home contains a queen size W Hotel Heavenly Bed.