Epic Travel Fail

Jake and I have been attempting to make some travel plans for the upcoming year. While daydreaming about potential destinations, my mind wandered to the worst travel experience of my life.

During my senior year of college, I spent a semester living abroad in Rome. In the four months that I was in Europe, I traveled to roughly ten countries and close to twenty cities. I went to Rome with two of my best friends and met some incredible people while there.

You may be wondering which part of what I just described was so epically awful... I'm getting there.

After the semester was complete, my friend, Emily, and I stayed in Europe for an extra ten days to travel to Spain and Portugal. 

I hadn't seen my family or Jake in months and was really looking forward to heading back to the States. We arrived at the airport in Rome, sad to leave but eager to taste the comfort of home. 

And then, like many Italians before them, Alitalia (our airline) went on strike. 

We were stranded in the airport, with hundreds of other travelers. Christmas was only a few days away and because of the heavy holiday travel, all of the other airline's flights were booked.

Emily and I spent two days in the airport clinging to each other for dear life. We both took our turns simultaneously sobbing and swearing. At a certain point (maybe after sleeping on a dirty marble floor), we became so delirious that all we could do was laugh. We bought some wine, and watched Six Feet Under on my ipod. 

My parents stayed up all night calling different airlines and eventually found me a flight into Atlanta. After something like 48+ hours of travel, I made it home... Where I demanded a shower and Mexican food (not necessarily in that order).

I've had some pretty awful travel experiences since, but I am fairly certain that nothing will ever top my epic trip home from Italy.

(Me, at around hour 27... Note the bottle of wine in the cart)

Update: How could I forget to mention what happened to Emily? She still lives in Terminal C of Fiumicino International Airport to this day. She made it back to Chicago safe and sound (during a blizzard) around the same time that I arrived home.