This City Will Piss In Your Ear and Tell You It's Raining

3/29/2009 1:20pm
Approaching Napoli

I chose the cheap train that leaves 30 minutes before the express and arrives 30 minutes later. The coins in my pocket are sufficient to cover this fare and the my next meal but soon I must find an ATM. After grabbing breakfast (the freshed squeezed OJ is incredible) and a panini for the train, I set off in search of any one of the many ATMs that surely must exist in the MAIN TRAIN STATION of a city with a population of 3 million. Twenty minutes later I have found two machines that dispense STAMPS, a plethora of rental car agencies, and two McDonald's, but no "bancomat." I try outside the station. In the ten minutes it takes to wander in a big square around the station, I have dust blown into my eyes and pass by a sleeping hobo spooning a box of wine. But no ATM anywhere. Everywhere I look, Rome is uglier, dirtier, and more crowded than where I had been looking before.

I return to the station to find my train has been delayed by half an hour! Still no track assignment though. When will it end? I am tired of carrying around my sandwich and eager to sit down and pen my frustration. There is nowhere to sit, wouldn't you know it. I encounter an ATM. Finally! I pull out my wallet and survey the screen. Windows Error. The machine apologizes.

Last night I dreamt I was ambiguously either a robot or a human captive who tried several times and finally succeeded in beating my evil mster/captor to death. He was something of a cyborg and relied on an external breathing apparatus, which I unscrewed when he was down to seal the deal. Then I wrote a lterr to my commander?, relaying that the bad guy was dead, we should land at the next port, Princess Leia/Leiah (which I was equally confused about how to spell in my dream) was alive but pissed (apparently she liked the bad guy), AND everyone should do THE ROBOT (dance)!