Jinx

So immediately after posting about how painless my travel was, everything that could possibly go wrong did.

My flight from JFK to Madrid was delayed 3 times, for a total of about 3 hours and 45 minutes. I therefore missed my connection in Madrid, because my layover was only 2 hours, and the airline rebooked me. That flight was ok, until I actually got off of the plane. They lost my baggage. I am traveling with the clothes I've been wearing since Edinburg, my documents, one book, my Blackberry (utterly useless here), Evan's iPod (pretty useless, due to some law that says there's no such thing as free public wi-fi--what the hell?), my camera, and the BAREST bathroom essentials: glasses, contacts in their case but with no extra solution, a toothbrush and mini-toothpaste, and deodorant. And a mini-pillow I took from my airplane. Screw them.

Getting my stuff is going to be difficult, as I have no permanent address here. I headed to Siena despite ALL the complications, stumbled across Carrie after about an hour of walking in circles around the Piazza hopelessly, and I'm going to have to call the airline in just a bit, after I find out Kathleen's address, and then hopefully I can alter my itinerary to be in Perugia for the next few days instead of Florence. Oh weeeeell. And this is all assuming they've located my bag. But I'm choosing to believe that's probable, because there were 7 or 8 of us with lost luggage on the same flight. I'm guessing a cart got overlooked or misdirected, not that my bag is individually lost. But again... I have NOTHING here. And I smell.

I napped a bit on planes and trains, but my sense of time is completely screwed up, and I have NO idea how long my transit experience was (did I mention my train to Siena from Rome was delayed inexplicably for 2 and a half hours?). I arrived in Siena around 11, walked like 30 minutes and found the Piazza del Campo, found Carrie around midnight, roughly, and walked, talked, sat, had two beers and a gelato, and haven't yet slept. The local time is 11:30 AM, but I feel ok. I had a nice breakfast--a peach, an undefined pastry (I never know their names, so I always just order the favorite of whatever barista is serving me), and a cappuccino, which was glorious. I'm hoping to meet up with Kathleen today, but I don't have her number. I bought an Italian phone this morning, so I'm no longer COMPLETELY unreachable, but it's pre-paid, so I intend to use it conservatively.

I'm on paid internet, so I can't post any pictures yet, but I have a few nice ones. The Palio is this afternoon, (a horserace, it's amazing), and so I'm going to explore the city a bit until then, and I'll probably make it back online sometime after I arrive in Perugia. Wish me luck, if anyone is actually reading this!

Ciao ciao.