While Abby and I always leave ample amounts of time to make our transportation, there may have been a few times where we have misjudged our ability to get from one destination to another. *cue eye-roll*
This morning was one of those times. We arrived at the train station with five minutes to board our train. Phew we thought, that was close! At least we made it!
We start checking the train timetables and quickly realize we may not be in the clear yet. We couldn't find our destination on the boards, so we sprinted around looking for someone to ask. We spot a conductor and show him our ticket, asking what train we need to get on.
"Hmm...I don't know"
The minutes were quickly ticking away so we snatched our tickets back and sprinted through the terminals while Abby called "Gracias!" over her shoulder. I eventually told her it's "grazie" about half way through our trip, but I enjoyed seeing the look on the Italians faces when she spoke Spanish.
We started sprinting towards what we guessed was the right direction of the train and found a group of Italian workers. They didn't speak English but we handed them our tickets and they casually looked over them while chatting in Italian, while Abby and I are panting from sprinting with a wild look in our eyes that usually accompanies people who have somewhere to be, like, yesterday.
After some discussion, they eventually pointed to a train which we sprinted towards in hopes it was the right one. We jumped on, thanking our lucky stars it hadn't left yet because it was a couple minutes after it was supposed to depart. We laughed thinking about how relieved we were that we made it until we realized not a single other human being was on the train.
At that point we figured it was a lost cause, so we begrudgingly walked back to the ticket office to buy another ticket. As we were standing in line, we realized we had been in front of the train we needed to take when we asked the first conductor. The destination on the timetable didn't say Venice, but the train made a stop there. How the heck were we supposed to know that?! After arguing with the lady at the ticket booth, we bought another ticket at a discounted price and made sure we knew what platform the train was taking off from.
We eventually made it to Venice where we attempted to make ourselves look like humans in the bathroom to no avail, considering our hygienic state. We left our bags at the train station and had a quick lunch. Then we had the entire day to explore Venice (notice no exclamation point).
It started off walking around and looking at all the canals. Pretty!
Then we had this feeling that we had seen all these canals before. It dawned on us that we were walking in circles because VENICE IS A STUPID MAZE THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO BELIEVING YOU ARE GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ONLY TO SQUASH YOUR DREAMS WITH A BRICK WALL.
Gelato made it a little better.
After hours of wandering, and not seeing a single Italian person because Venice is simply made out of tourists, like ourselves, we followed a school group back to the main canal, moments from passing out from starvation.
A man playing a sad, sad tune in memory of all the expectations that were CRUSHED by visiting Venice.
Finally some alcohol to hopefully relieve the pain of Venice from our hearts and minds.
Feeling better with wine and pizza.
Yes we ate it all. Why do you ask?
This sunset was nice. That's all I'm giving you, Venice.
Abby is studying photography clearly.
Laughing about how much I dislike Venice.
Eventually we had to get back to the train station, which surprise! Turned out to be extremely difficult.
"Do you know what direction the train station is?"
Yea I didn't think so.
At this point it was dark out, and I wasn't sure how Abby and I were going to find our way if we couldn't even navigate in the daylight.
After being pointed in hundreds of different directions and wandering in extremely sketchy and deserted parts of Venice we FINALLY made it to the train station to get our luggage.
Considering we were taking the 3 a.m. train to Cinque Terre (hey, anything to save money right?) we decided to take a nice little snooze on the steps of the Venice train station because we had four hours to kill.
Really wishing I had Mr. Latonya and my blankie right about now.
After falling into a restless sleep filled with Venice canals and dead ends, I was unpleasantly awoken by a police officer. Of course. He kindly informed me that we weren't allowed to sleep on the steps. I told him we had a train to catch in a few hours and he looked at my ticket and told me we were at the wrong train station.
There are TWO train stations?!
Naturally when I asked him how to get there he just kind of pointed in a direction and walked off. Thanks for the help sir!
We gathered our things and went in search of someone with some sort of knowledge on how to get there. Eventually a girl told us we had to take a bus, but that it was only one stop away. Wow that doesn't seem bad! We get on the bus and get off after one stop, along with a lot of other people. This must be it!
No.
We got off the bus to realize we were at a car park, and everyone was heading to their cars. After everyone left we just kind of sat at the deserted bus stop, wondering what our lives were.
Eventually a guy wanders up to the bus stop and we thought phew, finally another human being! And then those happy thoughts quickly changed to fear. He would glance at us and start to walk toward us like he was going to kill us do something and then shake his head and walk a little bit away and then come towards us again. We both tried to mean mug the shit out of him.
I tried to think of all the stuff I could use as a weapon but somehow I don't think my Pink body spray would work as well as pepper spray.
Finally a bus came which we immediately hopped on and breathed a sigh of relief, until we remembered we still had no idea how to get to the train station.
All I wanted to do was to get off this hell hole of an island!!!!
After asking a few people to make sure their answers were consistent, we figured out the bus ride would take around a half hour. Eventually some kind gentleman told us he would let us know when our stop was. Eventually we made it.
Can you tell we are excited?
"I have no feelings right now"
The only thing making me feel slightly better was that we decided to buy first class train tickets for a couple euro more, considering the trip to Cinque Terre would take about 7 hours. Our train came and we quickly realized something was awry when I saw people sleeping in the aisles.
I asked the train conductor where our seats were, handing him our tickets. He looked at it and said "Oh you know, just find a seat." Perplexed I looked into the compartments and realized people were taking up two seats and having a nice little nap. Aw, how pleasant for you.
After checking all the compartments and realizing there was not a single seat, we gave up and lounged in the aisles with the rest of the people. Good thing we bought first class tickets!
My bed for the next 7 hours.
Some man offered me his seat next to this sleeping angel because he was leaving, but I politely declined.
After a few hours we had to switch trains. More difficulty. Asking multiple train conductors if we are getting on the right train results is mass confusion because they simply don't know.
We get on the train hoping its the right one, because we felt like we had been through enough that day. This time we had actual seats to sit on. Dreaming big! We didn't know how long the train ride would last, so we asked a ticket checker how many stops we had. He actually knew, surprisingly, and I would applaud him on that except he should know because THAT IS HIS JOB.
I was all of a sudden awoken (wait what I fell asleep?) by the nice ticket checker who was letting us know this was our stop. Good thing he woke us up because the way we were snoozing we would have ridden that train to the end.
After one last transfer where we promptly fell asleep but again were awoken, this time for having our feet on the seats in front of us (so I can't put my feet up on the seat, but people can lay on two seats and have a nice nap?) we made it to Cinque Terre.
HALLELUJAH!
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