We trained into Genova from Nice stopping only in ventimiglia for a quick transfer. Genova was slightly frightening as we arrived late and the town was dark and gloomy but when trying to find the bus to take to the hostel everyone was so kind and helpful. We got to our hostel which was an old converted school, the rooms were classrooms and the halls still had the original lockers lined up. It had an amazing view down to the seafront as we were high up in the hills, hence why we bused and did not walk to the hostel (that and it was dark). As we are both still very sick and Ashley was running a fever we went straight to bed. After hastily planning our day we made our way back down the hill by bus and had breakfast close to the train station in a small cafe bar. Now off to Milan for the day. Milan was a scorcher, it was so hot when we got there that we had to ditch our bags right away and found solace by taking the metro four stops to the duomo. This heat is messing with everyones minds, while we were buying our metro tickets a boy got caught in a conveyer belt so there was a huge commotion of people running getting help and trying to free him. The boy was ok but we bought the wrong metro tickets. Luckily our sweaty selves talked our way into having the guy let us on the metro anyway. Only to discover four stops later that we went in the wrong direction, so we had to switch and go back. We finally made it to the Duomo and we were bombarded once again by the heat and people trying to sell us things only grandmas keep lying around to collect dust. The duomo was definitely a sight to see though, it was beautiful. I woe have loved to go inside but unfortunately in this heat I'm not dressed appropriately, who would be! With the little energy we had left we found a place to eat out of the sun and then courageously walked back to the train station. We got on the next train to Venezia only to be kicked off at the following stop for not having a reservation. The man was very nice though he gave us the option to either pay or get off and told us what trains we could take with our passes since some are different prices and others are free. So instead we got on the next train to Verona and had to transfer to Venezia. While waiting on the train in Brescia to depart for Verona we heard a blood curdling scream from a lady who hand been trying to catch the train and got her arm caught in the door while her body was still on the platform. Fearing the train was leaving she started screaming for help and some people were able to free her and get her on the train before it started moving. What an eventful day, first the boy now the lady, told you it's the heat, as long as its not us. We finally arrived in Venezia and having been here before I knew my way around and got us to the hostel in a jiffy. Being exhausted we had dinner at the hostel, a nice bowl of pasta and salad, before calling her quits for the night. We woke up at the crack of dawn on Wednesday so that we could explore Venice before it got too hot. Everything was closed, which is good for my shopping addiction, and also it was great for photos because the streets weren't crowded. Not having a map in Venice is never a good idea so we got lost and had to buy one in order to find our way back to the train station to make it in time for our check out at the hostel. Our next journey in Italy and the last is Trieste. Because yesterday we found out there are trains that you must reserve ahead of time for ten euros or on the train for double we had been trying to avoid those altogether but somehow ended up choosing one with a reservation. We were frantically running to buy a reservation with only seven minutes before the train was scheduled to leave but all the machines were broken, some workers saw that we had the train passes though so one guy was shouting to go to a different platform but then another guy was talking to us and in the midst of the commotion we missed the free train and swallowed our pride and our wallets and just got on the reservation train. For some reason however the stars were in line for us today and the guy never came around to check tickets so we never even had to buy the reservation, good thing the machines had been broken! We got to Trieste but never left the station because it was so hot and we only had an hour so no point in checking our bags. Guess this is goodbye Italy.
No comments:
Post a Comment