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Blogs by Dorien Grey
The Train to Italy
6/13/2011 1:52:23 PM
Continuing the journal of an out-of-one's element writer's recent trip to Europe.
*****
From http://doriengreyandme.com
Well, one lives and, with luck, one learns. An interesting day so far. I took a last walk to the beach and returned to the hotel just before check-out time at 11:00. As I remembered from my first trip to Cannes, Nice was just next door...a long walk, nothing more. So I decided to call a cab. But first I had to settle my bill. I had had two beers from the mini-bar in the room, and I'd had some laundry done. The price for the two beers was 9 euros. The price for the laundry was 106 euros....$120+ for f***ing laundry????
So then the cab came. I had 75 euros, figuring the trip would probably cost around 20 euros. Wrong. Nice is a train ride from Cannes, and taking a cab costs 85 euros. So, arrived at the Gare du Nice and a frantic search for a cash machine. Lots and lots of machines, for buying tickets and for changing something or other for something-else or other. But no cash machine. Meanwhile, the driver is standing there patiently, shaking his head. Asked two people who pointed right and said "C'est la", but they didn't tell me I had to go outside the station to find it.
Finally got the money, paid the taxi driver his remaining 10 euro plus tip and here I sit on platform B hoping it is the right one for the one hour ride to Ventimiglia, just across the Italian border. We shall see. More to come.
So I'm sitting on platform B waiting for the 12:28 train to Ventimiglia, and 12:28 comes and goes and I go to check the board. I see the train for Ventimiglia now leaves at 12:56 from platform E. Oh, dear Lord! So I hie myself to platform E and there is a train sitting there. "Ventimiglia?" I ask. "Oui, Ventimiglia". I get on the train. A young girl gets on. "Ventimiglia?" I ask. "Oui," she says. I shall watch for Berlin.
2:51 Made it to Ventimiglia. I'm on the train for Milan. At least I think I am. There was a train sitting on the track the Milan train's supposed to be on, and I got on. The old fashioned railroad cars with six-passenger compartments. I am the only one in the car and we're supposed to leave in five minutes. Should I worry? Silly question. I'd better go check.
Whew. On my way to the platform and saw an Italian woman in the first compartment. She verifies this is the right train. My luck is holding. Beware.
No electrical outlets on the train so don't know how much writing I can get done before the battery dies. We'll just have to play it by ear and I'll try to curb my verbosity. (Well, I can try.)
3:16 Ah, France! Ah, Italy. It is now 3:17 and the 2:48 train to Milan is still sitting in the station in Ventimiglia. The Italian lady just came by and asked what was going on, as if I'd know. Are we on the wrong train? Did they switch platforms??? Jeez! Got off the train with the Italian lady to ask the engineer of the train next to us what was going on. Apparently some trouble in one of the tunnels? No one has said a thing! No conductor coming by, no announcement from the station. Nothing! I know I have a five hour window in Milan, but still.... What a way to run a railroad!
Oh, yes, and though I got on and off the French train from Nice and got on the Italian train which may or may not be going to Milan, no one has asked for a ticket, or to see my passport. Oh, dear, Chicken Little, what shall we do? (It is now 3:35. We are coming up on being an hour late.)
3:59 p.m. A worker just came through the train telling me to get off. I did. A diesel engine then hooked on to the engine of the train I was on and hauled it away, leaving me....where, exactly? Standing on a platform in Ventmiglia, Italy. I've lost track of the lady I was speaking with. The engineer of the train next to the ill-fated one...the one the lady had spoken to earlier, told me to come sit on his train and he would let me know when he knew anything. Again, Welcome to Italy.
I'm really not all that upset, I guess. I know I'll get to Venice somehow even if I have to catch a flight from somewhere. After all, part of the fun of travel is the adventure, and today most certainly has been one. Don't you wish you were with me?
4:18 The very kind train engineer tells me there may or may not be a train to Milan at 5:00, which should get me there in time for the train to Venice. It really has been fun, seriously! A tad frustrating, but fun. It bravely upholds my tradition of "if anything can go wrong, it will." Don't go 'way!
4:52 On yet another train. Had just settled into my assigned seat (65, coach 8) when a man I'd semi-spoken to earlier...who may or may not be a rail employee, came by and told me I had to move back in the train. Why and to where I have no idea. But I didn't. They can come and haul me off, if they want.
And while I was on the sit-down-and-wait train, I decided I had to go to the bathroom, and another reminder of 1956 came back. The toilet has no flush. You look directly down onto the tracks below.
4:58 And we're OFF!!!! Wheeeeeeee!! Whether we're off to Milan is another story altogether.
6:48 There is a chance I will miss my train to Venice, which leaves at 8:05. I have no idea how far we are from Milan, but since we're still running along the coast, I would assume we're quite a ways away. With my luck, we'll arrive in Milan at 8:10. Well, we shall see. Wish me luck.
Nope...we're just coming into Genoa now. A LONG way to go.
7:14 It is infinitely, infinitely frustrating not to be able to make myself understood. The conductor on this train is worthless. I try to ask him a question and he obviously can't be bothered. I wanted to ask him what time we arrived in Milan, and showed him the ticket for the train to Venice. "Milano! Milano!" he shouted impatiently. Yes, I know "Milano," you twit. I want to know what time we get there.
I'll definitely have to get a hotel in Milan, which should be lots of fun, given my track record of disasters. We once again shall see. And the beat goes on.
10:45 p.m. And so, my dear friends, we shall be spending a wonderful eight hours together sitting in the Milan railway terminal, and I shall spend the time until my computer's battery (currently at 54%) wear down, or I do.
The train arrived at Milan around 9:30, an hour and 25 minutes after my train left for Venice. Tickets on EuroRail are non refundable. I therefore will not be spending the night in my Venice hotel, for which I paid an extra night when I found my original train schedule, which called for my arrival tomorrow morning, had changed so that I'd be getting in late tonight. So another $160 or so down the tubes.
I'd thought of getting a hotel here for the night but a clerk I asked about nearby hotels said they were all terribly expensive and, figuring that by the time I got there, checked in, got to bed and got up at 4 to make the train, I could just sit here all night and make up some of the money I lost on the train and my regular hotel. I'm getting rather used to being up in 24-hour+ segments.
Midnight. No trains coming or going, that I can tell. All the shops and restaurants and coffee bars closed so I won't have that for a diversion. Down to 43% power in both the computer battery and my own. I'm getting the grogs, but don't dare doze off...even though there are swarms of police everywhere...because of my suitcase. No way I can wrap my arms around it to keep someone from walking off with it if they so chose.
Relatively few people around. I suspect the police are kept busy trying to keep the homeless (and I suspect even Milan has them) from coming in to sleep away from the cold.
Bought my ticket for the 6:35 train to Venice, which will get me in there somewhere after 9 a.m. Will go to the hotel and maybe or maybe not sleep for a couple hours, but knowing me, I don't want to miss out on anything.
Gary and my Chicago friends will be wondering why they've not heard from me...Gary, particularly, since he holds a Ph.D. in Advanced Fretting.
But, you know, I really don't mind it all that much. As I say, it's an adventure one seldom has in daily life. I just wish I were more patient. I loathe waiting. Well, 6 a.m. will come soon enough...just 5 hours and 50 minutes away.
4:10 a.m., 31 March, 2002. Remember that old song "Don't sleep in the subway, darling"? I wouldn't recommend the train terminal in Milan, Italy either. It gets cold in there. I took my heavier jacket out of the suitcase, and I was shivering.
And just saw that the 6:35 train for Venice now leaves at 6:55 (at least that's the latest info. Who knows when it will leave? I've decided the French have it all over the Italians when it comes to train service.
6:29 I'm on the train for Venice! Really, I am. Honest. We haven't moved yet, but I'm on it. (There is also another train for Venice at 6:55.) All my troubles are gone: there'll be no more from now on. Happy days are here again; the skies above are clear (though dark) again, so let's sing a song of cheer again...... Smooth sailing from here on out. Yep. You bet'cha. (And there are announcements in....English! Be still my beating heart!)
*****Another entry will be posted next Monday. Please stop by.
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