Ben Murrell

I woke up at 8:05am. The waterbus took forever to get to the train station (8:30->9:20) and I missed the train. Decided I’ll catch the train to Milan, fashion capitol and home of the Last Supper. It’s closer to Paris too, and I’ll head to paris either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Today has been terrible. I missed the 8:50 train to Milano. I caught a 10:50 train, then spent 4 hours walking/riding the metro through creepy places where there are only natives. I met a guy who was leaving a hostel as I was walking in and he told me only to stay there if I liked things really dirty, and that he also had a lot of stuff get stolen there. He pointed me towards an internet cafe, so I got the internet and read reviews for the three hostels there – all three talked of high crime (rape style), no students/backpackers, and terrible times in general.

And just now, the train I’m on to Florence just delayed 30 minutes.

Back on topic – I got on the RailEurope site to see if any Paris tickets were available – they were! So I booked “Oops!” hostel in Paris and headed to the station with the intention to get a reservation then go to the Milan Duomo / bar area until 11:00 which is when the night train to Paris left. I got on the ticket machines – no tickets available. So I got in line. I’m thinking I can catch the train to Zurich at 7:20 if Paris isn’t available. A crazy (literally) guy skips to the front of the line and starts yelling at the workers. I don’t get helped till 7:10. No seats to Paris – there are some for 95 euros but none left for the pass (wtf?) [[I later found out that France only allows 20 pass holders per high speed train]]. None tomorrow. 7:20 goes by. I see a train to Florence at 7:30. It’s 7:25, I buy the reservation (20 euro) and get one. It was supposed to arrive at 9:40. Now it’ll be 10:10. I have no place to stay. Oh my shit. I’d catch the night train to Barcelona but if Elliot/Chris come they’ll land in Frankfurt … and … it’s 7:50 now. It left at 7:40.

Running on two hours of sleep probably isn’t helping, but watching the sun come up over Venice was worth it. Today just sucks since it was a wasted day. And I’m losing 30 euro on the room I booked in Paris. ANd that I won’t be going to Paris if I leave Sunday. I mean I literally saw nothing – the highlight was when I met a guy leaving a hostel and he gave me his guide to Milan. Also, beautiful Italian women. But they’re everywhere – I didn’t need to wander through shady areas for four hours to get that. I finally found stamps today and sent my postcards! I hope Garmin responds soon.

More suck today: I bought a 10 euro fonecard online but couldn’t get it to work. I tried calling home collect, but it didn’t work. Apparently they can’t accept collect calls. I don’t know what I’ll do – today feels like a huge waste of money/time (15 euro to Milano, 20 euro to Florence, 30 euro on the Paris hostel, 10 euro on the calling card, and 5 euro on water in the train stations) so I’m weary to buy another card, but I might. I think for the rest of the (assuming Sunday) trip, I need to plan out destinations and reserve train tickets / hostels so I don’t run into this situation again.

Pros: -Even with this much money wasted, I can stay in Europe for 25 days without touching my savings. -Florence has Michelangelo’s David. -Florence is a huge destination for people and is the heart of the Renaissance.

I got to FLorence at about 10:15. Everything was full (hostels and hotels). I walked all over Florence for four hours until 2:00am, when I finally gave in and paid 40 euro for a hotel.