En-route to Genova

---

We could sleep in this morning as our train to Genova doesn't leave until 11:44am. We had a leisurely (if not boring) breakfast and headed out into the rain to look for somewhere to buy lunch for the train ride. However, we didn't get far until we decided to get our bags down to the station and go looking from there.

It's only 500m walk from our hotel to the station but not much fun in steady rain, holding an umbrella, trying (unsuccessfully) to keep our bags dry. Then Karina went and found some lunch and we waited for our train to arrive.

Fantastic - a nice new, clean 6-seater cabin to ourselves. We stowed our bags and stretched out for what was a pretty comfortable 3 hour trip to Genova. In the end we had an old lady join us about 1hr out of Genova but it was still relative luxury! After updating my blogs for the last few days, we ate lunch. I had a very forgettable salty roll with a few thin slices of salami (no butter) and my coke erupted over my shorts.

We arrived in Genova mid-afternoon, our hotel only about 100m from the station. We had to wait about 15 mins for our room to be ready, but at least it was clean and relatively large - only it was like sleeping in an ash tray - this was the 1st time we couldn't get a non-smoking room.

We set out to explore Genova. We had read some bad things about it - and I could see why. It's dirty, smelly and doesn't make you feel overly safe in some parts. We made our way down to the harbour fore-shore, a sort of Darling Harbour in the making, with an acquarium, maritime museum etc. Nothing very exciting to see in the way of sights down there, so we followed the suggested route in the guide book through the historical part of the city.

The historic buildings and small piazzas are nice enough, but they're nestled between some rather unremarkable and run-down buildings. The smaller back-streets are dark, dirty, smelly and you're constantly dodging dogs droppings or - in some cases - syringes. Once we had located something on the guide, we took a few photos and just wanted to get back to the main streets again.

The most interesting find, which for some inexplicable reason isn't even mentioned in the guide books, is Christopher Columbus' house, which we stumbled on by accident. We didn't go inside, but it looks a bit odd - a very small terrace house that has had adjoining abodes on both sides ripped down so it sits by itself in a small park in the middle of the city.

After we'd seen most of what was recommended in the guide book for a 24 hr stay in Genova, we headed back to the area of our hotel, looking for somewhere to eat dinner on the way. We had no luck at all - wondering where the #$%^& Genoese toursits are supposed to eat dinner?!? In the end we found a dodgy kebab place in the dingy back streets behind our hotel - a street filled exclusively with Africans, no doubt hanging after after a long day selling umbrellas, sungalsses and knock-off prada bags.

We took the kebabs back to our room, and they were - not surprisingly - quite disgusting. We watched a bit of TV - KOQ and L&O:SVU and went to bed.

---