Como to Venice

---

This morning I was hungover, never really been hungover the whole trip before, but today I was. Jules seemed a bit worse for wear too, but today was going to be tough.

We had a fairly late start and lugged our heavy oacks down the stairs and got prepared for the trek up the hill to the train station. Breakfast this morning was the usual, croissants, cheese and 4 week old meat cutlets...no thanks, not today...

We trudged up the hill to the train station, where we had to wait over an hour for our train. Today we were going to catch a slow train to Milan, then a faster one to Venice. It was raining again, and passing time on platforms can get pretty desperate, so Jules and I played our usual round of 'dares'.


Today I wanted her to place coins on the tracks so we could flatten them. Of course everyone had a horror story about their friends friend who had a cousin who did that and got hit by a train, or derailed the train or lost an arm or broke their finger..or lost their money.....but I didn't care, it was a dare!

I underestimate Jules sometimes. I was scared witless about doing it. What if the train did come? What if there was a secret camera and I got fined? What if I did trip and sprain my ankle? All these 'what ifs'.....and she just walks onto the track and places the 5 cent coins all in a row....

No cameras, no sprained ankles, no dramas at all....I just ended up looking like a bigger wuss than I already knew I was.

The train came and we got on.


Leading up to the trip, Jules insisted that we take backpacks, and I was always whining about "why didn't we take cases with wheels?" but when getting on the trains, I always got to eat my words when I'd see these middle-aged women on our tour struggling to get their cases up onto the train. I suppose we could have offered to help, but they knew the drill. They were warned about suitcases before they left too...so we just enjoyed watching them struggle. You take these little pleasures when you can :o)

Train rides are pretty boring. I get another opportunity to thank Grant for reminding me to take my iPod and I read a few more chapters of my book. We rolled into Milan station again, had about 20 mins to go and get supplies (Tronkys, Gorky, Fonzies - anything with a weird name) oh, and to check out the JUMBO jars of Nutella, then it was back onto another train for Venice.

We arrived in Venice about 4pm, it was starting to go dark and it was WET! So we checked into our accom and met downstairs in the lobby. Mel took us on a quick tour of Venice, had a ferry ride up the river and got off at St Marks Square. I'm sure there is so much to see and do in Venice, but when it's cold and wet, no-one really has the motivation to do much. So after our quick tour, Jules and I found a cafe for a Hot Chocolate (and MORE pizza) and tried to find our way back...not so easy when there are barely any roads, lots of canals and rivers and bridges, oh, and no map....but we managed it.

After a hot shower and a brief look at Italian 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' (complete with semi-naked go-go dancers after every question) we headed down to meet for the final dinner. It was only a short walk away to a nice cheap pub (Birra Grande only 2 euro!) and had a few laughs before heading on to our last restaurant.

It was kind of sad as this was our last dinner with the tour group. Most of the people on it were pretty cool and Mel the leader was great fun. It was also slowly dawning on me that tomorrow, I would have to get Jules and I to the Trevisio Airport, on a plane, into Paris city and check into our accom ALL BY MYSELF!!!! Arrrrgh! What will I do with no MEL?????

Who will orgainse the train tickets? Who will give us our room keys? Who will tell us where to sit on the train?? Who will tell us where to get cheap booze? And the best restaurants? You mean I'm going to have to do this for myself????


Dinner was nice, Italian food......think I've had my fair share of Pizza and Pasta for the year....

Tomorrow we break the tour and head to Paris.......

---