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Published: April 26th 2009
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On Friday morning, we got up early and headed to Nice’s city center to take a train to Venice. It was supposed to be a two and a half hour ride to Milan, where we would switch trains to ride another two and a half hours to Venice, but it ended up being a full day of travelling. Our first train left at ten o’clock but was half an hour late getting to Milan - making us miss our connecting train. Luckily, trains depart for Venice from Milan every hour, but we had to run to catch the next train and then stand without seats for an hour and a half. Then when we got to Venice, we just missed the bus to the campsite where we were staying and had to wait another hour for that. I think we finally got there around 7pm. It was nice to have a break from hostels and the hustle and bustle of the city in Venice. Our campsite was located on the mainland, not old Venice, and the cabins we stayed in were really nice. The water and smell of campfires made me miss home and Steamboat a lot though. I can’t
Gelato!!
Robbie, Tyson, and me wait to roast marshmallows again!
On Saturday, we spent the day in Venice, wandering through the city. We took a ferry there from our campsite in the morning, and when we got there we just walked wherever we wanted to without a map. I really enjoyed the city that way. We saw the Piazza de San Marco and the main market district, but other than that we mostly just absorbed the environment. I liked the little shops everywhere, the majority of which were hand-blown glass shops, leather shops, and stores selling elaborate carnaval masks. That afternoon we met Robbie (also from Erskine College) at the train station - he was coming in from Rome - and wandered around some more while catching up with him. Of course we did that mostly over ice cream and pizza - my favorite part of Italy 😊
That night we headed back to our campground, and on Sunday Robbie and Adam returned to Venice and Tyson and I headed to Lake Como, Italy. Robbie and Adam’s flight was a few days after ours, but Tyson and I were flying out of Milan that Monday, so we headed in the direction of Milan
Mischevious Chicos
We were too cheap to pay for a real gondola ride, but at least they can say they've been in one now from Venice. We’d heard about Lake Como from a guy we met at our hostel in Venice and looked it up on the internet for leaving there and thought we’d give it a try. The pictures we saw were beautiful, and it looked like a great place to go. However, in the end we found out that it was only a great place to go if the weather was decent and if you had more than an afternoon to enjoy it. Woops…
Our train arrived in Como, the main town on the lake, around one o’clock Sunday afternoon. We didn’t have reservations to stay anywhere that night, so we wandered around the city center looking up different places. After doing that for a few hours, being completely unsuccessful, and at one point getting trapped inside a private courtyard (I started to climb over the fence when some anonymous on-looking resident opened the car gate), we walked for another hour to a hostel on the outskirts of town. The city center really was beautiful, but it was raining and by that point in the trip and with all the walking, we were both really tired.
When we got to
the hostel, we asked for a couple of tourist options for the little time we had left in Como and were given several, almost all of which didn’t coincide well with the weather. So, we decided to go with the easiest option and take a bus ten minutes down the road to the Swiss border, cross on foot into the small town of Chiasso, eat some chocolate, and come back. Seriously. We can now say we’ve been to Switzerland (although only for a half hour), and the chocolate was AMAZING!
That night we stayed in our hostel, not wanting to go out in the rain again, and relaxed and ate in the lounge area. I met a really nice Australian family there and enjoyed playing cards with them before turning in early. “Oh Nuts” is making its way around the world as we speak 😊
Monday morning, we ate breakfast at the hostel and then headed to the train station for the half hour ride to Bergamo, outside of Milan, where our flight was out of. We thought it would be easy enough, but we turned it into a mess of a morning. We got on the wrong
train to start off with - the one leaving ten minutes before the right one, headed to the wrong station in Milan, where our original train was supposed to transfer. We were really worried we’d get fined for being on the wrong train, but we made it safely to Milan in 45 minutes without having to show our tickets to anyone. When we got to Milan, we asked someone at the information stand how to get to the other station to catch our connecting train to Bergamo and were told it didn’t leave for another hour and we’d have to pay for that full ticket to get on it - around ten Euros. Us being cheap and pushed for time to catch our flight, we ended up running to a different train with the other station as its first stop, twelve minutes down the line, and praying the entire time that we didn’t get stopped by the ticket checkers - again. We made it there without any problems though, and eventually made it to the Bergamo airport - with just enough time to run and check-in. Our flight ended up being delayed half an hour, something very rare with RyanAir,
Chiasso, Switzerland
Bus there, picture with the flag, chocolate, bus back :) but we eventually made it back to Alicante. The day was really cloudy though and the flight was the bumpiest I’ve ever been on. I’ve never been more scared in an airplane before; I was very glad to be on the ground again.
So, the end of our trip was crazy hectic and messy, but as a whole, I really enjoyed it. It was a fun, laid-back time with people I like in beautiful places. In only eight days, I saw a lot of things and got to enjoy the company of friends and learn more about them. Back in Alicante now, the weather is gorgeous, and I’ve been enjoying the beach quite a bit. I had class for an hour on Tuesday, but didn’t have class on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday are festival days here. Yesterday was Santa Faz and I walked two or three miles to San Juan and back with Jenna and Erin (from Arizona State) to a church in San Juan where the cloth that Veronica used to wipe Jesus’ face is supposedly held. Thousands of people walked through town to celebrate the day, and it was fun to experience another Spanish tradition.
Classes start back up again on Monday, but on Wednesday night I’m taking off to travel again. Nicole and I are going to Lisbon, Portugal, for two days and then to Madrid for two more. A couple friends went to Lisbon in February and their pictures from there are gorgeous, so I’m excited to see it in person.
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