V for Venice (14-15)

To my surprise, after 20 minutes of getting to Venice I was standing in the hostel. Bad Gastein aside, that rarely happens to me. Venice turned out to be a great decision, too. The hostel was a lot of fun, small and sociable, free dinner and breakfast and great people. I didn't do a whole lot of touristy things aside from walk around with a map, but sometimes I think it can be more fun to see a city that way. Grant it you don't learn the history and such that you would with a tour guide, but you have to be more alert in where you are going, knowing that it is up to you to get back. I spent most of the day with two australians and a canadian. We took a boat out to an island where there was a glass blowing show which was amazing - you try to watch every little action as carefully as possible, but suddenly a ball of hot glass has transformed into a beautiful, curving vase. It happened right in front of my eyes, but really it didn't because I couldn't see it happen. It just did. Kind of like how people age. We spent the rest of day wandering the streets of Venice, taking pictures at every canal (a lot of pictures) and eating some authentic Italian pizza and crepes... even though I thought that those were French.

I woke up the next morning (Saturday) with absolutely no idea of where I was going to go. I eventually decided that I would just go book the night train from Milan to Barcelona (being that I wanted to be in Sevilla on Sunday) but, and this one hadn't happened to me yet, I was told that the train only runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Not only that but the reservation fee for the train was a ridiculous 70 euros (its a 'special' train, they said) - even with my rail pass. I asked for different routes but these italian train people are trained to try to swindle as much money out of you as possible, so even if there were other routes that day that didn't have reservation fees, I wasn't given any help. So i was forced to get creative. In order to avoid the fee and avoid waiting around until Monday, I eventually figured it out that I would have to spend one night in Milan, catch two trains to get to Nice, France the next day; spend a night in Nice (where I am now), catch a train to Montpellier and then to Barcelona the following day (tomorrow, which is monday) and then hop on a night train to Sevilla, arriving tuesday morning. In other words, it was and is all very confusing. But I think it speaks to the lessons that i've learned since beginning this journey a month ago. Sure, I would have been disappointed in having to pay 70 euros and wait around until monday, but I sincerely think that I would have done it. I wouldn't have known, much less even considered, doing it any other way. As my dad says wisdom is putting to use those things that you've learned along the way; so I think that I am a little bit wiser now when it comes to traveling via trains. Lets hope so at least, I mean I haven't actually got to sevilla yet.... But, if anything, taking this more confusing route has allowed me to see the beautiful coastlines of western italy and the south of france. They are definitely places that I need to go back to. Huge, towering cliffs shooting out of the baby blue ocean, sprinkled with little houses here and there amidst lush, green jungle like forestry. It makes for a beautiful and incredibly enticing scene.

Unfortunately i got to Nice as the sun was setting down, but my train to Montpellier doesnt leave until 10 tomorrow morning so that gives me some time to wander down to the sea side before I head out.

If all goes according to plan, the next update should be on a train to Sevilla!