So turns out that Venice is way, way, WAY out of the way of where I was. Oh well. And it also turns out that ticket people should not be trusted. After not getting the ticket I wanted to Venice and showing up there a day night and having to take a night train, I decided to be smart and get my ticket to Bratislava as soon as I got into Venice.
"A ticket to Bratislava on the 27th please."
Confused look on ticket lady's face.
Uh oh.
"Bratislava. 27th. Vingt-sept?"
I trace 27 on the window of the ticket counter.
"Oh, okay."
She checks the computer.
"Umm... no trains to Bratislava on 27. Vienna?"
Vienna has a train every 20 minutes to Bratislava, so I say okay.
I get my ticket, hang out in Venice with LCD, walk across the entire city twice, go to the beach, heart-wrenchingly buy a mask and hope it won't get broken during the next month in my bag, go back to the station to get on my train.
I used my Eurail pass to get the train reservation, so I take it out to write down the date for this day of travel. I look at the date on the ticket, and write down 25/07 on my ticket. Oh, wait..... Turns out she gave me a reservation on the day I bought the ticket, not on the day I had requested. I have half an hour left before the train leaves. I go and stand in the ticket line for what seems and eternity and finally get to the ticket office.
"Hello. English?"
"No."
Crap.
I struggle through it and manage to communicate that I was given a reservation for the wrong day, and he gestures that I have to go to the Railiway Information desk to get it resolved. So I do. 15 minutes left. I stand in line for the Information desk and he tells me I have to go to the Ticket desk. 10 minutes left. I cut through the line and he again tells me to go to the Information desk. (I told this story to Josh, an Italian student I met on the train and at this point he laughs and says "That is SO Italian!"). So this time a young guy who speaks some English goes with me and has a long conversation with the Information desk guy, and I can tell from the conversation that this still isn't going to help me at all. So I turn to the young guy and he says "Ummm... Just get on the train."
So I do. Apparently it wasn't an issue that I had no reservation. Just being told that would have been very useful.
So now I am in Bratislava. It is dirty, poor, cheap, proud and I love it.
More later!
2 comments:
Hey Matt
Man, looks like you're having quite the adventure too! That's amazing, how many places you get to see, I am definately jealous.
Africa is a lot like North America too, especially I get to know more people, I am seeing that people are people pretty much everywhere, same motivations etc etc. I'm getting pretty comfortable here so life is really good.
Keep safe, I'll probably see you back in Yellowknife.
barryfkelly.googlepages.com
"Hello. English?"
"No."
Crap.
*snorts* Sounds fun! :-D
Hey, it's Franki. You know. You're cousin. I hope you know that our family wanted me to leave a perverted anonymous comment.
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