Took the overnight train from Vienna to Venice, which was certainly an experience! It was my second overnight train (the first being the Caledonian sleeper from Dundee to London) and I have to say the first one was much more comfortable! Although to be fair, that type of sleeper wouldn’t have worked well for us because I was in a 2 bed berth and there were 3 of us on this train. We were in a 6 bed berth, at the very top beds, which were surprisingly high up, especially considering they didn’t have any kind of railing or anything. Getting on the train wasn’t very smooth - when we booked the ticket Jo had asked about if our 3 big suitcases and other bags would all fit and was assured there would be plenty of room. However when we got on, we discovered there was actually nowhere to put them, and the conductor guy was (at least at first) fairly unhelpful to the point of seeming annoyed about the situation. It was pretty stressful for a bit, but luckily the only other person in the same berth who got on at Vienna was a lovely Italian guy, who was happy to move into another berth that had a free bed so that we could store our suitcases on his bed. After that initial confusion it was alright though. One thing I love about trains in Europe/the UK is that they almost always have powerpoints on the longer distance trains, meaning I can use my computer for as long as I want and also not have to worry about having it all charged the night before. So Jo and I watched the Hunger Games and then we all went to bed. Two other people got on at later stops, but as we had already gone to bed we didn’t really see them until we were all woken up for breakfast. It wasn’t the worst sleep I’ve ever had, and it was definitely a good way to do the long journey between Austria and Italy with minimal time wastage, but we were pretty tired when we finally made it to Venice!
When we got to Venice, first we had to leave our bags somewhere, and since it was fairly expensive per bag, we combined all the bags as much as possible, leaving just my backpack - hence why I looked even more like a tourist than all the tourists there! Anyway then we went and caught the water bus to Piazza San Marco. That was cool, we hung around and got our first Italian gelato, however we were also pretty glad to leave by the time we did due to all the pigeons. They were everywhere, and disgusting!! Although even worse than the pigeons were the big seagulls, one of which we saw eating a dead pigeon in the middle of the square! We were also pretty disgusted by all the tourists feeding the pigeons and encouraging them to land on them so they could take pictures.
We got left the piazza after not too long, and decided to just slowly make our way back to the train station and then get the next train to Rome. That was nicer. It is such a maze! I don’t think we would have gotten far without a map, but all the little back streets off the main tourist tracks were much quieter and just as beautiful. It is definitely worth a wander, if you don’t mind feeling a little lost most of the time!
Eventually made it back to the train station, and so got lunch at a little restaurant nearby while we waited for the next train. I had a delicious carbonara - the authentic stuff is way better than any I’ve had at home (except of course for my Italian flatmate Rughy’s carbonara!). We also gave in and bought a piece of nougat to share - every second shop had big pieces of it sitting temptingly on display. This we ate in the train as we made our way to Rome.
No comments:
Post a Comment