Friday, June 17, 2011

Who's afraid of the big bad train conductors part III

Ok, ok I know I've been slacking but let me finish this up, then I'll give you the lowdown on Prague...

So anyway after we went to Maranello the next day and saw the Fherari factory... it was sort of a let down because it was tiny in comparison to what we thought it was be, but they still had some pretty sweet cars (unfortunately not Daniel's favorite car, only metal wirings of the model... those a-holes).  Oh actually back up a bit and let me tell you how we almost got arrested.

So, On the train ride between Pisa and Milan, or something I don't really know, we got on this train we thought was right.  OF course it ended up being wrong.  So the train conductor comes up and asks for our tickets, and said they were no good, we said yes they were, so on and so forth.  He charges us more money and we say we don't have it (we do).  He asks for credit card we say we don't have it (we do).  It wasn't just the money but the principle of the whole matter that really bugged us since the trains are so vague and hard to figure out and the train conductors want to be assholes about it.  SO eventually he says if we don't pay he's turning us over to the police.  I give him the middle finger and tell him to do it (probably shouldn't have done that in retrospect, but sometimes people just push you too far and this was it).  He gets on the phone for like one second and says a few things then hangs up (we think it was fake).  HE asks again and demands are passports.  We say no (we think he's going to take them away).  He gets on the phone again and talks for another few seconds this random guy in clothing comes up to us.  Apparently they have secret police everywhere, so he shows us his badge and we finally give over our passports for the stupid train conductor to write down.  We get them back and he goes up the isle and checks everyone else before telling us something about having the police pick us up at the next stop or something.

So finally we get to Bologna and get off and just start walking away and absolutely nothing happens.  I guess if you just stick it to the Italian authority figures they back down (probably not the best advice to follow).  Anyway that was kind of a crazy encounter, that was not fun at all, lesson learned: never ever take the trains in Italy, save yourself the humiliation and annoyance.

After all that though we made it to Milan and the guy in the hostel was slightly mad at me at first cuz i had booked the night before but we told him how we had to sleep in the Pisa train station because we got stranded and he wasn't too mad.  We met an English girl who was kinda weird to me anyway, although she was very independent, but we talked to her for a while before finally getting to bed sort of early, our train in the morning was at 7 and we hadn't slept in a bed for a few days.

Then we were in Venice the next day for a few hours, the best city in Italy by far.  We met some girls who had stayed in our hostel the night before from Australia, talked to them for a bit then headed off around the city.  It's a little too touristy but i would definitely go back especially for a honeymoon (though I won't probably have one lol) or a nice vacation.  After venice we went up to Switzerland and after crossing the border we danced and made fun of Italy for the next 6 hours because the Swiss trains were nice and beautiful, luxrious, and caused us no trouble.  We love Switzerland!  Also their milk and cheese is to die for.

Finally the next day after sleeping in a train station again we made it close to the Matterhorn but not up it because it cost so much money.  We actually fell asleep and missed our train station get off and eventually ended up circling the entire of Switzerland, but it was fun and the scenery was breathtaking.  In the end I'd love to spend more time in Switzerland when I get the chance.  Eventually we made it to Austria and walked around Salzburg at night after finding out there were no trains to make it into PRague because their railway system is so messed up.  Salzburg was great and we took pictures in front of a bunch of Mozart stuff we think were about the composers.  We made it to the border of the Czech Republic and had to spend the night in a really warm train station which was nice.  As Daniel said we were getting pretty good at being homeless.  Finally the next day we made it at last to Prague after having to take the worst train transfer to another train, have the entire train board a bus, then ride another train into the city since the railroad lines are so terrible.

So here I am in Prague.  Emily, Daniel's friend, was already in town so we met up with her and were able to walk up the tallest hill next to prague which got us a gorgeous view of the city, truly breathtaking!!  We had some Czech beer before we parted ways and now here I am in the city...

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