Sono en Italia!

I am sitting on my friend Rossella's floor in her apartment near Bologna. I haven't been outside yet. My train arrived at 3:15am and Ro gracefully came to pick me up from the station. I was trying to catch an earlier, faster and more expensive train that left the main station in Rome, Roma termini, at 20:30. As I landed at 18:35, there wasn't much chance of that happening. I skipped going to the bathroom and spent an immensely long time waiting for passport control. Finally, I rushed through, got my backpack (the phrase "travel light" eludes me every time) and walked fast, focusing on catching the train from the airport to Roma termini. I was thinking very positive thoughts and indeed, the guy who sold me the ticket explained that I have 25 minutes to transfer trains. Hurray! I will make it, indeed, I will save Ro the experience of getting up in the middle of the night, and I'll arrive at the Bologna station in 3 hours instead of 5!

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Remember that expression, knowledge is power? Well, had I known straight where to go from the train, a 10 minute walk to the biglietteria (ticket office), without stalling to try and find the locked bathroom, trying to buy a ticket from the ticket machine which didn't vend tickets to Bologna, perhaps if I'd have PACKED LIGHTER, maybe I would have made the train. But alas, I found the biglietteria at 20:29, and when I told the agent where I was going, she made a face full of despair and told me what I already knew - that the last train from Roma termini had left, that I would have to take the metro to Roma Tiburtina, the other train station, and endure two more hours on the train and wake Ro up in the middle of the night.

And so I embarked. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins - I was in Italy! I was traveling! The sentences I learned from italianpod101.com had all come in handy, and what Maya taught me was of immense help (minus the naughty ones she added on facebook, which I spotted for what they were and didn't use them, thus avoiding unintentionally hitting on guys). I was also very grateful for speaking Spanish - it has definitely made my life easier with Italian.

I couldn't work the payphones (later Rossella explained that they only work with prepaid cards, as someone always tries to break the coin slot and steal money) so I had to ask this guy on the train platform to use his phone. I got a hold of Ro and shortly found myself on board the slow train going to Bologna. The train had compartments, which I'd never been in before (but it was appropriate as I was reading Harry Potter), and though it was a bit crowded the people were very nice. I had a conversation in English with a nice guy (I switched from talking about getting to Greece to asking about buying water, and he thought I meant "get to Greece by water". There was a very amusing moment), and a conversation in Spanish with a girl from Naples, and before I got a chance to look for the service cart, one of the other guys in the compartment came back with an extra bottle of water for me. One by one, the people got off, and I was left with the guy who got me the water (let's call him "acquaman" for kicks) and a large lady who showed me how to turn the seats into a bed (how cool!). I slept for a bit and woke up to the sound of snoring. Loud, horrible, unstoppable snoring. I looked up and caught the eye of acquaman, we exchanged slightly amused but mostly desperate looks. I tried poking snoring beauty, to no avail. Acquaman gestured 'tickle her foot' but my fingers hit rough skin and she didn't even stir. I tried shaking her slightly, the snoring stopped for a blissful minute, I curled up but before I managed to close my eyes, she was at it again. So I woke her up, shaking her a bit more this time, and said "you're snoring" about four times. She mumbled something that neither me nor acquaman could understand (she spoke a bit of English but it didn't sound like English) and we had some relief. Finally, we all fell asleep and I woke acquaman up 10 minutes before the train stopped in Bologna.

I walked around the station looking for Ro, tried my luck with a payphone, and finally she found me. We got to bed at 5:30 am and it's odd how different the setting is, but how natural everything feels. She even found me a vegan pastry at the local bakery, and now she's making pasta and I feel loved. Next step: learning Italian. How hard can it be?