italy trip day 1 (dec 26th)

sorry for the lateness of this post but i have been busy not doing any thing (break)
i wrote all these blogs on my palm pilot but i forgot to install the software that i need to make the palm pilot and my laptop talk to each other. so i have to retype each of them.

ok... woke up this morning at 5:00 AM and got ready to go. had spaghetti for breakfast and went to the train station.
here is the plan for the entire italy trip.
1 Venice
2 directly to brescia (a city close to cremona)
3 sleep
4 cremona (Stradivarius museum)
5 florence
6 sleep
7 vinci (da vinci museum)
8 florence
9 direct to venice
10 venice
11 sleep
12 venice
13 vienna (late evening)

the train is just starting to move. the annousments were in both german and english. the conductors english was so bad i understood the german better. still no snow in vienna, it did not feel like christmas yesterday.
i have been thinking about this trip since the second week in germany. but i only planned this trip yesterday and the day before.
packed extremely light for this trip, no cloths or computer. just what i need to survive.
not sure what to expect in Italy. i've gotten pretty good at being a dumb American. that will probably help me alot. andrea gave me a Italian phrase book / dictionary. i should try studying that.
tried to withdraw money this morning. but since its yesterday in america still, and my card has a daily limit of how much i can take out. and i withdrew money yesterday. it would not give me money.

i have a seven hour train ride with 2 italian teenagers sitting across from me. there is no leg room. the seats are set up so that every other row is facing the opposite direction. so we are all facing each other. which makes things awquard for me. there is little leg room because there is a person there. it is dark yet so i can't watch scenery go by.

several hours latter.......

its to bright out. and the snow on the ground out side is making it brighter (it has snowed every were around vienna just not the city.
saw mountains (both smooth and pointy (smooth = granite pointy = chalk (learned that in history class))) also saw a broken (looks like it might have caught on fire and exploded (or bust open at the seems)) any way there is foam (like garage door insulation foam) coming out of the openings. looks like some kind of automatic fire supresion system.

4 hours to go



in italy now
boarder patrol just glanced at my passport and gave the 2 italians across from me the 3rd degree. i guess no one likes having italians in there country. (austria will not let you buy a train ticket into austria with out a ticket out of austria when italy is concerned)
one of the italians accidentally kicked my foot and said "enschudi.... sorry... scussi" (excusse me... sorry... sorry" i laughed.
2 hours to go


not sure how to get train tickets in italy. i hope there are machines that speak english like in germany. although i guess if there is a ticket office every teller will likely speak english. i just don't wanna deal with people.

in venice (finally)
found a ticket machine got a ticket. sitting on the train now. problem is i'm not sure its the right train.
the platform # was not made clear. this is the only train leaving at the specified time so im sitting on it. if its not the right train i'll get kicked off at the next stop and i can get another train.

when got to Venice. i walked out of the train station and saw the main canal. and the buildings and breathed in and said "ahhh..... venice" (i ment to say that when i got there. i was just so impressed with how pretty the city was that i said it unintentionally) the city s beautiful Saturday (when i come back and stay all day) will be fun. i kinda wish i brought my laptop so i could plan out my trip in venice but my shoulders will be glad i did not.
the loud speaker just said i'm on the right train.

day one seems to be going smoothly. looks like i'll get to brescia before sunset. then i can find my hotel and explore the city some.