Munich, Germany - June 30th

The alarm on my phone went off only a few hours after we had gone to sleep. I eventually got up and showered. Then I got Wade up to shower. Then I got Geoffrey up to shower. I figured 2 hours before their train left was ample time to get ready and down to the station, but we must have all had that mentality since we took our sweet time getting our shit together. By the time we actually left the room we only had 20 minutes to reach the station before Geoffrey and Wade’s train left. Although we tried as best we could to make it to the station in time, there was no way we could make it. We got there about 10 minutes after the train had left. At the information stand, Geoffrey got a new schedule of trains that would take him and Wade to Zurich in time to catch their train to Paris. Although their train didn’t leave for another hour, it had less transfers and less layover so I hope it worked out well. I had some coffee and a Panini for breakfast then hoped on my train after saying goodbye to my brothers. On the train I found a great window seat with no one else to sit beside. On the row opposite me, a girl with way too much luggage than a normal traveler should have, sat an American girl named Ashlee. It was truly a miracle that she happened to sit beside me because my ticket was going to take me to Merano instead of Milano. The German lady who got my ticket must have confused my pronunciation. In Ashlee bottomless pit of luggage, she had a Eurorail book with all the connecting trains from the station we were heading towards and because of her I was able to catch the connecting train to Milan. The train ride was a long one and for most of the time I was talking to Ashlee, who had been in Munich visiting a friend, went to UNC and studied Italian, studying a beginner Italian book she let me borrow, or listening to music. It was about an 8 hour ride until we arrived in Bologna, Italy, and I didn’t want to pay 8 Euro for a sandwich so I went hungry. At the station I only had 10 minutes to buy my connecting ticket to Milan and get to the platform before the train left. I was able to make it in time despite the total chaos that is Italian train stations. In the midst of it I lost Ashlee who was approached by an Italian man who offered to carry her bags for her as soon as she got off the train. I learned later that this Italians seemingly good intentions were in fact all for the tip she was expected to pay of 10 Euro which she refused. I was a little confused by the Italian train because it had cabins which sat 6 people and then aisles down the side. The train was very full and all the cabin seats taken so I followed suit of a gipsy looking girl in the isle with me and folded down a hidden seat in the isle. It was quite annoying sitting with my bags in the aisle because the Italians surrounded me seemed to need to move up and down the aisle a lot. A couple stops up I managed to move to a cabin seat with a very strange group of people, very whorish looking woman, whose age is hard to estimate because she was dark tan and her skin was sun damaged, who was with her very childish acting boyfriend, who seemed to whine to her for a belly rub or a back scratch, and their mid 30 year old friend. For the 2 hour ride I just looked out the window at the country side and listened to music. Eventually they all fell asleep which was good because I was starting to have some freaky moments where I would drift in and out of dream states, either from lack of sleep the night before or because I had not eaten more than a half a Panini in about 14 hours. At Milano Centrale, I hoped off the train and made my way to where I thought the information desk was. However, in what I assumed was typical Italian fashion the signs led me in a big loop around the station, never actually reaching the info desk. I got fed up with looking and set out into the city beyond the station in search of food. The closest place with enough calories to make up for the lack of eating was a McDonalds, and I hoped to find some other English speakers there. The food was satisfying, but I wasn’t able to understand the jumble of English/Italian the girl behind the counter was saying. I walked back out into the square in front of the station and noticed an internet café on the other side. There, I got directions to the hostel I had reservations for the night. The metro line that would take me there didn’t stop at the central train station and I didn’t want to take a cab for my distrust of them, especially in Italy, so I decided to walk the 5.6 kilometers to the hostel. The little bit of Italian I learned on the train ride from Ashlee proved to be a lifesaving tool as I was able to muster asking which way to certain roads or where I was. Took almost three hours to get there and I was exhausted from walking with my huge bag of clothing, but I managed to get there around 10:30 at night. I was drenched in sweat but very relieved to find the front desk still open. I checked into my room where I put my stuff and then went back down to the lobby to use their wifi to tell Mom I had arrived safely. I had picked up a phone at the train station while I was wondering around and activated it. After checking email and charging the new phone for a while I headed to bed. The room I shared with 5 other guys. It was hot last night with no AC, but the choice of leaving the door open to cool the room off and suffering from mosquito bites had already been made for me. So I got in bed and covered myself with a thin sheet and actually managed a decent sleep, even with waking up to the hated buzz of a mosquito near my face.