This Train or That Train, regardless we’re ALL taking a train

It was 24 hours before our train was scheduled to depart and 9 of us decided to head out to Italy for the weekend. Now before you judge us, we might have procrastinated but it is not totally our fault. We had planned to go to Italy another weekend but there was a miscommunication with other planned excursions so we had to change our Italy trip. We had an excursion in Kehl, Germany that Friday morning but the rest of weekend we had free. We didn’t have any train tickets or reservations only our country train passes (which you need reservations for) and up to 12 hours before our train left we didn’t have a hostel reservation either.

Anyhow, we decided to head out immediately after our trip to Kehl. After taking 4 trains, 8 of us made it to Florence, Italy. We lost one on the way because of a personal reasoning. Needless to say, we were a little unprepared but all of us went with the flow. The group split up and regrouped the entire train ride down to Florence but everything worked out fine. After we regrouped for the last time in the Florence train station we never split up again for the entire time we were in Florence. I actually wanted to go to other places but I changed my mind because I liked the idea that we were all a group. We never do this. It is quite annoying and immature but I loved the fact that we were all able to explore, laugh, and discover a new place together. Maybe it was the group of us who went but regardless I think it made the trip that much better, especially for celebrating a friend’s 20^th birthday.

           

From the moment, we touched down in Italy the people made us feel so welcomed and went over and beyond to help us. They helped us at the train stations.  They directed us to the correct train. Marta, the hostel owner, searched the city looking for us after we couldn’t find hostel. She told us all of the best places to visit. She was the nicest European person I have ever met since I have been over here. Most importantly, she even understood when we told her about the person we lost among the way. It was obvious that she was a mom because she was so helpful and wanted to make sure that everyone was unified. A sense of unity flew throughout the air. I think this is what we all needed after being in France for so long. We no longer had to embarrass ourselves trying to speak another language; people would switch over to English automatically. This was the best part about Italy.

 2 of my friends and I decided to head out to Venice the next day and we had the same experience. People were always willing to help. At first, the generosity caught me off guard because another lady kept insisting I take a piece of candy, eat something at the bar, or take a snack from her big purse full of goodies. By the end of the train ride back to the Strasbourg, I was a little happy to see this over generous lady leave because I could sleep. However, I was a little sad because reality was setting in and I would have to go back to France where people have this stuck up attitude and are not so quick to help you. The train ride back was actually one to remember after hoping on full trains without reservations, tickets, or any idea of where it would end up and being given crazy ultimatums by train ticket collectors (pay 100 euros for a first class train reservation, stay the night in Switzerland or Milan and catch the next train to Strasbourg the next day) but I appreciate everything and I’m glad that I made this trip to Italy despite all of the craziness that occurred on the ride back.