Section 1: The Crazy
Every now and then I forget that I am living in Europe, where it is relatively cheap and easy to move from country to country. This is evidenced by the crazy itinerary I designed for a recent trip.
For some reason I thought I needed to pick as many places as possible to visit as quickly as possible – like maybe because at the end, we’d have to fly back across an ocean or something. We had decided on a two week trip, beginning in Torino, Italy, where Mike had a conference. Then we went to Milan and Trieste. Then on to Ljubljana, Slovenia and Vienna, Austria.
The outcome: We went, we saw, we ate, we rushed, and we returned home exhausted – feeling like we hadn’t vacationed at all.
This jam-packed vacation consisted of the following:
- Days Traveled: 14
- Nights Slept: 13
- Travel Days: 6
- Packed Suitcases: 6 times
- Unpacked Suitcases: 6 times
- Cities Visited: 5
- Hotels: 5
- Trains: 4
- Ubers: 3
- Metros: 3
- Buses: 3
- Flights: 2
I must have been out of my mind. When I was younger I traveled like this all the time. In my defense, I had an ocean to cross, limited funds, and kids to get back to. Now I have no excuses. I could have spent the entire time in any one of these places.
Note to self: You live here. You don’t have to travel like this. You should follow your own 3 Night Rule.
Section 2: The Rookie Mistake
Europe is a great place, but some of what happens here seems odd. For example, when a workers’ union decides to call a strike, they announce it well in advance. They actually tell the people about their plans, so their customers can plan accordingly.
I’ve known this for years, but did that stop me from buying a train ticket without checking the strike calendar? Of course not. Instead of being a “seasoned traveler”, I committed a rookie mistake.
When we left Torino for Milan, we thought we would be there in time to have a nice lunch. After all, it’s only a one hour trip. We got to the station early, bought our tickets, and went to find some breakfast. After we ate, we looked at the schedule board and saw that our train, and several others, were cancellato.
So, we quickly bought a couple bus tickets (and cancellation coverage!). And while we hadn’t known about the train strike, the bus company certainly did – they raised the price of the tickets while Mike was booking them!
So we hauled the luggage a couple kilometers to the bus stop. Not a station or a terminal, just a long city block with a few benches and parking places for half a dozen buses.
The good news: It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t raining, so our extra two hour wait for the bus wasn’t uncomfortable, mostly just annoying
We made it to Milan five hours later than we anticipated. Lunch was a sandwich and bag of chips on the bus.
Section 3: The Tragedy (or We’re Probably Going to Hell)
I could make this story up but no one would believe me.
To get from Milan to Trieste, we opted to take the train. (Yes, they were actually running – I checked. Fool me once…) It was scheduled to be a 4 and 1/2 hour trip, with a few stops along the way and a change in Venice. Cool. We could be there by mid-afternoon and have time to explore the city.
For the first hour and a half, everything went fine. The stops were quick, with people getting on and off quickly.
Then, about an hour from Venice, we stopped in Verona. But we didn’t start up again. After ten minutes there was an announcement over the loudspeakers, in garbled Italian. We figured it was some sort of excuse, so Mike and I did the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and went back to our reading.
Then we noticed several people getting off the train. We started paying attention to the conversation in the car and gathered that the train had an “incident” as it arrived at the station. Then we learned that the incident was serious – the train had hit someone.
What?!?!
I started texting with my friend Melinda in Lisbon. She is fluent in Italian and I asked her if she could get us any information. Melinda found a bulletin on the internet that said the train had indeed hit someone. She said that meant we would probably be stopped for hours while the officials investigated.
Great. Just great.
After about an hour, the staff on the train brought in bottled water and snack boxes. Things weren’t looking good. And I don’t just mean the lunch.
After a second hour passed, I asked Mike if karma was going to get me. Would I be going to hell for being pissed off because my travel plan was delayed… because a guy got hit by the train? Mike said probably not, but it did reveal what horrible people we are.
Shortly after that, they announced that the remainder of the trip was canceled and that we should get off and take another train. We caught a slow-moving, stops-at-every-station commuter train to Venice, then barely made it onto another one going to Trieste.
We eventually arrived in Trieste at 7pm – a nine hour travel day.
The next day we read that a 24 year old Albanian man lost his life while trying to cross the tracks to beat the train.
The English version of the story is no longer available. Here’s a rough translation.
Tragedy in Italy, the 24-year-old Albanian is hit to death by the train
A serious accident happened today on the Verona-Padova line in Italy, where a young Albanian man took his life.
According to Italian media, around 11:20 today, a boy was hit by a train on the Verona-Padova railway line near Caldiero. The death was ascertained by the doctor sent to the scene.
It is reported that the victim is a 24-year-old young Albanian, who was apparently hit by a train while trying to cross the tracks.
Rail traffic has been suspended in Caldiero to allow the competent authorities to ascertain the facts.
It really was a tragedy.
The end of the post
So there you go. The crazy, the rookie mistake, and the tragedy. Please tell me a story about a trip of yours that went awry so I don’t feel like such a chump.
To be fair, the trip wasn’t all bad. We’ll tell you about some of the high points in our next post.
Until next time / Até a próxima vez
Mary
The Cook
What “Rookie Mistake” have you made while traveling? Fess up in the comments below or via the Contact Us form.
Mike/Mary, we experienced the same thing in Switzerland last year. Not as big of an experience like yours. Like you mentioned, the strike was announced well ahead of time and we just delayed the trip by a day.
Thanks for the comment, John, and sorry for the delay in replying to it. We had a little distraction over the past couple of weeks – but that’s a story for another day.
Traveling internationally is a great way to get lessons in being flexible…though that’s hardly what we sign up for when we buy our tickets.
Mike
We had a similar tragedy in the UK. We waited for our train from Bournemouth to Southampton, noticing that a couple of trains before ours were cancelled… But they let us all board our train before they finally told us ours is cancelled because of a death in the tracks hours before… Then everyone was dashing in the rain for expensive taxis and Ubers. Ugh. Very sad and very frustrating.
Hi Kat. Sorry for the delay in replying to your comment. We had a little distraction over the past couple of weeks – a story for another day.
One of the really frustrating parts of international travel – train or otherwise – is that we usually don’t know what the “standard procedure” is for handling disruptions or emergencies. So we’re dependent on instructions from the carrier, which may be in a language we don’t understand – including English with local jargon.
Hope you’ve had a good week!
Mike
That truly is a tragedy!
We were on a local train from Florence to a far reaching smaller town where our airbnb was for that leg of our trip 2 years ago. Something went wrong mechanically, either with our train or another that was blocking our path ahead. We spent about an hour waiting in a tunnel, and missed our connecting train. So we took a train back a couple of stops to transfer to another, so we would only be 2 hours late getting “home” instead of 4. All the little challenges you encounter and overcome while traveling as a family are a great learning experience I enjoy passing along to my children.
We’ll be flying to Venice in a matter of days, and we’re embarking on a cruise from Trieste. We’ve never been to Venice, so we are planning four nights there first. Is Trieste exciting enough to shift one night from Venice to Trieste to spend a whole day there?
Hi Andrea,
It’s great to hear from you. I agree with you – there are certainly teachable moments in all of this. Sadly, I might be too old to learn much more!
Re a day in Trieste: It is not an exciting place, compared to Venice, Florence, or Rome. Take a look at my first post about it – Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere – and read the quote from Jan Morris at the beginning. I’m working on another post about my impressions of the city, but it won’t be out in time to inform your plans. If you get there with half a day or a few hours to spend walking around the Grand Canal, the waterfront, and the Piazza Unitá, you’ll get a good feel for the place.
I hope that helps. Enjoy your trip. Where will the cruise take you?
Oh no! With trips that scheduled things are bound to happen. I’m glad you made your other connections and what a sad turn of events. And a reminder that our lives are fleeting. Don’t eat the bad food!
Hi Bonnie,
That’s a lesson that Mary has finally drilled into my head: Life’s too short to eat bad food. (Or drink bad wine!)
Mike
Oh, wow, what a chain of events! So sad about that young man trying to cross the tracks in front of the train. Indeed, your travel travails do seem to check all the boxes, though! I haven’t yet read your 3 Day/3 Night Rules but, in our case, out last two trips to Spain yielded probably a similar new rule for us: do not stay that one extra day and night! I’ll respond more after I read your other piece but glad you made it back okay if a bit frazzled!
Até logo!
Hi David,
Thanks for your comment. There are days when I think we could start a “Cranky Travelers Club” and collect similar stories. Most people have at least one.
Mike