Murphy's Law

Well, it happened. That dreaded day that you never want, but always expect. That one day where everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. It all started when Angela casually mentioned on our train from Rome, "we haven't missed a train yet!". The day was further jinxed while waiting for a ferry in Sorrento when I said, "tomorrow is going to be the best 24 hours of our lives." Basically we learned that neither Angela nor I have the gift of prophecy. Sooooo here's what happened..

We took the train into Naples where we were going to switch onto a smaller train to take us to Pompeii. Naples is nuts. Even the train station proved seedy with old creepy men (Angela can attest to this) and random train children wrestling in sandwich shops. It was worth it though, because Pompeii was really cool. It was an ancient city frozen in time. We found out that most of the good stuff has been taken to the archeological museum in Naples, but it was still amazing to walk the ancient streets all the while staring at Vesuvius towering above. We got to see two of the victims forever frozen in their state of terror at the exploding volcano. We couldn't imagine the fear of everyone as they tried to figure out how to evacuate. Angela and I didn't expect Mt. Vesuvius to be so large, but even after we took the train to Sorrento we could still easily pick it out, standing much taller than every other mountain around. 
We made it to Capri with relative ease, though quite tired. Our hotel was beautiful and we couldn't wait to see what fun the next day would bring. We started making a list; Blue Grotto, Beach lounging, mountain climbing, restaurant..eating, or just doing a lot of nothing and enjoying being on the beautiful island of Capri. When we woke up the next day, it was rather grey and cloudy, but we shrugged it off as morning weather. Then after breakfast it started raining...and didn't stop for the entire day. There was nothing to do but throw on our rain jackets and do what we could. So we shopped and ate for the day, then bought our ferry tickets to head back to main land. Turns out we didn't allow enough time to travel from the marina, back to our hotel to grab our bags, then back to the marina to catch our 3:30 ferry. But the "words give" up are not in our vocabulary and we tried our hardest. Picture, if you will, Angela and I running down the tiny streets of Capri, splashing in puddles, faces wet with rain, pants falling off because they are heavy and soaking wet with water, all the while hunched over with giant 30 lb backpacks strapped to us. Unfortunately we did miss our ferry, but got a partial refund and bought tickets to the next one. 

Once back in Naples, we boarded a train to Rome and then a night train to Venice. We decided to risk it and not make reservations on this train...turns out so did everyone else on the train. It was a free-for-all. People in the hallways, scoping out available seats. Luckily we found two together in a car filled with three men. Stinky men. We thought, oh well, they seem nice enough and hunkered in for the long trip to Venice. We dozed off and what felt like minutes later we were being awakened by the ticket checker dude. Once he checked our passes he paused on the guy across from me. They started yelling at each other in Italian and before we knew what was going on he was up and out of our car. He was getting thrown off for not having a ticket. Soon enough some seat vultures came to claim his space. After another few hours of restless sleep, the ticket dude came back to check again...the other man in our car started yelling in Italian and Angela and I just looked back and forth from man to man unsure of what was happening. Next thing we knew he was getting thrown off for not having a ticket. Mind you, this is all happening at 2:00 am. So with more room and the train thieves gone, Angela, I and the seat vultures spread out to relax.

Next thing we know we are being rushed off the train by a conductor. We are confused, so are the girls with us. In as much English as they could, they explained that the train separated from the one going to Venice and if we didn't get off now we were headed to Trieste....on the border of Slovenia and Croatia. So there we were...at some unknown train station in northern Italy, at 5:40 in the morning, confused and tired. But it all worked out and we boarded the next train to Venice. 
Looking back we are grateful it all happened. Things won't always be perfect or go according to plan, and we really were able to learn how to abandon our own plans and make new ones. Though we do wish we could have had a sunny day on Capri.

Venice was fantastic. It was a Saturday, and there were giant fish markets and fruit/vegetable markets going on. We wandered around for hours chasing the sunny streets and taking in one of the strangest cities on the planet.  We had a fantastic breakfast at a little pastry shop. And made our way over to Saint Marks basilica where we people watched for a while. Angela actually coaxed a pigeon to sit on her arm! She found a piece of bread and the bird jumped on her! Her reaction was priceless.  We then made our way back to the markets and purchased random veggies, fruits, cheeses and bread and had ourselves a little Venetian picnic on the side of the Grand Canal. We had to fight off pigeons the whole time, but it was great. Eventually we got too tired to keep going, and we went to our hostel camping ground (we got a whole cabin this time!).  We are crazy party animals, and fell fast asleep by 9:00 pm. 

What we learned these few days:
1. Kids in Capri are just like kids at home. One ran up behind me and did that whole "I'm gonna tap you on one shoulder then run away from the other side" thing. It cracked us up. We watched him run back to his friends and they were all giggling.
2. Italians DO NOT want you to put your feet up on the train seats. 
3. Naples is no joke. Three different people on the tram warned us to hold onto our bags really tightly.
4. Even when everything goes wrong, and we are a little lost and confused Angela and I still have a blast. We can't help but laugh (way too loud most of the time) everywhere we are. She puts things in perspective when I'm being a bit of a baby, and always forces me to remember the positive. BEST. TRAVEL. BUD. EVER.

We are now on a train to Spiez Switzerland and from there we will go to Interlaken, then Gimmelwald Mountain Hostel. Not gonna lie, I'm probably most excited for this stop of the trip. But we learned from our mistakes, and we are not making any bold statements in the hopes that we won't jinx it this time. More later!

Lots of Love,
Angela & Lauren