I will remember 19/12/2009 forever. This is the day we went to Italy, also was the day where I experience a lot of unforgettable events on the same day. Anyway, the whole exciting journey began on the day before where we took train from Newcastle to London.
18th of Dec, friday evening, 610pm was our train departure time. However, we were still in the cab somewhere around the train station,when the time was 604pm, because it was snowing and road was slippery. We quickly asked the driver to stop by side and we grabbed our luggage bags and ran as fast as we could to the train station. I still remember vividly the scene during that time. I totally can't feel any coldness but only anxiety and shortness of breath. Once we reached the station and knew which platform to go, we grabbed our things and ran. We had to across a bridge to get to the opposite side. OMG, When ascending the slope, I almost fell back as the luggage was heavy, but still I had to be quick. Thank God, we made it. We managed to get on the train on time, but in a truly messy look. She even saw her clinic group member on the same coach and she was so paiseh cause she looked horrible with rambut kusut-masai.haha~ same goes to me.
I thought this was the end of my 'unforgettable' memory. Who knows, more to come on the next day. We overnight in Stansted Airport. Basically I only took a short nap in restaurant. When we get on the plane, I thought that is time for me to get a good rest. I did really have a good sleep at the first few hours of flight, but later on,a lot of things happened after that.
We were supposed to fly to Pisa Florence Airport and reached there by 1145am, but announcement was made in plane that Pisa Airport was closed due to heavy snow and our plane had to revolved on air for few rounds before they finally decided to land on Genoa Airport. Genoa is a beautiful city which located by the seaside. The weather there was sunny and I had not seen sun for long time. I was quite happy that time and thought that we can just take train straight away to Venice without going to Pisa as Pisa was initially just a brief stop in our plan.
We were trapped in the plane for half an hour as they claimed that they were not ready to receive our arrival suddenly. While waiting, we chit chat with an Irish and a few Italians who sat behind us. They told us how should we go to Venice from Genoa. Though they were not so sure, but they said they will provide us help.
After get into the airport, once again we waited for 3 hours for luggage bags as they were shortage of staffs to load our stuff from plane. The difficult part of traveling to Italy is that they do not know English. WE can't communicate with them. Lucky enough,the Italians we met in plane helped us to ask around about when and where we can get our luggage. They were so helpful and even checked for us online what time train is available from Genoa to Venice. He said that there will be a train at 345pm.
By the time we get our luggage bag, it was already 255pm. We quickly rushed to service counter and asked where can we get a bus to train station. Our Italian friends helped us to ask and told us that there will be bus at 3pm in front of airport. We quickly grabbed our bag and ran towards it. So lucky that the bus was still there. We asked the bus driver where should we stop but he did not answer us. We were so blur. Thank God that we found an Italian young man who study in UK. He told us that he was going to train station too, so we can just follow him.
By the time we reached train station, it was already 335pm. Again, we ran to ticket counter. OMG, the queue was long. We had to queue as well. Then I saw the young man just now in bus was lining up to buy train ticket using his Italian credit card from machine. I approached the guy and asked for his help. He just said yes and even told me that will buy ticket for us as he was no rush. While queuing up, we get into a small chat. Wow, he is a Math student in Imperial College and this is cool. He is cute too.haha...
The man in front him did not know to operate the machine well, he even taught him how to operate, so that can reach our turn quicker. Such a nice guy. When was our turn, he failed to get a ticket for us due to some technical error, so I still had to buy ticket manually. Luckily she was still in the queue. Anyway, we really appreciate his help and wanna thank him before he left. He saw us and offered help to buy ticket for us. We were so touched. Without him, we sure can get ticket to Venice as can see that the man in counter really can't speak English. With this young man's help, we finally get our tickets. That time was already 341pm. He said: "Now you got 4 minutes. Run run run." We took the ticket from him and thank him, then we grabbed tight of our luggage bags and rushed to platform 4. That time we even had to climb up staircases with a 10kg and another 15kg luggage bag. She insisted to carry the 15kg bag for me. A big credit for her.haha...
When we reached the platform, we saw the train was still there, but we were not sure whether was that the one. So we just asked around. Badly, no one can speak English. Finally we get a man who can speak English. After seeing our ticket, he said this was the right train. We quickly carried our stuff on train. fuh... after so long hour of rush, finally we made it.
Another problem arouse then. We had to transit twice before we reached Venice but we did not know which station to stop. I saw the man just now. I asked him. He said he will remind me couple minutes before the station. Many thanks to him. He had been so helpful. AFter get off the train at our first transit point, we looked around for the information of next transit train. When we checked,then only we knew that the train had just set off few minutes ago because the train that we took just now reached late. argh....geramnya~
We were unsure what to do next. We saw a train schedule on board and we tried our best to understand it but fail. Again, we asked around and still, they do not understand English. Lucky enough, a young lady approached us and told us how to read the schedule. Another helpful Italian. She told us that next train will be 3 hours later. Oh no, I did not want to wait for next train in the negative degree Celsius. Furthermore, the place was so ulu and looked so scary.
We decided to take next train to Verona then from there to Venice Mestre. Jo said YH did tell her before that Verona is nice city. This was our plan. If we fail to catch any train to Venice on the same night, at least we can still get a safe place to overnight in Verona. We reached Verona and had our dinner there. I had my first ever local pizza and pasta over there but was damn expensive. Then, when I went to WC, I saw two cops went into it also and seems like was talking something secretive to a man in WC (this is a shared WC). A girl that just came in quickly leave when saw this. I also leave it asap. One of the cop smiled at me when I was leaving. Hmm... the two cops are so well build and tall. So man and so yeng, unlike cops here,yaiks.haha...
Finally, we caught the last train to Venice at 10+pm. We were much more relief as now for sure we can reach Venice. Poor her, she had not been sleeping for few nights because of her assignments and now we were trapped in such conditions. She was so restless. I felt so sorry for her. Luckily she managed to get some rest in train. I also fell asleep in train. I awake halfway and I felt that the train was not moving. Then I asked around and a woman said that might be due to the bad weather and our train had to give way to other delayed train first. SO our train stopped there for half an hour. I was a bit scared, scared that they might straight away cancel the journey to Venice and just stop at any nearest station.
Fuh...finally the train started moving but another problem came. I did not know which station to stop. I asked the women who sat behind me. Luckily one of them can speak English and told other women to remind us where to go down. Another helpful Italians. Thank God, after so many obstacles, we finally reached train station at 1230 midnight. That time it was very cold and later we found out that the temperature that time was -11 degree Celsius.
Now our final task was to figure out our hostel's location. Luckily it was near to train station, but still we were scared and trembling, as only 2 girls walked in the midnight searching for hostel. Lastly, we found our hotel and the counter was still open. The moment we went into our room, I was like, so touched as we finally reach hotel and our destination,Venice at 1am. It was such an unforgettable memory that I had during my trip. Well, though travel to Italy with just only 2 girls is dangerous, but it was fun and challenging,especially the one that go through all these with you is your best of best friend. Till now, I still can remember every moment that we had gone through together and I will treasure this friendship forever =)
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