Travel Day Hell, Return to Milano

Oh yes. Milano Centrale Station is our mortal enemy!

RIght now Matt and I are staying a little hotel in a place called Annecy France. Not what we were planning on doing but alas thats what you get. I typed my blog on the train when I was still cooling off from the fit of rage at my poor planning (once again) Lets go back, check out my naivity below...not knowing what was in store.

Thursday 24^th

We just got onto the train headed back to Milan. We decided to change plans and go straight to Chamonix instead of bothering with Lake Como. So we’ll cross our fingers that we can figure out the train thing and get there in time to go to bed. Not sure how long it takes to get there. So we’ll have 3 nights there and then to Milan for the last night before we catch our flights.

This train is loaded with really loud people this time. It’s not usually this loud. Matt and I are tired enough though we may sleep.

Sheesh! Its now 6pm. We are on a train headed to who knows where. Matt and I officially hate Milan and Milan central station and the whole thing was just bad!!

We got to Milan and headed for the train office to get in line for our tickets to Chamonix, no big deal we thought. We were really hoping for an English speaking ticket guy but no. We got a rude Italian man who really could have cared less. Once he figured out where we were headed he showed us the schedule and both our jaws dropped. Leave Milano at 4pm 3 train changes and about 14 hours later we arrive in Chamonix. At 9:15am. Bummer dude. We had no idea how far away it was! I had no clue!

After we saw the schedule and discovered there were no other trains/options we decided to do it and then he hit us with the price of the tickets. Are you kidding me?! Why on earth?

We wanted to find an info desk to make sure we’d gotten the right thing but there wasn’t one. After all the wandering the signs led us back to the stupid ticket office again. So we chose to get in line and hope for an English speaking person. As our turn came and we walked to the window of our person these four grey hairs walked up and just started doing business. They skipped the huge line entirely. And it wasn’t just a question they had they ended up buying tickets. So here we stand and people are jerks about this line too so we had no hope of getting to another person we just had to stand there like dorks and wait for someone near by to move off. Sheesh. WE did manage to get an English speaker though so that helped, she reviewed our tickets and assured us it was the only option so we stopped cursing under our breath.

Matt and I decided that we had better eat and buy stuff to eat for this journey so we headed out into the heat of Milan and found a McDonalds, quick easy off you go. I stopped at this ridiculous internet café and emailed cancellations to hostels and SOS to Linda at AAA about trains etc and then Matt and went back to the train station to find our platform. We did find a place selling panini’s and water etc so we loaded up. We had to buy something for dinner and breakfast.

The train was easy to find but the coaches were hard to tell apart. Not sure which number was where. We got on and got our seats (not together, what a jerk because this train is not full at all) then a family came and they had the same seats so we shifted a bit and then realized they were in the wrong coach. No big deal. Just as we were leaving the station three police men came on the train and walked straight for us. It was really weird! They asked for our passports and called them in etc. it was really weird. Why would they come straight to us and skip everyone else. They checked t family next to us too. Weird!

We’ve just passed the Turin station. It’s getting way more scenic now which is awesome. The mountains are appearing and getting bigger etc too. It’s nice.

After our initial panic we are doing much better. Stupid trains in Italy anyways! We had just finished saying that it turned out to be nice to have reservations and just go find your seat (after I said I hated doing that…learned a lesson there)

So we change trains in Chambery or something then again in a place called Annecy or something. Matt and I both don’t have France maps and no one was any help about any of this. We have no idea what the trains will be like in France. We spend 8 hours on the next leg so I hope it’s a nice one. Sheesh!

Well Matt and I finally read through our ticket stuff and it turned out we got Off the train at 10pm and On it again at 6 am so what to do in teh mean time?? And so there you have it.

Pretty amazing scenery though.

And nice people so far too.