Milano, Italy: Traveling 101
The Milan trip was memorable for many reasons. Most of them having to do with traveling arrangements.
Six Things I Learned While Traveling To and From Milan
1. Don't fall asleep on the plane during short legs of the journey.
If you have to fall asleep, make sure you set a watch to a time five minutes before you're suppose to arrive. Be sure to put it in militiary time if your clock is European. Otherwise, you may miss your journal. This almost happened a couple times as I tried to figure out, why are we already there? why didn't my alarm go off?!?! When you do finally realize that you have to get off the train before you miss your next connection, be sure to:
2. (Do) Not listen to directions from people who are not employees of the train system.
Guys like this...
are cool. Note he has a red and blue tie on. Sometimes, a guy or lady may wear a red hat or a red blazer. Basically, the employees do not look like passenger. If a passenger is saying to you in broken English, "this is it! this is it!" really excited. Don't listen to him/her. It is highly likely this passenger does not understand where you want to go, or for that matter, where he/she needs to go.
I learned these first two lessons because I made both of these mistakes. Our train was destined for two major connections before getting to Milano, Italy -- Basel, Switzerland and Zurich, Switzerland. Basel is on the western border of Switzerland and France. At about five minutes before our destined arrival in Basel, the train comes to a stop and my friend wakes me up. I look out the window and see "Basel" on a train sign and begin to panic. I yell at my friend to get her stuff because we have only five minutes to connect.
Upon gathering stuff and banging our way out of the train, I look around see that the sign actually says "Basel Bad" and that Basel Bad is a very quiet place. There are no other trains on deck. I think, oh well, ours must be late also (The first train we were on was 15 minutes late, so I figured it was just a system-wide thing). So, in the crisply cold morning air, I drag my bags and self down a long flight of stairs, down a tunnel way, and up another long flight of stairs, to the track our train is suppose to be on. I am relieved. We made it.
Yet, when I look up at the sign denoting the next train, the time says that it leaves an hour from now. Additionally, the destination is not Zurich. I think, damn, I should have paid more attention to European History; then, I would be sure if this train was going in the right direction. I continue to look around and notice that everyone who is left in the station is headed for the train we just got of it. I see a worker (in bright red garment), and yell to him, "Is this Basel?" He says, huh... This is when I quickly learn my third lesson:
3. Always know what country you are in.
The Swiss are great people because they speak many language. But I had assumed we were still in Germany, and so blurted out my English really fast (because of course, I was frazzled, right?) The man replies, "huh?!" I say, realizing that he doesn't understanding, "Wir gehen zu Basel, Basel nach Zurich." He replies, "Oh...der Zug verlassen jetzt! Geh, geh!" (Or something like this) And as I am standing there in shock that we are about to miss our train, he looks at his watch and says, "It is leaving now," in crystal clear English. Oh shit!
At this point, I do not have enough breath to even yell to my friend that we must RUNNNN!!! I just start running, and she follows suit. Here is where we learn a fourth lesson -- a lesson we should have incorporated more often into the next leg of our journey:
4. On quick connections, RUN!
We ran down a long flight of stairs (with heavy-ass bags, you know how girls are when it comes to packing) and up a long flight of stairs again. I was breathing asthmatically on the train with, just as the door closed behind us. Five minutes later we arrived in Basel, Switzerland, which we came to find out was not the same as Basel Bad, Switzerland -- at least on the train lines.
So, the quick story here is that yours truly did just that. I booked my arrival and departure times for literally 6 minutes apart. Hahaha! And so, when I went to take our reserved seats, someone else was sitting in them. I grew very upset. The plane was leaving soon, and we didn't have seats! I tracked an employee down (remember, red garments) and told him someone was in my seat. He explained to me that my reservation was only good for the day of my return trip. My return trip, as he noted, was the day I had arrived.
(NOTE: This is a retroactive post.)
Six Things I Learned While Traveling To and From Milan
1. Don't fall asleep on the plane during short legs of the journey.
If you have to fall asleep, make sure you set a watch to a time five minutes before you're suppose to arrive. Be sure to put it in militiary time if your clock is European. Otherwise, you may miss your journal. This almost happened a couple times as I tried to figure out, why are we already there? why didn't my alarm go off?!?! When you do finally realize that you have to get off the train before you miss your next connection, be sure to:
2. (Do) Not listen to directions from people who are not employees of the train system.
Guys like this...
are cool. Note he has a red and blue tie on. Sometimes, a guy or lady may wear a red hat or a red blazer. Basically, the employees do not look like passenger. If a passenger is saying to you in broken English, "this is it! this is it!" really excited. Don't listen to him/her. It is highly likely this passenger does not understand where you want to go, or for that matter, where he/she needs to go.
I learned these first two lessons because I made both of these mistakes. Our train was destined for two major connections before getting to Milano, Italy -- Basel, Switzerland and Zurich, Switzerland. Basel is on the western border of Switzerland and France. At about five minutes before our destined arrival in Basel, the train comes to a stop and my friend wakes me up. I look out the window and see "Basel" on a train sign and begin to panic. I yell at my friend to get her stuff because we have only five minutes to connect.
Upon gathering stuff and banging our way out of the train, I look around see that the sign actually says "Basel Bad" and that Basel Bad is a very quiet place. There are no other trains on deck. I think, oh well, ours must be late also (The first train we were on was 15 minutes late, so I figured it was just a system-wide thing). So, in the crisply cold morning air, I drag my bags and self down a long flight of stairs, down a tunnel way, and up another long flight of stairs, to the track our train is suppose to be on. I am relieved. We made it.
Yet, when I look up at the sign denoting the next train, the time says that it leaves an hour from now. Additionally, the destination is not Zurich. I think, damn, I should have paid more attention to European History; then, I would be sure if this train was going in the right direction. I continue to look around and notice that everyone who is left in the station is headed for the train we just got of it. I see a worker (in bright red garment), and yell to him, "Is this Basel?" He says, huh... This is when I quickly learn my third lesson:
3. Always know what country you are in.
The Swiss are great people because they speak many language. But I had assumed we were still in Germany, and so blurted out my English really fast (because of course, I was frazzled, right?) The man replies, "huh?!" I say, realizing that he doesn't understanding, "Wir gehen zu Basel, Basel nach Zurich." He replies, "Oh...der Zug verlassen jetzt! Geh, geh!" (Or something like this) And as I am standing there in shock that we are about to miss our train, he looks at his watch and says, "It is leaving now," in crystal clear English. Oh shit!
At this point, I do not have enough breath to even yell to my friend that we must RUNNNN!!! I just start running, and she follows suit. Here is where we learn a fourth lesson -- a lesson we should have incorporated more often into the next leg of our journey:
4. On quick connections, RUN!
We ran down a long flight of stairs (with heavy-ass bags, you know how girls are when it comes to packing) and up a long flight of stairs again. I was breathing asthmatically on the train with, just as the door closed behind us. Five minutes later we arrived in Basel, Switzerland, which we came to find out was not the same as Basel Bad, Switzerland -- at least on the train lines.
I say we should have learned our lesson to run on quick connections, because we subsequently missed the next connection by literally the hair of our skin. The fifth lesson for this course is:
5. If you miss your just barely miss your train, do not try to jump on the train after it's already started moving....especially if you're traveling with people.
This is actually a lesson that only I had to learn. In any case, one of the huge, super-fast ICE trains was suppose to take us to Zurich (an example pictured below)...
As we came down the escalator at a brisk (but not running) pace, the conductor called last call. I began to hurry. But there is only so much hurry you can do down a flight of escalator stairs with 30 lbs of luggage. As I reached the last step, the doors began to close and I had to make a quick decision -- go or wait.
Well, you know what I did -- I went! And I almost made it. See, I was able to touch the door opener right before the train lifted off. And the door open, and I started running...and I looked back and saw Shameka, and I said, "come on!!!" And as I said that, one of the conductors from the inside of the train started yelling at me, "NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!" **sigh** So, I cursed my frazzledness and waited.
At this point, we (and I) had learned all the lessons we were going to learn about transportation on the way to Milano. The last and most important lesson we learned on the way back from Milano.
6. When you book your outgoing train ticket to a foreign country, make sure you don't book your return ticket on the same day, especially if you have also made reservations.
So, the quick story here is that yours truly did just that. I booked my arrival and departure times for literally 6 minutes apart. Hahaha! And so, when I went to take our reserved seats, someone else was sitting in them. I grew very upset. The plane was leaving soon, and we didn't have seats! I tracked an employee down (remember, red garments) and told him someone was in my seat. He explained to me that my reservation was only good for the day of my return trip. My return trip, as he noted, was the day I had arrived.
Everything turned out ok though. Come to find out the actual train tickets (not the reservations) were good for a month from the day of departure. We found some non-reserved (i.e., free!) seats and began the trek back home.
Well, that's all folks. I hope you all have learned as much as I did from these lessons. See ya next time!
AAS
(NOTE: This is a retroactive post.)
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