Day One: On The Road

After a busy week, some deep cleaning, careful packing, "24"-watching, and bus-time-debating, we finally left Rijeka and headed off to the mid-year conference in Spain. As far as I can remember, the bus ride to Trieste was uneventful. Our brief stay in Trieste was pretty tame, as well. We got some cash at the bank and saw this woman with her little dog dressed to match. Yeah, boring, I know.


The first few hours on the train were great. In Venice we were supposed to change trains, and when we pulled into the station our car emptied pretty quickly. As we calmly put our backpacks on, Sunny started to ask if she should wait or just get off or hold the door, but before she finished the doors swiftly closed and the train pulled out. A lone Italian was left on our car, so Taylor communicated with him via Spanish, English Sign Language, and clicks and gestures, and somehow got us redirected back to Venice at the next station. Andy's expression communicates pretty well how we all felt about being stowaways on a commuter line we didn't have time to get tickets for, desperately praying against hope that we wouldn't miss our connection to Milan.


Amazingly, we made it. Promptly seating ourselves in a spacious 1st class compartment, we all got busy reading. Allison definitely looks like she belongs there, wouldn't you agree? It didn't matter, though, we got bumped down to 2nd class shortly thereafter, where, fittingly, Sunny discovered this little gem - toilet paper hitching a ride.

Once we arrived in Milan, we got some dinner and took another bus to the airport. As we looked for a place to camp out for the night, we were greeted by wide open spaces and the glow of industrial lighting. This picture is kind of lame, but it is actually the very last picture I took before my camera broke, never to resurrect. So sad. From here on out, all pictures are borrowed, stolen, or imagined.













This is where we actually decided to bed down - a fairly secluded little area near the offices uptairs. We played some Skip-Bo and made ourselves as comfortable as the bright lights, floor buffing machines, and cold temperature would allow. This made for a pretty, uh, chipper time the next morning at 5:00.