Last day in Venice

Our last day in Venice started with us rushing to check out of our hotel and no idea when or how we might spend the next night. We new that we needed to get to Zagreb, Croatia for an interview I needed to conduct, but scheduling a train and sleeping arrangements posed a problem. We had no good options, it was either a train that left at 3 PM and arrived at midnight (hostel would be closed) or a train that left at 9 PM and arrived at 4:55 AM (hostel would not open until 8). We wandered around Venice for the day and covered what little of the island we had not seen. Tired of what had become the typical meal of pizza and gellatto, we decided to go cheap and creative and visited the local grocery store. Fresh baked rolls, bologna, salad dressing, and some slightly stinky cheese made and excellent meal which we topped off with a pastry from their bakery. All this and a view of Grand Canal from a park bench for less than $10.
After spending the entire day beating the streets of Venice, we had decided by default to take the night train to Zagreb. We booked a couchette which is supposed to house six beds in cramped quarters. Luckily, the train was near empty and we had the room all to ourselves. Now, I admit there was one naïve moment where I thought I would be able to catch some quality sleep…lesson quickly and thoroughly learned. The train was servicing Venice to Budapest, Hungary, and I quickly realized that they were not calling out stops. Most of my night was filled with nightmares of waking up to a Hungarian customs official 600 miles past my destination. The other constant interruptions to peaceful slumber were the actual customs officials. Erica and I were both sleeping with our IPods on to drown out the drunks in the next car, however, this also drowned out a very frustrated customs officer at the Slovenian border. Now the next four customs officials to knock on our door are still a source of confusion to me; being a geographer, I was relatively certain that there were no countries between Slovenia and Croatia. I still hold this conviction, however, we had three extra visits by customs officers and illegible passport stamps to match.