Missing three trains in 2 days turns Matt and Erica into homeless people

So why have your intrepid travelers disappeared for the last few days? Well, we were booked on a night train from Belgrade to start our journey back to the comforts of western civilization; however, the train was 3 hours late. This put us in Ljubljana, Slovenia one hour too late to catch our train to Venice. The resulting five hour layover in Ljubljana was actually a very pleasant disruption to the itinerary, aside from the never-ending computations of exchange rates (Slovenia joined the EU in 2004 but has yet to switch currencies). Erica and I explored the city in shifts and were impressed enough that we plan to revisit while en-route back to the Balkans in July.

At this point, all would have been fine…if our train to Venice had showed on time. I must interject and say that I am utterly stupefied as to how trains can be so regularly late. It’s not like the engineer is lounging around at home watching the world cup drinking a beer and it suddenly dawns on him, “Oh crap! I’ve got to pick up two-hundred people in Belgrade tonight!” Or maybe it is. That would certainly explain a lot. I mean, I suppose occasionally a train obliterates a herd of cattle or a broken down Lada, and they have to clean the remains off the track. But that can’t happen everyday, can it? In any case, we arrived in Venice too late to catch the train to Milan or any destination closer to Germany. I knew that there was a night train leaving for Zurich in 2.5 hours, so I hoped we could grab a couchette on it. I also knew it was probably going to be booked and we would need a reservation. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Venice the international ticket office was closed and the self-service kiosks only worked for inter-Italy tickets. When the train did arrive I ran out to see if there was anything else. Nada. It was midnight and the next train was not until 7 the next morning. So Erica got the extra night in Venice she had wished for, with a twist. We slept in shifts on the steps of the Venice train station.


It was kind of like the story of the monkey-paw that you wish on only to have an evil version of your wish come true. I slept one and a half hours, Erica managed 2. At around 5 AM, the train station opened and we got inside where it was warmer and I caught another few minutes of sleep. Luckily for us we were up and awake before the security guards starting harassing the other bums. During the course of the night, a homeless lady that had begged us for money in our first visit came and laid down near us. When she never asked us for money I realized it was because we had joined her social class.

On the train the next day we were disgustingly filthy and hungry. We had money for food but, almost everywhere we went was closed. After spending eight hours as pariahs on the train, we finally arrived in Lucerne. What’s Lucerne like? I don’t really know. We walked briefly and took some pictures. It looked really nice, but all we wanted was a shower and food. We arrived at 4:00 and went to bed at 8:30. Being back in the fluffy creature comforts of western culture has a rejuvenating effect. The tiny $80 hotel room we had last night might as well have been the Four Seasons.

I’m writing this on the train to Bonn, where I am attending this year’s Transatlantic Summer Academy for three and a-half weeks. I’m racing a dying battery, so I’ll have to end this post here. But I will end this post by saying that we are now clean, fed, and almost rested.