August 20, 2008
Just to remind you, this was supposed to be a day trip- the original plan to arrive by 1pm on the Cinque Terre, spend 5 or 6 hours and return home by 9 or 10pm. After all, the entire trip should have taken us only 5 hours total in transit, NOT the almost 12 hours of train rides, waiting, waiting, and more waiting, culminating in a wild taxi ride from Genoa back home to Alessandria.
On the train from La Spezia, the very nice English-speaking train conductor, didn't give us any indication that there would be a problem making a connection to Alessandria once we finally arrived in Genoa. But, she was wrong and as we departed the Genoa train we saw a small crowd of people standing on the empty train platform; it didn't take much to figure out that we were all in the same stranded boat.
The next couple of hours involved train personnel trying to figure out what to do with all of us and indignant 2nd class passengers demanding some sort of compensatory help. Luckily, one of the passengers spoke good English and acted as our guardian angel and interpreter, updating us periodically as to what was being said and considered. To our surprise, we all were given the option of either a hotel for the night or a cab ride to our destination. This impressed us but we first had to get through a "tiny" and amazingly drawn out detail involving the copying of ID's, organizing who was going where and for us as a group, deciding hotel vs cab ride. Kim seemed content with a night at a Genoa hotel and I was wanting a cab ride home, now! (Jean didn't dare vote; she was wise enough to go along with "whatever you girls decide". AND, she was too busy talking about the inefficiency of the Italian train system vs the Austrian system). I wanted to get this over with and had zero belief that we would be given a decent hotel; I also didn't want to face the trains in the morning. So, my self righteous indignation won out (Kim didn't dare disagree) and f i n a l l y we were escorted out of the building and put into a cab.
It was a W I L D cab ride with the front windows rolled down and air blasting us as the driver sped his way toward Alessandria. Each of us was sure that "this is it" and I pondered whether I felt guilty if my decision would get us killed. I didn't; it would be fast.
So this is it, our first Italian style Odyssey. We were dropped off across from "our" train station and we all walked happily home. It was almost 3AM; the streets of Alessandria were peacefully deserted and with each step, we let go of any hard feelings, shushing ourselves as we laughed a bit too loudly.
No comments:
Post a Comment