In Mannheim, May 18th, 2009
It would seem that I only write in this notebook only whenever I'm on an inter-city train. I'm going to call it my train notebook (Zug___buch).
Today was the first time I used my Eurail pass! Yay for me! This morning I was in Paris, still unsure of where to go to. I had sent four couch reqeusts: two to Rome, one to Bern, and one to Zurich, and by the side, a friend I had in college was posting some messages on Facebook that suggested she was somewhere in Germany, so I sent her a message asking if I could drop by and visit her.
Turns out she's living in Frankfurt! Well, 20 minutes away from it, to be precise. She responded quite promptly, allowed me to visit her, and so I booked a seat from Paris to Frankfurt on the 19:05 train with my Eurail pass! It cost me 5.00 Euro. =). So happy =).
My friend's name is Nadya, and she's quite awesome. She has no obligations to attend to tomorrow, so she'll be showing me around the city! It's so great!
And during the day, all four couchsurfing requests were denied. Oh well... Nadya sounds like the better choice anyway :). I should be arriving in Frankfurt in around 32 minutes. She said she'd be waiting for me at the station. That's so nice of her! I'll be writing a little blog soon: Frankreich -> Frankfurt. From rich to strong, but always frank! :P.
I think I'm going to brush my teeth now. Nadya is a lady, and she's hosting me for a couple of nights, so I should at least show up clean =). cya!
*************
Praha-Berlin:
Escribo en español porque no creo así que nadie del tren me entienda =). No es como que lo que escriba aquí sea secreto, pero se siente + importante así.
Anyway,
****************
Roma-Firenze:
I did not think of taking this trip beforehand, but the way things have happened, it may have been the best thing to do.
My 3-day stay in Wien was a much-needed pit stop sponsored by Christa & the Haim girls.
(My current train just started going at, like, max speed. Wow).
Christa lives with some really cool girls. Nathalie's very similar to me in her ways of thinking and on her dad's description, which seemed to me quite interesting. Sunna, quiet but pretty and playful. Kanninchen, social & kind. Susy, the most straightforward and loudest. & the rest... they were all very kind and I have much to thank them for. I booked my train to Venezia 3 minutes before it left, even though I didn't know it. The man at the counter luckily told me, and then at least I knew to run to find my platform before my train departed. The train left right on time at 2040, May 31st, 2009.
The night train ride to Venice was not the comfiest one I've had so far, but it must've been pretty darn close. I shared a six-seat cabin with at most 2 other people at a time, which easily allowed us all to stretch our legs almost completely, bed-style, by joining pairs of facing seats together. At first I shared the cabin with a black guy in a light brown suit and with a semi-cute girl in glasses (I didn't see her that well). But then in Salzburg, the black guy got down (and I ludicrously lustily thought "yess"), but then a slightly-less prettier girl got in our cabin (and I thought "hmm, that's a lil harder"). We all extended our seats and lay down for the majority of our night ride to Venice, and we hardly said a word.
I sudddenly woke up though, when a lot of people began getting off the train. The semi-cute girl got out but the other one didn't, so I asked her "is this Venice?", and she said "it depends. Are you going to Santa Luchía?" That was the name of the station in my little timetable book, so I said "yes", and she told she was going there too, that it was the next stop. I decided I would just follow her then, and I stayed in the cabin. During our one-stop ride, we talked and found out we were both tourists traveling alone. Right before reaching the station, I ventured into asking her if she wanted to travel together, and she surprisingly said a casual "yes". And that's when my Venice day started.
She was light blonde, a little heavy-looking but pretty, though slightly over-covered with makeup. She told me shew as a Russian girl studying in Salzburg visiting Venice. I then told her my story, and then conversation just started flowing. She seemed to like me, and showed it in the way she posed in pictures and by telling me that I looked "beautiful", and I thought "cool". But what should I do about it? Neither I nor her were going to spend the night in Venice, and starting something romantic other than kisses during the day would just increase my lusty levels quite strongly, and leave me both physically and socially wanting for a good remainder of my trip. "No", I thought, "not convenient". So I flirted back with her only lightly, casually, in a very friendly-like manner. We spent a good part of our walking day in Venice tired, I by the slow pace and she by the heat (I presume), looking for something to drink. We had some pizza which didn't taste as good during lunch, and bought a 1L bottle of milk a little afterwards. We talked all the time while we walked, and suddenly the day was gone. She accompanied me back to the rail station and waited for my train to Firenze to leave. Resting our heads on each other's shoulders and a kiss on the cheek was as close as we got. Hoping everything was cool between us, I said goodbye and took my train to Firenze, taking out my laptop while still naively thinking I would do something useful with it.
I woke up hours later, the train completely stopped, at a train station I could not find the name of for a while. Everyone got off, and I had a bad feeling that I confirmed minutes later: I missed my Firenze stop and went all the way to Rome.
One of the first things I thought was: "Good thing I didn't book my Firenze hostel in advance". It was 2336 or so, and I had no idea where to go. I didn't want to be in Rome, I wanted to be in Firenze. But then I looked at the departures still pending for that day. None of them said "Firenze". "Oh well", I thought, "I'm gonna have to spend the night in Rome".
Not too happy with the idea, I walked a long walk out of the station to a street. It looked very unglamorous, it was raining, and I couldn't see the Coliseum anywhere, so I went back.
(Lecce)
I decided to walk very slowly, so as to spend more time walking. It was already past midnight when I noticed that a train to Milano that should've left at 2310 had not yet departed. I wondered where exactly Milano was, and went to the indicated platform #5, curious as to why it had not yet left.
Platform 5 was filled up with people saying goodbye and people with suitcases. They spoke between themselves in Italian, but I could tell they were joking about the train leaving so late. I walked a little furhter down the platform, just to do so, and found a little crowd watching a polite-but-angry discussion in Italian. I didnt' know what they said, but then a destination list caught my eye. I read "Firenze 0253". Firenze! Now?!? Final destination? Milan. Ohhh! That's right up north! Firenze right in between! A little knowledge of Italian geography would've been useful.
So I asked a train inspector if my Eurail Global Pass worked fine. He said something in Italian xxxxxxxxx, and I happily got in. The train was delayed a full hour now, but at least I got in.
So now that's where I am, sitting beside the water closet (whose excessive dirtiness was one of the causes for discussion earlier on), waiting in my blue notebook, thinking to myself "why are you wasting your precious sleep time by writing?" And I respond "I'm almost done! Come on, one more minute!". So here I am, will take me longer to get to Firenze, but I'll get there anyway, and with less nighttime to kill when I get there. Yoopie!! Things have been working pretty well so far. =)
@Beach Glyfadas in Greece:
A random man who sat beside me on a beach right below the Areogape and below the Acropolis told me to come here. I was sitting there, wondering what should I do during the next few hours until the sun sets and then he appeared and began to talk to me. He asked me many things about Guatemala and I gladly told him what I knew. Then I told him this was my last day in Greece, and he told me to come here. Thank you, greek man.
Sitting on this pleasant rock beach, I realize where I am. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in another continent, in Europe =). I... I realize that! I wanted to come here... now here I am! And in Greece! Sitting on a rock beach, alone, far away from anyone I know, with only a backpack & contents - myself and I. No bonds, no social obligations, no hidden fears or shames! I am just another person in a huge world, and I am now sitting at a place that I'm liking very much.
I feel so happy, so free, so fulfilled, that I just wanted to say "I love you, God", but thought it over, and then said instead: "I was going to say 'I love you God', but what does that mean?" The urge to say it was not mentally originated as far as I know; it felt very spontaneous. An "I love you" to what allowed me to come here, travel, see Europe, meet people from al over. I feel so grateful and so happy about that, that I want to love what brought me here. I love you, Antonio. I love you, Life. I love you, Time. I love you, dad. I love you, mom. I love you, Jerol. I love you, Marcos. I love you, Bryan. I love you, Emily. I love every person, every situation, every breath of air, every drink of milk, every single moment that brought me to where I am. I feel very satisfied, and I know there's still more to come. A whole life. And I feel happy about it. =). Very.
I love the sea, which shows me its magnificent, never-ceasing waves. And the rocks on the beach, most of them smooth. And it is so relaxing to be here. Here I can be whatever I want. And when I think of it, I feel so happy with being myself. Yes, alone. Yes, socially introverted in girl situations. Yes, somewhat absent-minded. Yes, with near-illegible handwriting. But unique. And happy. And here. And satisfied. Right now. I would not change this moment.
There are things I look forward to in the future. Life is Long and I don't mean to stagnate my growth or change. People learn through change, grow through change, and change through will, which generates actions. So will I.
Tonight is my last night in western Europe in this trip. Tomorrow morning I fly to Russia (Moscow) from the Athens airport, so there is still more to come. I feel very happy that fate has brought me here, right here, right now, and that I realized what I was able to realize: my current situation, and my love for Life. I feel as a leaf blowing in the Wind of Fate, whose will along with mine I have learned to trust. And that is what I conceptualize as God.
=)
Antonio J.
11 de Junio, 2009
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