A Creep on a Train

Our next destination was Venice. I wanted Laura to see this amazing place I had lived when I was younger and I wanted to try find where the ship had been. But to get to Italy on the train, we had to go through what was then still communist Yugoslavia which is now divided into about six different countries.

It was another overnight trip so we were in a sleeper car. There was room for six people in a car with two rows of seats against the walls, one facing forward and the other backward. At night, the seats slid together to make four places to lay down and there were two spots higher up. However, there were only three of us in our car because of the blessing of our one other companion.

Whenever you take a long train trip, you always have concerns about with whom you will have to share the car, especially for a female. There are a lot of creeps out there travelling on trains. Laura and I were relieved to see that we were alone in the car when we left Greece. But as much as you hope, we knew that probably wouldn’t last. At some stop along the way in Yugoslavia, this little old lady came into our car. She didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Yugoslavian, so we just smiled and did the non-verbal’s as much as we could.

It was a long trip so we had some food for our meals and at one point we offered some to her. She refused but offered us a hard-boiled egg. Typically, you want to be wary of eating food in some countries, especially when don’t know where it’s been. Neither did Laura particularly care for a hard-boiled egg. But as it would have been rude to refuse, Laura accepted the egg. So we built rapport with our new car-mate. Along the way, as we made other stops, other people would try to come in but the old lady would refuse them entrance. So we didn’t have to worry about sharing our car with any creeps…unless you count me.

We almost spent more time in Yugoslavia than we intended. At one station, the immigration guards boarded to check passports. They looked at mine and gave it back but they took Laura’s and left. Laura was worried but they eventually brought it back. Then at some early morning hour we pulled into the station of a large city where a lot of people got off, including our car mate. They were making announcements over the speakers but we didn’t know what they were saying.

After sitting still for some time, I eventually looked out down the platform to see what was taking so long, only to see that our car, along with a few others, had been uncoupled from the rest of the train! Fortunately, the rest of the train was still there and we quickly got our stuff and jumped into the last car before it left.

We eventually passed into Italy and stopped in the city of Trieste where the Anastasis had actually been built. Although we didn’t get out to look around, it was cool to just be in that city to which I had a little historical connection.

We made it to Venice where I left Laura outside the main train station for her sojourn while I went to find a hotel. I found one not too far away where we dropped our stuff and went wandering around the canals. We took in the iconic San Marco Square and went up the Camponile tower to get a bird’s eye view of the city. 

Being as we were in Italy with pasta being considered Italian, Laura decided to order lasagna for dinner. That was a mistake. She chose it from the food on display behind one of those glass counters sitting under the warmer. There were parts that were dry and crusty. However, the piece de resistance was that it had peas in it! First of all, Laura hates peas. And secondly, what in the world were peas doing in lasagna?

The next day, Laura graciously bore with me as I searched for where the ship had been. I had a general idea but no real specifics. I just wandered about looking for something that would give me a clue. Some things looked familiar but I couldn’t find an exact location. We did get to see more of the city through the search but it certainly wasn’t the most beautiful part.

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