Cheap Travel and Heavy Bags

**Part 1 of our two week journey**

You know that the trip is going to be an interesting one, when the first leg of a journey is filled with hurrying and rushing to catch the bus. We left Rijeka on Friday at noon. My roommates and I had spent the morning finishing up the packing, and trying to get last minute cleaning done before leaving. Packing the morning of is never a good idea when you must figure out clothing for two weeks while not knowing what weather you will encounter, and trying to fit it all into a backpack. Our team converged at the bus station and began our journey without much struggle. The bus took us to Trieste, Italy where we were planning to catch a train that would take us to Milan, Italy. While checking out the train schedule, we realized that it would be much more convenient to take the next train and not the one leaving in 15 minutes. No one on the team spoke Italian so we hoped that this would as painless and easy as possible. After Taylor explained what we wanted to and purchased the tickets, we realized that the train we had tickets for was leaving in 10 minutes. A small laugh escaped from us before we all took off jogging for the platform. Time was beginning to look like it was working against us as it was noted on our tickets that we were to switch trains in Venice during a ten minute slot. We weren’t really sure how we were supposed to know when to get off since there were no announcements and only sometimes were signs visible. When we reached Venice almost the entire train was emptied as we slipped on our backpacks on asked a man if it was Venice. He nodded and as Sunny and I stepped to exit, the doors shut in our face. We saw no button to open the door and watched helplessly as the train began to move. Bewilderment showed on all faces, and the man left in our car asked us where we needed to go. In broken Spanish and English Taylor communicated with him, and he said to get off at the next stop and follow him. Ten minutes later, sure that we had missed the train, we rushed to the departures board and the man scanned it and pointed us toward a train. He said get on and it will take us back to the Venice station. As that train began to go the direction we came, we sat there trying to figure out what to do next, not even taking our packs off in order to save time. At the Venice station the board directed us to a platform but once there, a woman we asked said that this was not the one we needed. We rushed to the boards again and looked and saw that the number had just been changed, and that the train was running 15 minutes late just like us. We went to the right platform and boarded our train. The car we entered was so nice and we were impressed with all the features. It didn’t take more than a few minutes there to realize we had entered the first class car. We thought that if the train were as empty as the last one we might be able to stay, and after the ticket man coming by we began to settle in. At the next stop the train began to fill up, and we were asked by a train passenger to move to our correct seats. We put our packs on and began moving through the different cars, and seven cars later reached our seats only to find them occupied. Since we couldn’t communicate very readily that they were our seats we filled in the other seats nearby. The ticket man came by and seemed very confused with the situation. He took our ticket and looked at the people around us while motioning to find out if they were with us. After saying no, the man moved to our seats and cleared them out, giving us the six seats together. We all kind of chuckled with this fiasco and were happy to just sit in one place for a couple hours. After arriving in Milan, we began to search for a way to get to the airport. Our stomachs were protesting the idea of not eating since it was now almost 9pm. After being advised that the airport was an hour away, and finding the bus we needed, our team headed off for a quick dinner. To end our day of cheap travel, we headed to the Airport. Previously it had been decided that it wasn’t worth getting a hostel room for just a few hours. We got to the deserted airport and lost almost all hope of finding a place to lie down. We looked around spotting one grouping of chairs that already had four people sleeping there, and the rest of the open space was tile floors and ticket counters. John was able to find us some secluded seats upstairs that we had to get to by walking through an employees rest area. Even with all the layers I could put on, I was cold, and even with sunglasses on, and even with my ipod going, the night went by slowly with sleep off and on. We slept on top of anything valuable, and wedged our bags in between seats. At five the next morning we emerged to check in and get on our flight to Malaga, Spain. A note to all who take Easyjet, they don’t give you gate numbers. We stood at a central area in the airport and waited for the announcement for boarding for our flight. Thankfully, when it came it was the closest gate to us. Arriving in Spain, we began to get excited to take a nap and shower at our hotel. From Malaga, it was an hour bus ride to Nerja and the sunny beach.