Today we basically spent the entire day trying to get to Ancona to get our ferry to Split. We had bought tickets for an overnight ferry to Ancona, leaving at 8:30pm and arriving at 7:00am. For only 100 euro we get a private room with 2 beds and a private bathroom, shower and sink … we thought that was pretty awesome. Our room even had a view of the ocean!
We woke up early in the morning because we were in a dorm in Venice and other people started getting up at 5, and by 8:15 Kim and I were ready to give up on sleeping and start getting ready to go ourselves. We were out of the hostel by 10, since we had to be, and ferried over to the train station. Our notes said that to catch a train to Ancona we actually had to be at the OTHER train station in Venice, so we were going to catch a train from the close Venice station to the correct one. We jumped on a train to Bologna (pronounced bowl-own-ee-ah, not bowl-own-ee or bowl-ag-nah), planning to get off at the next stop and find out train to Ancona. It turned out the Bologna train that we were on was the train we wanted after all, so we just stayed on it. If you didn't follow that explanation, here's a summary: we jumped on a train that we thought might be right and it turned out to be very right.
At Bologna we caught a train to Ancona, which was leaving at 2:30 and scheduled to arrive at 5:30. Our ferry left Ancona at 8:30, so we had been planning to buy some bread and cheese to save ourselves the expense of ferry restaurant food. Keep track of these times; they're important later. Kim and I had to sit apart :(! because the train was super crowded. I was across from 2 girls: one was in her late teens or early twenties and was literally carrying a (cute) Louie Vitton bag, wearing (ugly) Gucci shoes that looked like they were made by Ed Hardy, and wearing a hideous D&G watch, which had gold rhinestones spelling out DG on its face. The girl next to her appeared to be her little sister. Just minutes after leaving the train station, the fashion diva opened up her bag an pulled out some nail polish remover, and her and her sister took off their nail polish on the train, so everyone could enjoy their acetone fumes. Next up they started filing their nails, then REPAINTED THEM to mix some paint fumes in with the acetone aroma.
Kim slept through the olfactory drama:
Sometime in between 5pm and 5:15, our train stopped 2 stations before Ancona and made some announcement, Kim and I understood the last sentence “(translated from Italian) we at TrenItalia apologize for any inconvenience,” and people started sighing so we knew the train had probably been delayed. This wasn't really a problem – we had budgeted 3 extra hours into our plans. Soon after, another announcement was made and everyone started packing up, so we grabbed our things and followed everyone to another train, which was nicer anyway, and we thought the problem was solved. After about 10 minutes, another announcement was made and everyone left that train, too. We asked a conductor what was happening, and he said we were to go by bus. We went outside the train station, where everyone was waiting, and waited for the bus. After about a half hour (6:00pm), and talking to one of the train employees, we figured out that the train wasn't sending a special bus for us, we were supposed to take the city bus and use our train ticket as a bus ticket. I checked the bus schedule, and a bus was supposed to arrive at 6pm...since it didn't, we decided to wait for the 6:30pm bus. When the 6:30 bus didn't show up, I reread the schedule and realized that since today was Saturday, a bus wasn't actually coming until 7:45. Since our ferry was at 8:30, and the bus schedule said it was a 45 minute ride to Ancona, Kim and I figured we had to take a cab. We asked around about where we could get a cab, and the train employees pointed us to the cab stand outside, where no cabs were waiting. We asked if they could call us one, and they said something we couldn't understand because it was Italian. As Kim and I were wondering what to do, the crowd of waiting passengers started rushing towards the platforms again! Of course, we followed.
We got onto a train, asked everyone on board if it was going to Ancona, and finally started moving again at 7:15pm . . .1 hour 15 minutes until the ferry leaves! We were getting very nervous, especially since we didn't know where the ferry terminal was in Ancona, or how to say “where is the ferry terminal?” in Italian.
The train we were on was moving VERY slowly, way more slowly than trains ever do! This only made us more nervous. About 15 minutes into our trip, we started to notice that people in apartment buildings by the train station were hanging out of their windows looking at the tracks, and then we saw police tape and a couple of police officers on the tracks next to our slow-moving train. There were dark stains on the tracks, leading up to . . . the mangled legs of a partial human corpse. He was just lying on the tracks, for the neighbors and train passengers to see, with a tarp covering his torso, or what was left of it.
There are public service tv ad campaigns to deter people from crossing the railroad tracks, but we still see people do it all the time. The other day, a woman was standing in the tracks at the station as a train drove by! I wonder how often this happens here?
We got to the train station in Ancona at about 7:45, and after a rushed series of finding out which bus to take, finding out where to buy tickets, running to catch the bus, getting off at the ticket office, checking in, catching another bus to the dock, going through passport control, finding our dock, getting on board, signing in and getting our room key, we were in our room by 8:30! Unfortunately the water onboard isn't drinkable, and we've already spent eight euro on bottles of water! But we're happy to have our own room again, and to be in Croatia in the morning! So, ciao Italia, I will miss you and your cheap, delicious wine.
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