Took a train from Rome to Livorno, just because. Once we got there we poked around for a bit, but decided that we should just go to Nice. So we went to the ticket window to figure the route, 4 train rides and a total travel time of around 9 hours. We boarded the first train at 20:13 and it took us to Genova Brignale Station. The train was a little delayed, but not enough to make us miss our next one, a short 6 minute ride from Genova Brignale to Genova Piazza Principe. Unfortunately the signs on the platforms were broken, so we thought that the train on the platform we were waiting for our train on was not our train....which it was. We poorly kept track of time, as well, and now found ourselves stranded; with no train to catch up to our schedule we would have to make a new one. Also there was this guy who had kept trying to talk to us on the train, trying to ask us something as if we could help him, but he was not very communicative and only spoke italian. Eventually he was just saying/asking "polizia" a lot, which we weren't sure how to answer. Unnervingly, we continued to see him all night as we waited for the next train to P. Principe.
Once in Piazza Principe, it was late and we we're tired. The next train to Ventimiglia we could grab wasn't until 8, so we slept at the train station. There were at least a dozen other backpackers sleeping nearby, all inside this little moveable barrier that surrounded the station cafe's tables when they were out. As it stood without tables, it served as a good windbreak for us sleepers. We were essentially sleeping on the cold stone ground, and I swear I was plagued by a lone demonic mosquito the whole night and morning. Around 4:30 the cafe started to open and the sleepers gradually scattered away. We ate some bread and honey breakfast (the last of the bread) and found ourselves with yet 3 hours to kill. We wandered around outside the station, but had to go back to get Christian some semi-substantial food from the cafe.
The train to Vermiglia was a mess; it was a compartment train and we'd reserved seats, but during the confusing boarding sequence we couldn't figure out which they were, so until the first stop we stood near the bathroom at the end of the car. The narrow hall was filled with people sitting and every compartment was full, there were several people standing at either end of every car as well. Anyway, we went back and ousted some people from our seats, which I kind of felt bad about because I wasn't able to communicate anything beyond pointing to my ticket so they knew it was my seat. One person who we displaced was a girl who was probably about our age and I understood that she was getting off at the next stop or so, but I wasn't able to communicate that she could keep the seat until then, since I was going all the way to the end of the line and would have plenty of time to sit.
The rest of the ride was restful, and when we arrived in Vermiglia we were told that we could treat the train into france as a hop-on hop-off free kind of thing with our europasses, so we were happy that our expensive tickets were finally doing more than just getting us discounts (huge discounts, albeit). I was out of cash at this point, and when I tried to use an ATM outside the station it didn't work, and Christian's card faied as well,that worried us.
The train to Nice stopped at probably every stop, so it took a little while and there was lots of moving baggage around to balance comfort with fitting newcomers in. We got into Nice at, maybe 11? And, using my tourbook, tried to find a place to stay. We went into a really lovely little shopping area close to the water, and started our search. The first place we went was full, but the lady at the desk was quite helpful and pointed us toward some larger hotels. So we went from hotel to hotel, checking the prices, but it was futile because as it inevitably turned out they were always full. But we pressed on, there had to be at least one room left in the city right? I was feeling a little empathy fro Mary and Joseph, hoping I wouldn't have to sleep at the train station again. Luckily neither Christian nor I is pregnant. We found a promising 1 star place for cheap, but the desk was litteraly chained shut and padlocked while they (I believe) were taking lunch. We decided to get lunch and then come back. We saw a subway nearby and when we saw the size of the drinks we were astonished and had to eat there. No free refills, but typical medium drink cups is progress. Also of note, the Termini Station Nestea ploy had worked, because both Christian and I drnak that with our sandwiches.
The promising place was full too. Damn.
We wound our way back toward the station, and found a 2 star hotel that had a very large sign and a big building. We had mixed hopes for it, on one hand the well placed sign probably attracted lots of businiess, but it also appeared to have many rooms. The price was pretty much within our range on the sign outside so we went in. No rooms upstairs, but we got a nice little basement room. Compared to our hostel in Rome this is fantastic though, our own bathroom and our own room, towels, sheets, bedlamps and everything!
This morning we got up, packed up, left our luggage in a luggage room and checked out. We went and reserved some reclining seats on a night train to Paris tonight and spent the morning in Nice's touristy area. Got some flat bread thing with oil and cheese and tomato and we ate grapes and everything was great. France so far has been much friendlier than Rome was, also nicer looking overall (though Nice lacks majestic ruins and churches). We are currently doing laundry, and we couldn't figure our how the machines worked until a french guy helped us out, he didn't know english and all we could say was "merci."
Haven't uploaded pictures since that McDonalds though, but we might get online later today or something. Anyway, if not, I'll report in from France!
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