Validation, Lakes, and Other Grueling Tasks

My dearest friends,

It's 4:40 am when we wake to leave Rome. It's been hot. Really hot. We're heading to Lake Como.

The ride to the train station is shorter than expected, leaving us plenty of time to catch our 7:07 am train. All we have to do is get our Euro Rail pass validated.

That's all we have to do.

You see, the Euro Rail pass is a good deal. We get nice reserved seats. We have all of our tickets. They all get a nice little discount. All you have to do is validate it with a human being working at a ticket booth. That way they know you're using this pass from this date to this date and after that date you need to stop traveling.

It's 5:30 am. There are no human beings working ticket booths. There is a ticket booth right in front of us, but, as a reminder to you, the audience, it's five in the flipping morning.

"It's now the very witching time of night," Hamlet said to Chad as Szolla tried to find a human being. I KNOW, HAMLET. GO KILL POLONIUS ALREADY.

Szolla checks with a lady working some sort of shop. She says they open at 6:20. We start to get ancy. The private train company, Italo, is already open with four people working, but they're private and fancy and won't validate our tickets. Idiots.

6:20 comes and goes. Ticket office remains human-beingless.

The trouble isn't getting on the train. That's fine. Just about anybody could. It isn't like a plane where they over-book. Tons of seats are open on most trains. But when they come and check the tickets and ask to see our passes they had better be validated or we're getting hit with a 200 Euro fine. Each. That's a lot of Euros, and about ten thousand Dollars (I think).

I'm preparing to buy us a new ticket to Milan so we can make our connection. It would set us back 80 Euro a piece, but that's better than being out a ticket to Milan and Como.

Szolla goes to ask the Idiot Tren Italo people when the ticket office opens. The lady says quite plainly, "Oh, 7:00 or 8:00," and we almost choke her. The choking we end up doing is that of holding back tears. We were so ready. So prepared. And these dummy dumbs aren't here on time and it's making Szolla very sad and I'm just gonna fight some random Italian, and you know what, Hamlet, just come kill me, yeah, I know, Polonius is behind the --

"There's a light on," Liz says as a gospel choir harmonizes behind her.

A man stamps our passes. We make our train. We connect in Milan. We land in Como. We land in this:

Lago Como

After spending a few days in one of the pinnacles of human achievement, we followed it by spending a day in one of nature's. I'm glad I can post photos here because words cannot describe the beauty of this place. I'll do my best to add a little flare.

This is my coin. My mother gave it to me to take pictures with.
Picture credit: ME. Quote credit: J.R.R. Tolkien, whoever that is.

Lake Como is a sliver of a lake cut through the Alps. Though surrounded by Swiss mountains, Como and the surrounding towns remain distinctly Italian. We settle into this wonderful place and hope, hope to hope, that the worst of our train misery is behind us.

I can assure you, being in the future, it is not.

Thus ends Italy.

Europeans pose for pictures weird. So do I.

Thus begins Germany.

Warmest Regards,

Chad Rhiness