Today:
Quiet morning of logistics, sent away another set of things home by mail. Nostalgic items and clothes. Really hope they’ll arrive! Also, scanned all my QIT notes–I threw away the rest but I couldn’t bear to lose the testiment to all the work I’d put in for the class.
In the afternoon, made dough, took a walk with Michele–she showed me the library house she used to study at as a medical student. Did some last laundry.
Then I made pizza with Alexis and Michele. We made 4 pizzas this time, a new record. It was mad delicious. I hung with Alexis and Giacomo as my final moments at Culmann ticked away. Hugged everyone: Ben and Darya, Simon, Giacomo, Laura, Clarissa… Wished good luck to the new exchangees. Played “one more game of foosball” to 1 point, which I won ;D Then I ran to the station (how else could I leave Culmann but in a made dash?!) and caught my train.
On the train I settled into a sci-fi story by Asimov which I’d gotten in a Bellingham bookstore. It was really engaging, called The End of Eternity, about a guy who lives in a temporal field working for a bureaucracy that continually improves real-time Reality by tweaking things. He of course falls in love with a Timer gal and everything goes mad. Interesting how Asimov saw a post-war world run by big bureaucracy and career specialists–so different from how people see things now, even if much of the world is still run this way. And how he saw the egotistical power struggles, personal slights, and conflict within these systems. I’m almost to a really dramatic ending where the protagonist got really pissed off at the system, screwed everything up, but now is trying one last desperate strategy to close a Temporal paradox before the collapse of Eternity becomes a high-probability Reality flow. (Somehow I’m not bothered, sue me!)
I got off on the border of Switzerland, at Chiasso. (I could have taken the same train all the way to Milano if I’d bought the right ticket. Sue me.) Chatted with a friendly Canadian ex-pat, then sat down with my pizza to await my connection. As I’m chowing, a young Nigerian dude comes up and asks me if I can help him buy a ticket. I warily try to help him out, wondering if this guy is for real. He just wants to go into Switzerland, has no data on his ancient flip phone, doesn’t have anything booked… more Leroy Jenkins than me. I try to help him get a ticket, then realize it’s crazy–with no Halbtax, he’d be paying about 3 times the cost of a Flixbus from Milan. I try to explain this to him, then I have to hop on my bus! Good luck :)
Get on the train, still in the Swiss style; hop off, make my last connection to a train that looks very different. Ticketing is a breeze, though I’m on high alert/anxiety for any mistakes I might have made. Eventually just chill and enjoy the adrenaline and the alien Italian station names and the voice that keeps saying, “due to restricted platform size, guests are invited to depart from the first 4 carriages of the train”.
About 10 minutes from planned arrival time, a guy gets up in a hurry, runs past me, says, “Porta Garibaldi?! (my stop)”. I’m confused, pretty sure that’s not this stop. I say, yeah, yeah, and nod. He motions at me to come with him frantically and runs out. Fortunately the doors close before I can follow him–I ask a pair of Italian-looking girls whether I’d missed the stop and they say no, that guy was super confused. Weird!
At last I get into Porta Garibaldi and the girls, who turn out to be Portuguese exchange students, show me how to take the metro to my hostel. The ticket machine is broken, and they advise me to hop the turnstile, which I do. Get on my metro, get off, almost trivial… and there is a guy watching the exit turnstiles! Crap! What do I do? I try to find an English-speaking dude to ask advice to little avail. Finally I find a lady who explains to me the turnstiles are free exit (wow, should have noticed that) and walk out, free as a bird.
Arrive at my hostel, check in, get all set up. One of my fam’s old “All Europe Variety Pack” adapters worked great and I got my phone charging. :D I put my backpack on my bed, since I can’t buy a lock until the morning (need to hit an ATM) and crash. Sleep a tad weirdly since I’m worried about my backpack (just useless nerves after the robbery in Budapest) and because the bunk is a bit short, but wake up in time for a great breakfast.