Italo Train/Florence The Land of ATMs and Drinks

I didn't want to leave Rome. If there was another way around it I would have stayed. I was hopeless about moving on. I just knew no matter what was scheduled or planned things would be up in the air. They were indeed because we sort of walked on eggshells about checking out. She wanted to leave without breakfast and I thought it was important we get one last free meal. I had to face it. Our next meal wasn't guaranteed and the city ahead was my last stop. I only had so much cash and I didn't want to waste it. However, when we turned in the card keys we were offered breakfast with a twist. It was free to us considering we did stay the night but since we were leaving it was time for us to pay our city taxes. Also when closing the account they tacked on a room service fee for our first night's evening tea. So I left on a full stomach with an empty wallet. She was rushing and that put us at our train station two hours early. All the while I was really dreading getting on another high speed train.

7:30am 7/25/2013 Renfre 730 222 Passengers 79 Dead

I don't even know where to begin. I guess it started with my arrival in Europe. I'd like to think there are young kids that come from land locked rural towns. They eventually escape their surroundings via the train and travel far off to a big city like New York. From there they may take their first subway ride to get to the airport for their first plane ride. They may have a layover in Boston or someplace exciting to them. Then they make the grand voyage over the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. From there they take the cheapest route through the English Channel via train. Once in Europe proper they continue boarding these trains to and from. They grow used to the speed, convenience and become travelers in their own right. Then someday they return to their hometowns via slower, uglier trains to tell their story. There is a privilege in riding Europe's fleet of futuristic, high-speed trains. The unimaginable feat of going anywhere in no time. The beauty of high end stations and accompaniments. The scenery so far from blue mountains and amber grain. The honesty of it all. And then….

Taking / Flight

While in Seville my main dilemma and focus was money. No one could quite understand how stressed I was about it. It was inevitable, to continue traveling on such little money. I'd already depleted my savings, my going home money etc. My main problem was trying to plan this mid-trip dash back home. Not only was that costing me a lot more because of the timing but it was really stressful to blindly make the arrangements . In Malaga, I'd finally made the decision of when to go home. Now it was about how to get home. So in Seville, I was texting and emailing just to get me from point a to point b. My mother was working with my former landlady now travel agent. I was trying to figure out my train transfer in Milan and navigating Paris after hours. I pretty much just wanted to get on US soil and figured I'd sort out the rest once there. I felt that once I was in New York I had multiple choices on how to get back to North Carolina. I even thought about thumbing it. That is just how broke I was. I was trying to arrange all of the above and just manage the here and now. I was so involved in that planning I'd actually forgotten about the flight from Spain to Italy. After all this was the most tedious part of our trip and we hadn't even discussed it.

Elipsos 477: The Overnight Trainhotel To Spain

We both found out about the Elipsos in May. Before then we both believed that travelers would get a train pass that allowed for travel all over the European Union. This pass does exist with some very important exclusions. France has a wonderful train system ran by SNCF and trains leaving France are considered apart of the TGV system. However, France's train systems do not have to play nice with other countries regardless of the pass. When going to the SCNF and Eurorail websites, which coordinate tickets for international purchasers you will find a short video about the stipulations. Spain has Renfre/Adif and Italy has Italo so there is no way to interconnect from France even with a pass. The video explained how there was only the Elipsos for travel from France to Spain and alternate means like ferries and flights to Italy. This is why we had to reverse our plans from Italy first to Spain. We also had to forgo the global or Eurail pass and stick to individual train tickets. We would head out to Barcelona, use Renfe within Spain to travel Costa Del Sol figuring out Italy later.

Hello From The Distance Future ... The Elipsos/Trenhotel took its final journey that December in 2013. If you want to do anything remotely like it there is now a friendly six hour train connection between SCNF and Renfre. You can also take a Flix Bus or fly. 

Traveling The World In A Day Part I

My voyage to Europe in one word ... different. I left North Carolina to have a layover in Miami, then I went from there to the UK, took a train from London to France and another train from Paris to Nantes. It was an amazing journey but extremely tiring and at times very confusing. I really tried to pack it all in with absolutely no clue on what I was doing. International travel is hard on the body and senses. The time is changing. The language is new. You may not eat right. Your feet swell. You smell awful. You can't find anything. Seriously read and practice all you want to prepare for it - you can't. I seriously don't know how celebrities and business types do it. My dream of traveling was a nightmare.