I don't know how we did it, but we did...

The Amazing Race

I don’t even know where to begin. Except to say that I now understand what it would feel like to be on amazing race, or run around like a maniac for 30 hours straight.

Everything HAD to go according to plan. Which I suppose was the problem from the start, our plan. Remember how I’d mentioned the open closed thing (those business not being open or doing things at all?), well because of that, we were on a ferry further north than we would’ve liked going to a less desirable port than we would’ve liked. Okay, well such is life. Our ferry went from Split to Ancona, Italy. We would arrive at 7 a.m in the morning. The train we needed to take at the NEAREST train station was at 7:10 a.m.. Okay, absolutely not possible. We were searching all these other routes, but every train that left AFTER that one would make us miss our Rome to Sicily an ELEVEN hour train. So essentially we would waste two travel days and atleast 50 bucks.

There had to be a way. So I searched, and search, and luckily, found one. The orginal 7:10 train made a lay over stop until 7:47 at a train station 4 miles away from the first. That train would have been the one we needed to take to get to Rome. I’d love to say this was where I took out the party hats at my find, but I was also searching forums like a mad woman. What did other people have to say about the de-embankment process, how long does it normally take?……..Uhh, not good. It said to expect hours. HOURS! Therefore, we would be missing our train from Farnima Martima that was suppose to take us to Roma.

With no back up plan, we left Croatia anyway. This is ‘Erik style’ traveling, and I don’t know, but boy did we travel. So the ferry said on its ticket in CAPITAL LETTERS ‘ARRIVE LATEST TWO HOURS BEFORE FERRY’. The ferry was set to leave at 9 p.m., so we left for the ferry and got there at 6:45.. perfect! I was all nervous to get us through customs so we’d be on before 7 (don’t ask me why, I never learn) so we rushed through all the normal procedures.

Our seats were called recliners. So we were on the deck, with the other recliners. (This costs a non-Croatian, non-Italian person approximately $80, while a native of those countries gets the seat we did for… TEN DOLLARS. Yes, I’m serious). We got up to our deck, and we were in a gymnasium sized room full of hundreds of these seats…………………..and were the only ones. I’m not kidding you. It was the weirdest thing EVER. We were the ONLY ones. I felt a bit apprehensive at first, is this a joke? Where is everyone??? 8p.m rolled around, no one. 9 p.m. we set sail, no one. (We later learned that because they get the ferry so cheap, they are able to afford the cabin rooms.) So we spent from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. on the ferry in a huge room full of airplane seats by ourselves. Of course, no sleep was had on those uncomfortable beasts, but plenty of time to loom about what in the world would happen next.


Despite this situation being so very odd, it was our saving grace. There was probably less than 100 people on the ferry total. Which meant (!) we disembarked BY 7 a.m… BOOYAHH!!! No lines, no real customs, nothing. The shipped docked, a couple minutes to get it all secure, and all the doors were open. We were recking balls on a mission. We were all but running out of the parking lot. We had 40 minutes on the head to get to Farnima Martima and get on that train. We quickly hounded a taxi.. and not to make generalizations, but we should’ve known what would happen next. Anyone who is up THAT early to take advantage of international ferry riders with a language barrier issues probably isn’t a saint. So, we find a guy, in his 60’s looks decent enough. Erik says, clear as day (we went over this a thousand times on the ship) we do NOT want the Anconca train station, but Farnima Martima, 9 km, or 4 miles, away.

20 EURO.


20 Euro?!?!? … uhhh, errrg, that’s expensive…… We’ll take it!!!!!! In the scheme of things, each of us losing 10 euros was a drop in the bucket to wasting two days on traveling and having to stay in a hotel in this town. My tensions were easing! ROMA HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of my nervous worrying had been in vain.


After three long, death defying minutes in this crazy cab drivers vehicle, we arrived at Ancona train station. He pulled to a halt. 20 EURO!! I paniced. What?! How?!? NOOO. I pulled out my computer, we’d print screened directions. Farnima Martima! Like we said….

30 EUROS. Too far. 30 EUROS.


Then Erik got MAD. I’ll admit I was furious too. This guy was about to make us lose A TON of money, he was a deliberate, lying asshole, who understood us clear as day, and brought us here, to the wrong station- LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE FROM THE FERRY PORT- and played the whole ‘no capesche’ card. …. a thunderous voice came out of Erik that I rarely hear.


“WE WILL NOT PAY 20 euros for this..” It wasn’t loud, it was…… all business. Uh.oh.

His voice was getting more and more resolute, and my head was starting to spin. Everything will be thrown off.. we’re 4 miles away. If I didn’t have this stupid pack, I’d run there myself!! I whisper yelled at Erik that we had to take it, but that also meant we needed to go to an ATM. I handed the man one of tens telling him and pointing at ATM, ‘okay ya jerk, we’ll get your extra money’.

Classic. Guy pulls off. YOUR KIDDING ME!??!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was now 7:20, we were at the wrong train station, that con-artist got the best of us, and we had twenty minutes to get four miles.

And, I love Erik for this, because we would still be in Ancona if it were me. He said, LETS GO! So, we took the next train going to that station. Because trains are bi-directional, we just had to hop on the next one going north.

We arrived at Farnima Martima at 7:34 without one second to waste. We didn’t even sit down on the train there. We lept off, and found the departures board immediately. By the time we got to the platform, the train crew said, ‘reservation‘. Reservation. CRAP. We needed a reservation.

4 minutes, and we weren’t going to be let on without a reservation. Period, no exceptions. You can’t buy them on the train, and they don’t want to hear your story. So, we went back through all the tunnels to the ticket entrance. We were next in line, and ready to throw our lives at this lady to get the reservation ticket. Then out of nowhere, a man decides to bud. I think Erik and I were in so much shock, neither of us moved or spoke. It was the kind of shock where you get hit upside the head, and you’re just kind of stunned. Stuck there. I remember my jaw dropping. The man was speaking loudly pointing outside to OUR train. The same train WE were waiting to get a reservation on. This snapped me out of my daze, and I started in on a assertive voice raising rant . RUDE. RUDE. RUDE!!!!!

Alright, the long and the short of that was we were on the train with approximately 20 seconds to spare. TWENTY seconds. We sat down, facing each other and just stared. What HAPPENED in the last 40 minutes? A fast deportation, easy customs, a jerk taxi driver, the wrong train station, a train to the new one, a reservation, a budder, and being so close to not getting on that my hair could’ve got stuck in the door.

We both exhaled.. THIS was not in the cards. This was suppose to be best case scenario! A wave of relief splashed over me.
Which, if I would’ve known anything at the time, I would’ve known it was far from over.

Halfway through the ride, the conductor checked our passes. He was saying something we couldn’t understand. A lady near us was nice enough to translate, and told us that he was considering fining us because didn’t have our passes validated. When we wanted to use our Eurail pass (allows us to ride the trains) we needed to get it stamped in the city we started using the pass in. He told us we MUST get it validated in Rome. A few appologies later, we were free sans a slap on the wrist.

Rome, Rome, Rome… ROME. We didn’t think we’d get this far, and didn’t remember the number/ or time of the train going to Sicily. Not again.

At our arrival in Rome we were under the assumption that we again only had minutes to spare. Rome Terimini is HUGE. MASSIVE. Holy cluster mess! We found the ticket line, which spanned a good SIXTY people. We went to the self-ticket counters, as a last ditch effort. We were both still scrambling, yet pretty defeated. Then out of left field, an Italian, who spoke perfect English.

‘You want help with that?’

I must admit, this is what I thought Rick Steeves had warned us about. In Rome, a person who has no reason to help us, getting close. He was going to create the diversion, then his friend was going to steal all of our things.

‘YES!’ Erik answered for us. Again point for Erik.

This guy does this for a … job. He’s not a begger, he’s a.. helper. He stands by these machines and helps lost foreigners figure all of it out. And luckily for us he took us through around 20 steps in less than two minutes. We had our tickets and our reservations printed off, on a direct train with 30 minutes to spare.. All he wanted was money for some coffee.

OF COURSE. OF COURSE! I would’ve given him a lot more than that. He was honest, and got us through something that would’ve taken us atleast 15 minutes. I could’ve kissed him!!!!!!

We were bordering on delirium. "Coooofffffffffffeeeeee," tumbled out of my mouth. "Coffee, need coffee". Neither of us had slept, and now that we had our tickets to Sicily, we just needed some coffee. Pronto.

After the joe, we sat at our gate, waiting for our train. I pulled both of our passes out of my purse, exposing the open faced, NON VALIDATED passes. I wish I could say I was kidding you. We now had 7 minutes before the train was suppose to leave.

Erik grabbed them out of my hand, I guarded the stuff, and he was off. It was his job to get those validated, and my job to make sure we didn‘t miss that train, even if it meant jumping on the tracks (okay, not really, but this was the moment of truth!). 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes. My palms were sweating, we couldn’t get stuck here. The whole next day would be wasted, and we’d have to use another travel day (valued over 70 euros).. 3 minutes, pit stains! 2 minutes, getting my tears and pleading face on…. and all of the sudden, there he was!! Passes waving in the air. We grabbed our bags, and plummeted through traffic.

When we got on the train, neither of us spoke for a long long time. 11 hours until Sicily.. Lucky for us that train was 11 hours because that was roughly how long it took for me to decompress. We arrived at our hostel last night at 12:15 a.m approximately 31 hours after we started. What a feat. There is no guide for days like that.. just blank space to write it all down and prove it can be done, even with worse case scenarios.