Oh my goodness!  That is all I can say!

GOOD TIMES!  GREAT VIBRATION!

That is all I can say!

The incredibly long train ride was beyond spectacular!  Anybody who dies hard to visit the area where the newest movie, Mamma Mia, was filmed, this train ride is definitely a worthwhile – BIG TIME.  Even though I was not traveling through Greece where Mamma Mia was filmed, the sceneries were very much like what I saw in the film.  There were magnificent and grand mountains sloping right into the water.  There were gorgeous Provence-design-like buildings covering the mountains.

I left Bayonne last night at 7:30 PM and the train traveled all the way to Nice for 14 hours.   I plunked the white earbuds on my ears and let the music pump into my ears while I gazed out the window and stared at the beautiful countryside.  Once the train stopped in Bordeaux, the train became PACKED as hell.  It was seriously booked as I noticed every single seat in my car was filled.

Just after the train left Bordeaux, the sky was completely pitch black.  So, I just closed my eyes and tried to sleep.  I didn’t get the greatest sleep, as I was dazing in and out as the train was stopping every half hour to an hour and people were getting on and off the train.  As soon as the train arrived in Marseilles, the sun started to rise.

As soon as the train left Marseilles, I saw a giant rocky mountain.  The mountain looked familiar.  It was Mount Saint Victoire, the mountain that is shown in many of Cezanne’s paintings.  The town by the mountain looked familiar.  The area that I was passing by was where I was last December.  Yup, it was the area where I had a disaster moment.  Well, at the end it was a GREAT adventure…

Anyways, as the sun was rising, the ride became more adventurous and exciting.  There were shiny yellow sunflowers!  There were beautiful, violet lilacs!  There were mountains too!  Looking at the architecture of the buildings was exciting as they were different.  It was certainly what I expected.  They were made of concrete and stones and it was in light brown or light orange. The roofs were in the color of red clay.  They were definitely the true Provence-style.  I was finally seeing the true Provence!  “Man!  This is exciting!” I thought.

Good times!  Great vibrations!

The next thing I noticed was the sparkling ocean!  The ocean was seriously glittery.  The train was riding on the edge of the land.  Then I see massive, green, rocky mountains.  “WOAH!  Am I in Greece or something?” I thought.  Every time when I watch the movies that take place in Greece such as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Mamma Mia, I crave to visit those places where the film was filmed.  The train continued to travel on the edge of the land and pass by the mountains.  The scenery was absolutely breathtaking.

As the train was approaching closer to Nice, many of the architectural buildings looked slightly different, but they looked familiar.  The style was very southern Californian, which reminded me from my last trip to Los Angeles a few years ago.  The next thing I notice was there were tons of palm trees!  There were even palm trees on the mountains!  How cool was that?!

The train arrived in Nice about 9 AM in the morning.  Transferring trains was very simple.  As soon as I got of the train, all I had to do was to look at the TV screen that was right by stairs that takes us to other tracks and to the main entrance.  Since the train that I had to take to Italy was not yet on the TV screen as it was not leaving until around 10 AM.  I just sat on the bench that was near the TV screen and relaxed.  It was nice by the fact that the train station was an opened-air train station as I finally got some great cool fresh air after a long 14 hours train ride.

As soon as the track number for the train that I was taking to Italy showed up, I headed down the stairs with my hot pink suitcase, my yellow duffle bag, and my backpack, and I only had to walk a few steps to get to the track where the train was arriving.

The train was already there, and as soon as I got on the train, I was amazed by how sparkling clean the train was.  Quite a few people told me that the trains in Italy and the trains that cross the borders such as the trains travel from Spain to France and France to Italy tend to be dirtier.  This was Italy’s train, Trenitalia, AND it was crossing the border.  It was seriously not dirty.  Wow!  I was off for more train adventures!

The train continued to travel along the edge of the land and right by the mountains.  After about an hour or so, I noticed an Italian passenger sitting next to me was looking at the watch and his face seemed to be as if he was nervous.  I knew that he was Italian as I heard him speaking in Italian to the other passengers sitting across from us.  I asked him in English since I didn’t know any Italian if the train was on time.  “Trains are always running late in Italy,” he said.

“Oh great!” I thought in my mind.  Well, at least I had plenty of time at my next and last transfer in Genoa Piazza Principle as I had two hours from the “supposed” time arrival to the time when the train leaves for Grosseto.  However, I was quite nervous about going back to France on the 24th of August as I only have half hour to transfer at one of the stops.  So, I’m going to have to change my ticket.  UGH!

The train arrived to Genoa Piazza Principle about ten minutes late, which was not that bad.  As soon as I stepped off the train, I realized that I was in a very strange land.  The words on the signs didn’t seem right.  It was just simply not any language that I knew.  However, I was able to figure out some of the words, as they seemed to have originated from English or French.

“Biglietteria” looked familiar, as there is a French word that is similar to that word, “Billet.”  It’s a French word for “ticket.”  So, I thought that word might mean “ticket counter.”

“Informazioni”  looked obviously familiar as it seemed to have originated from the English word “Information.”

“Ok.  I’m going to go to the information and the ticket counter and try to get some information about find my next and last train.

Also, there were NO TV screens unlike the train stations in France, which was actually the first thing I wanted to look for and so, that’s why I actually had to go to the ticket and information counter as I had no clue how to look for my next train.

I came across a nice lady who appeared to be in her 50’s and asked her if she spoke English, and she replied with a wonderful smile, “Yes.  Can I help you?”  I asked her how I could find out the track number for the train that I need to get on.  She explained that I needed to look for a bulletin board that had a huge yellow paper posted, and it has all the track numbers.  She sure did tell me how to find the yellow paper.

Within minutes, I found the yellow paper on the bulletin board, and it was a little crumbled on the edges.  “Was that seriously the THING that we use to find the track numbers?” I thought.  Italy seriously needs to update their train stations!  I asked a woman who was looking at the bulletin board if she spoke English, and she said, “Yes.”  I asked her if that bulletin board was where we were supposed to look for the track numbers.  She explained to me how I would search for the track that I needed to know in a perfect American accent.  I asked her if she was from US, and she said, “Yes.”  She was from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania for a vacation.  Sweet!  I’ve met an American tourist who could explain to me in perfect English.

I found the track number and took off to find the track.  This train station was confusing as hell and HUGE!  There were millions of different sections and too many tracks.  There were at least 20 tracks, I think.

As I was walking down a set of stairs with my bags, a random young Italian guy comes to me and said in English, “Do you need help?”  He helped me get the suitcase down the stairs and asked me where I was heading.   He told me to follow him and so, I did, and he got me to the track where I needed to be.  What a sweet guy!  Then I just sat on a bench that was actually quite disgusting!  It was filled with graffiti, and it was literally crumbling away.  YUCK!  I laid my jacket on the bench as I don’t like getting my bum dirty, and I just sat until the train arrived.

The train ride continued to be exciting as I saw mountains and beaches!

GOOD TIMES!  GREAT VIBRATIONS!

As typical of the Italian train system, the train ran FORTY minutes late!  However, at least, I got to the finish line without any crises!  As soon as I stepped off the train, I searched for Jodi.

As I was walking towards the exit, I see the back of a tall woman who has brown hair and was wearing pigtails, and she was holding the hand of a little girl who had light brown curly hair and had bunny ears on her head.  Because Jodi’s personality is very outgoing and exuberant from what I noticed in her emails, I figured that woman HAD to be Jodi.  So, I shouted, “JOOOOOODI!”

The woman with pigtails turned her head around, and it was sure Jodi!  We greeted each other with a big hug, and Luca, Jodi’s husband, was there too and said a big hello to him.