Anyone who has talked to me about this trip will know that I've been relying on www.tripadvisor.com for many ideas. Almost everyone on those forums said to avoid taking the train overnight from Paris to Venice. The couchettes are very cramped (especially the 6-berth ones) with not enough space for luggage, and there are lots of thieves. I read many stories of people who lost cameras and money.
I was determined, however. I hate flying, I like trains, and it would be travel plus lodging all in one. I'd managed to find a fairly inexpensive 2-person berth, which should alleviate the crowding problem somewhat, and I bought a special travel safe to keep my valuables safe, so I felt pretty good.
My only concern, given Mont St-Michel experience, was that my train from Avignon would be more than an hour late, although I'd given myself an hour and a half buffer. It wasn't, however, and I walked for what seemed like an hour but was really only about 15 minutes from the Gare de Lyon to the Gare Bercy. I was a little dismayed when I got there to see that my train was listed, not à l'heure, not en retard, but en le Stendhal. I didn't know what that meant -- was the train held up somewhere? Was it going to be late? Would I have to spend the night in a crowded train station with all these noisy teenagers screaming at the pigeons?
As it turns out, the train was only about 15 minutes late, and I have since found out about Stendhal. I found my compartment, and yes it was tiny. I squeezed in with my luggage and was very glad I was only sharing with one other person.
My train was due to arrive in Venice at 9:30 am. My berth-mate was a French woman who was getting off in Milan at around 5 am, so we agreed that I would take the upper berth so she wouldn't disturb me when she left. I wish now I had said that I wanted her to wake me up.
Here's the thing: the compartment doors don't lock from the outside, so if someone leaves the compartment (to go to the bathroom or to get off the train), anyone can come in.
No problem, right? I had that travel safe! Yeah, see, that's where I was an idiot. Since I was on the upper berth, and the door was locked, I didn't bother putting my wallet, which had about 70 euros in it, camera, brand new phone, mp3 player into it. Even worse, I didn't bother to wear my money belt, which had $95 US and 75 pounds. Even even worse, I didn't bother closing the travel safe, with my laptop!
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
I'm a pretty deep sleeper. I sort of woke up when the French woman left; I heard her apologize. I woke up properly at 6:30 to my phone alarm beeping not as loudly as it should have if it were next to me. I looked up and had a huge moment of panic when I saw that my purse had gone. The beeping drew me to look over the edge of my berth. My purse was on the bottom berth. Second moment of panic. I grabbed my phone, saw that my mp3 player, camera, and wallet were still there. I opened my wallet and saw that my credit card was still in it. I sighed with relief. Then I realized that my wallet was a little lighter than it should have been. All the cash was gone.
Bugger! I swore (using rather stronger language) for a few moments, then calmed down. At least there wasn't a lot of money, I still had my cards and all my gear. The conductor had my passport, so that was safe. I had another moment of panic and checked that my laptop was still there. It was. Then I looked in the money belt -- yes, my ATM card was still there. But the foreign cash was gone.
Someone had come in, climbed the ladder, taken my purse, rifled through it, and taken almost all my cash as I slept on. They didn't take any coins, and I had a vision of myself carrying a huge bag of coins to prevent further theft. I reported the theft, knowing that there was nothing that could be done, and felt, sourly, that here was a fine welcome to Italy.
I was, I think understandably, a wee bit nervous about leaving my bags in the hotel lobby since I arrived before check-in, but it's a small place and they were being watched the whole time. I went out, determined to enjoy Venice.
And enjoy it I have, so far. It's very pretty. And Venice-y. As I was wandering around, I was still berating myself for being so stupid, and I came across this piece of graffitto:
I've managed to shake it off. It could have been much, much worse, and I have learned my lesson. I will be sure to lock everything up as tightly as possible from now on.
Wow! I hope you'll not run into anything similar again.
ReplyDeleteSo far, so good!
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