Post script: A morning in Monaco

Continuing the theme of “traveling difficulties,” I found out after arriving in Monaco this morning (the next stop after Nice), that there is a French transportation strike (or something) that was messing with the trains and buses, so I wouldn’t be able to get to Rome as soon as I had planned. Which, of course, is when paranoia took over. Despite using the 24 hour clock for the past 5 months now, I still occasionally get confused. So when the train information lady told me that I could get to Milano at 18:50, I understood it at 8:50pm… far too late to arrive in Roma before my mandatory check-in time of 11pm. Having no phone, I’d arranged to meet Claire at our hostel in Rome at 7:30pm – a deadline which I now couldn’t make. So I spent an hour rushing around Monaco looking for an internet connection order to let her know of the delay. Luckily, I also could look up train schedules, which quickly alerted me to my mistake. In this way I found out that I could arrive in Rome at 10pm, which relieved much of my stress, tho far from all. Everything had to go exactly right for me to catch the correct trains and given my track record, I wasn’t overly optimistic. Thankfully (for once) it all worked out and I had a wonderful week with Claire in Italy.