(aug 7/8) bums in the station

Today was our last day in Venice. We had to check out of camping at 10am and take our last bus into the city. I had paid for an Internet code at the campsite and was allowed to stay and use it, which caused some conflict when I had no support to research out next accommodation and had to go I to town to pay the same amount again at an Internet cafe despite having already found all the same information while searching from the wifi at camp. Oh well.

We locked our big packs at the train station and spent our last say wandering the streets, shopping. Our train left at 9, but we really only had to kill time from 2pm onwards after booking a hostel in Rijeka (a couple hours outside of Zagreb). Part if this time was spent eating if course.

Our train had a transfer between midnight and 6am in Austria. When we arrived we saw another schedule for a train to Zagreb at 4am instead f 6 so we decided we were going to see about getting on that one when the time came.
At first we tried sleeping on the metal benches inside the station. They had armrests in between, so you couldnt lay out on it, and even with a travel pillow it wasn't doable. So an hour later I pulled out my sleep sheet, already dirty from camping anyways, and slid down to the floor, trying to sleep between my big pack and leaning against the bench. Still no luck. After being disturbed by a few people on and out of the bathroom, I noticed that more backpacker had joined our ranks on the train station floor, but they were obviously new experienced than us. Many had thin foam roll-outs because they were campers, nearly all had sleeping bags, and all had put their sack up against the wall, used it as a pillow, and were fully stretched out on the floor. Well, they looked comfy enough cause they were all sound asleep. I tried to find my own little nook like this, and managed to get 20-30 mins of sleep before baye woke me at 330 to go check about the train.

Waiting at the station, We met two 19 year old Aussie girls who were going he opposite direction of us, having finished a sailing tour in Croatia and off to Italy for the rest of their 6 MONTH trip. One of the girls' dad owns an environmental education company in Sydney, so I swapped emails in case I want to apply in the next year :)
After their train left, we weren't allowed on the 4am train to Zagreb bc it was a reserved sleeper train, so we waited outside on the bench for another 2 hours for our actual train. For the first time in a month, we were freezing. I had put on a sweater, my windbreaker, and wrapped m legs in my sleep sheet and I was still so cold. So with sleep count at 30 minutes, we slept on the 6am train until about 10am in Zagreb, and transferred again to Rijeka.

We chose Rijeka because there were a few cities on the northern coast we wanted to see, but could likely do in day trips from Rijeka instead of changing beds wert night, and Rijeka still has a decent amount of connections to other cities. Rijeka I a port town, so moat if the views in this city are of monstrous ships carrying freight... But the mountains trees abs water we saw out the train window on the way to reijeka were breathtaking.

In a total of 13 hours, we'd been through 4 countries and had or passports stamped twice: Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia. Only on Europe :)

We dis go out for dinner when we got checked in, a place recommended by the front desk girl. I got what the waiter recommended and it was to die for, but meant for at least 2 people to ear I think! It was pork rolled and stuffed with ham and cheese, with really cool sauces and potato wedges Mmm!!