Travel Woes

During our last travel week, a few friends and I decided to go to Greece despite all the warnings that it was a risky time to visit. I knew we would be mad at ourselves if we didn't go and then it turned out everything would have gone smoothly. So we decided to take a chance and made plans to stay in Santorini for five days. It ended up being one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on! The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and it was absolutely gorgeous. However, we definitely had our fair share of challenges getting there.

It all started off when our bus was late getting to Bassano from Paderno. Once we got there, we were told all buses and trains were on strike, even though they weren't. While we were figuring out what to do, we spotted a bus heading to Padova and hopped on. By that time, we were about 30 minutes behind schedule and hoping we could catch a train to Milan. We ended up being those people running to catch a train and missed it by a few minutes. The next train was leaving at 5:45 in the morning, so all 11 CIMBA students going to Greece decided to camp out in the Padova train station.

Literally five minutes after one of us said, “Well this couldn’t have started off any worse,” an Italian security guard walked up to our group. He said in Italian that the train station was closing in 10 minutes and that we had to leave. So we packed up and tried to figure out what to do next. We ended up begging a man in a local hotel to let 11 of us rent one room for four hours. He gave in and we pushed three beds together and crammed nine people in them and two on the floor. Once five a.m. rolled around, we “checked out” and caught the train to Milan.

Once again, we ran through the train station in Milan, jumped into a taxi and sped off to the Malpensa airport. With a few minutes to spare, our entire group all made it through security and on the plane to Athens. It was a crazy night, but once we made it to Santorini, it was all worth it!