It’s a little hard to focus on the beauty and tranquility of Venice when I’m spending so much time trying to figure out how the crap to get back to London. After waiting four hours in line at the train station, I have tickets bringing me as far as Brussels, but the connection from Zürich to Brussels is up in the air because it is reservationless. I may arrive in Zürich to find that I can’t get on a train to Brussels for another day or two since I have no reservation, I just have an unvalidated ticket to use whenever. I may get lucky in Zürich only to arrive in Brussels to find that I can’t get on a train to London for a day or more. (But at least I know someone in Brussels!) It might take me several days to return, at worst. At best, it’ll take me a day and a half. I can’t buy a Eurostar ticket from Brussels to London because I don’t know when I’ll even get to Brussels right now. All of the flexible/refundable options are sold out. The Eurostars are flooded with people trying to get places, and the train stations are flooded with people sleeping on the floor, waiting to get places. Europe is basically one big shit-show. Everyone is running around blindly just trying to be anywhere but where they are. Every European city has suddenly lost its charm. Wednesday morning at 6:20am I am boarding a train to Milan, then at 9:10am I’m boarding another train to Zürich, then at 12:51 pm the magical fun of trying to get from Zürich to Brussels and Brussels to London begins! My Dublin friends began their journey this morning, bright and early. Every goodbye is ended with an exasperated “good luck getting home.” It’s kind of exciting to be involved in something this historic and ridiculous, and Venice isn’t the worst place to be stranded, but it’s also kind of an inconvenient and expensive pain in the ass. The excitement died out pretty fast. Now it’s basically just anxiety and exasperation and confusion and a blind leap into the train systems of Europe. I think I’ll make it out alive. Gross-looking, probably surviving on primarily McDonalds and granola bars, but alive.

I think it’s time for me to take a walk around Venice and not think about the 973459702394 trains I have to take and the logistics of traveling alone and needing to use the bathroom or get food without being able to leave my bags unattended. Hrm.

— Lauren