the last schlafwagen to venice

11Jan/100

the last schlafwagen to venice

The only thing nicer than going to Venice... is getting proposed to an hour before you leave for Venice. One would think that Venice is where you would get proposed to which makes getting proposed to before you go most certainly a surprise. And it makes the already highly anticipated trip to Venice even more highly anticipated. What was once just a ho-hum run-of-the-mill trip to Venice, Italy is now an ENGAGEMENTMOON to be celebrated at every waking moment. And celebrated we did.

So we decided to take a sleeper train to Venice or as they say in those parts, a Schlafwagen. The nice thing about taking the train is there is no rigamarole to go through before you get to the train including pretty much zero security. I could have had bombs in my underwear, shoes... I could have shown up five minutes before the train left and had one of those cartoon round bombs with the long fuse under each arm and been like, hey what's up, and they probably wouldn't have even looked at me twice.

So we reserved our very own two-person Schlafwagenzimmer (sleeper car room). I think it's the fanciest you can go on these things. The next step down is what is called a couchette which basically is a room with six couches, three on each side like bunk beds, that you share with random people. We get two nice bunkbeds with a little table and a couch and even a little sink. Mind you, it's all very cramped and tiny but they do maximize the space.

Who's that engaged lady in the Schlafwagen?

If you want to see more, go to our Videos page to get a grand tour of our glamorous quarters!

Along with the fancy room, we got a nice big breakfast in the morning. This translates to us each getting to choose six things from a list of Viennese breakfast items which can best be described as a deconstructed sandwich. The bread traditionally included with one's Frühstück (I'm larnin' you something!) is basically a Kaiser roll or as they say in Vienna, Semmel. The other items are basically jam, butter, cold cuts, cheese slices, pate, etc. And of course, we also got some juice and coffee. It is Wiener Frühstück, isn't it?

Riding into Venice on the train is beautiful. For those of you who are unawares, Venice is an island and you arrive just as it's light over the water onto the island and into the city right to the train station.

That, my friends, is the island of Venice.

After we unloaded and detrained, we made our way to the water taxi aka Vaporetto stop. I was fully debriefed by my Venetian friend Andrea which Vaporetto to take to our hotel as one will make many stops (1) whilst the other (2) is very swift about taking you through the Grand Canal. However, even a native's help will not prepare you for navigating the "streets" of Venice. I had a map. It seemed we were very close to where we needed to be. I wish Venice were laid out like an Ikea. You walk in the entrance and maybe you have to walk through the whole store but you will eventually pass by everything before you get to the end. In Venice, you basically wander and wander and wander perhaps employing some natural instinct and hopefully stumble across your destination. That is essentially what happened to us. We knew we were close. It just took us a while to find the right rape alleys to follow. We somehow found our hotel. Unfortunately, however, it was still a bit early, so we were not rewarded with a room or even so much as a high five for finding the place. We dropped off our bags and headed off into the frozen city. Oh, did I mention? Venice was super duper cold. It was so cold, I didn't even think of getting an Italian gelato. That's cold.

Let me pedal back a week or so to make mention that in my German class, a Lithuanian classmate warned me of the flooded streets in Venice. I scoffed at her. She said, wear galoshes! I doublescoffed. Well, here I found myself in Venice, Italy and a lot of the streets were indeed flooded. I scoffed in error! I doublescoffed in a double error! Now, the kind city puts out platforms for us greenhorns to walk on when this situation arises. However, there were a lot of showoffs in their knee-high water boots splashing around from here to there and back again. I could wear galoshes! I can splash around! You're not analyzing the complex genetics data of the Arabidopsis thaliana! That's what Alex does. I like to throw it around when I can.

Some people put on their galoshes and took on the water. We opted for the platforms.

Honestly, though, I don't know why I have been wasting your time. I went to Venice. I will now give you what you want... FOOD PORN!

At Osteria Al Portego eating a plate of awesome fried seafood. Heaven.

Taking a break after some ridiculously awesome pumpkin flan at La Zucca in Venice.

Our meals at Osteria Al Promessi Sposi. That's a whole lot of squid ink.

At Osteria Al Portego. Up top we have pappardelle with pork sausage and porcini mushrooms and on the bottom we have gnocchi with scallops and zucchini and saffron. Murder me it was so good.