May 1 - On our way to Zurich

We woke up at 6:20 to catch our early train out of Vernazza and made it to the station with time to spare. Nate even had time to run to the store to grab a few travel snacks. Unfortunately, the train was late getting into Genova station and we had two hours to kill before the next one departed. We walked around Genova and saw all the sites: graffiti, boats, and underage smokers.

We caught the train to Milano, but it happened to be late as well :( At least we got a Harry Potter like compartment to practice our witchcraft and wizardry.

A kind Italian lady helped us with our tickets and explained that there was probably no chance we could make our connection due to our slow train. But we did not want to give up easily. After pushing our way to the front of the train, we jumped off while it was still rolling, ran as fast as we could past the reader board, found the Zurich train in lane #7, and reached it just in time …. to see the doors close and it pull away. Bad train luck today. So, we had another two hours to kill in Milano. We walked around the area for a bit, checked out a super sketchy market, and then decided to settle in at the station to patiently wait and not miss the next train. Sadly, there were many people in our situation and not enough seats for us all on the next train. We roamed around the train, sat on the floor, and after about an hour, we snagged some open seats. We arrived in Zurich and made our way to our new apartment around the time all the grocery stores closed. We learned that stores close around 6 pm on Saturday and don't open again until Monday. If you want some food, you are at the mercy of the shops in the train station. We picked a few things to keep us alive over the weekend and almost choked at the prices. A carton of 4 eggs for $4 = painful. We bit the bullet and made our purchases and went back to our apartment, ate well, relaxed, and slept soundly.