Hi. I'm in.. Italy...: And Viennaaa..

So this weekend I had planned my first travel plans. Three of my roommates and I were going to take an over night train on Thursday to arrive in Vienna Friday morning. We were all so excited, preparing ourselves by playing the Sound of Music soundtrack on repeat all week. I was especially excited because it was my first time traveling in Europe, my first trip here, and my first time on a train, let alone an overnight one! I had so many images and scenarios running through my head as to what the experience was going to be like. I got all excited about the train and how the cabins would be. Of course I though of Harry Potter and thought it would be fitting if I had a robe on. But then we were staying in sleepers so I just had no idea.
Well the sleeper cabins were quite interesting. In this tiny room there were three tiny beds stalked on top of each other on each side of the wall. When I mean stalked I mean completely claustrophobic packed. You couldn't even sit up if you were a 10 year old.
So when Rachel and I got to our cabin, there were two unidentified humans already sleeping at the very bottom and a chinese man in the middle. It was 9:30 and the lights were already off. So using the light from our phones we made our little beds. Found a place to put our bags and jackets. And got out of there. Elaine and Eliza were next door but had cool people that were up and talking away so Rachel and I decided to wander. We were too excited and awake to lay in the dark. We ended up finding a storage room, where if you had bikes they would be hung up. It was about three cars down and the only place with room to sit down. So we sat and did our homework.
About two hours later we were at a stop in Bologna. We did the usual pause for a little and then moved on. About half an hour into this ride a man working the train came up to us asking where our cabin was and where all our stuff was. We replied casually its in our cabin and pointed to the direction. He then asked us where we were going and we replied Vienna of course. He then told us we were not going to Vienna, we were going to Munich. Rachel and I laughed for a minute, like "Haha, you are so funny.."
When he wasn't laughing and told us that in Bologna the train split and the half with our bags, jackets, tickets, beds, and friends were headed to Vienna and the half that we were on with nothing but our handbags was headed to Munich we started to panic. He grabbed the conductors for us and together they all figured our options. Either we ride the train to some place in Germany buy a ticket to some other place to Germany, ride that train, and then buy another ticket to Vienna or we ride this train to Verona (west of Venice) get off, spend three hours in the station, and get back on a train that takes us back to Florence. We chose the free rides back home.
I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. I should be in Vienna not back at my kitchen table writing this and feeling sorry for myself. But either way, here I am. At my kitchen table in Florence, writing this ridiculous story of how I got back here..
The trip getting back was odd. I was just trying to fight tears and shock and the miserableness of being cold. Usually I'm cold but with my jacket. I was cold with a sweater. It was so terrible. Rachel and I huddled together in these seats in the train station at 12 in the morning freezing our asses off. Coincidentally there was an Italian guy, probably just a little older than us, that was in the same position, heading to Munich instead of Vienna, he had a coat though. He saw us in the train station and asked how we were doing and what we were doing. He was hoppin on a bus and staying at a friends place somewhere nearby, we were freezing until 3 when we hop on a train to go right where we came from. Either way he felt bad for us and talked to the local police about our poor American situation, and they ended up taking us into their station where it was warmer. So Rachel and I spent three hours in this police station waiting room where they brought us tea and were just really nice to us, after they checked our passports of course. Sooo lucky I had that on me.
At three they told us that our train was here and where it was stationed. He found it, got on and stood in the tiny hallways until the same conductors that helped us figure out a way back found us and put us in a room with a mom and her snoring child. This is were we spent the four hour train ride back to Florence.
So all in all, I am home and I am safe with the help of unnecessarily friendly Italians. I am still so upset that I am here and not Vienna. I know Rachel feels the same way, she just left to go on a walk/cry. I'm about to do the same.
So this is my 70 euro, possibly 150 euro, lesson and adventure. I guess the moral of the story is, NEVER leave your room. Laying in the dark in a musty room on your way to Vienna, is much better sitting comfortably on your way to Munich.