Daily Details: July 12

Most of the day was filled with shopping—I didn’t buy anything, but we browsed for hours as we waited for our overnight train to leave. After making the very interesting trek to the train station with all of our luggage in tow, we sat for about an hour. We were nicely situated in the shade and there was a cool breeze to cool us down. All of the sudden, I felt a warm splat on the back of my neck. Could this be?! Was I really just pooped on by a bird?! Yes. UGH!!! This meant I was going to be a poo head and wouldn’t be able to shower for a whole day because of the train. Luckily, most of it hit the exposed part of my neck and wiped off easily. Some of it got in my hair though, and that was not so easy to get out, but I managed to get most of it. I couldn’t think of anything that would be worse luck, but then I had a friend tell me the Italians believe that if you get pooped on in Italy it is good luck.

Good luck it was, indeed! It ended up that just 4 of us were in our compartment on the train instead of 6 like everyone else had. We were able to stretch out and cool off as we chatted and snacked. Our train attendant was a handsome Frenchman who was just as polite and sweet as could be. At night, we folded down the seats into beds and I slept like a log! I couldn’t believe it when morning had arrived and the loud speaker told us we had 20 minutes until we arrived in Paris.