The Last Big Trip

The last big trip I took while I was in the Netherlands was south, to Italy and Albania.  It was very cheap--the flight from the Netherlands to Milan was only about $15 each way and the train tickets were very reasonable.  Also, since I took night trains and ferries most of the time, I saved loads on hotels.  I had been looking forward to seeing Albania for about 15 years, so this was a trip I was very excited to take.

• I flew from Eindhoven, in the Netherlands to Milan, Italy on Saturday.  
• I wandered around the city for an afternoon, and then took the night train from Milan to Rome, where I arrived early Sunday morning.  
• I checked out the city for a few hours and then took a train from Rome to Bari--a port city on the Adriatic. 
• From Bari, I took an overnight ferry across the Sea to Durrës--an Albanian port city.  
• Then I took a train from Durrës to Tirana--Albania's capital city--where I stayed for a day.  
• Then I returned to Italy, via the train to Durrës and another overnight ferry back to Bari.  
• From Bari, I took a bus across country to Naples.  
• In Naples, I took the regional train system (which is separate from the national train system) to Pompei, where I stayed overnight and checked out the ruins.
• Then I headed back to Rome, where I took a night train back to Milan, just in time to catch the plane back to Eindhoven.

It made for a very busy and hectic week (and also a bit warm, as I was visiting at the beginning of the summer, in mid-June) but I am glad that got to do it.  I saw a lot of things that I had wanted to see for a long time and it provided an interesting comparison between the cultures of Southern and Northern Europe.