Day 46: Milan

Saturday, September 28

From my room on the second floor, it's quiet enough that, once i got to bed, it was easy enough to forget i was above that wild party bar.
    I reached down to lift the toilet seat. Is that...blood? i thought, moving my hand to a spot further from the substance. I made the lift.
    Oh. No, that's vomit. It's all around the rim of the bowl, the edge of the wastebasket, and the walls on both sides of the stall, even fringing the bottom edge of the sign next to the toilet brush that says, "Hey you! Please keep me clean for the next buddy that's coming!"
    Went back to my locker to retrieve clean clothes for the day. Reached into my backpack, under the dirty clothes bag...which had some kind of goo all over it. What fresh hell is this, now?
    The lid to my detergent has cracked. I have loose laundry sauce in my bag.
    Welp. Guess the detergent is going into the bag with the dirty laundry for now. Maybe i can find some tape later and seal that up.
    So that's the type of day it's gonna be.

I decided to start my day off by seeing Leonardo da Vinci's vineyard. From my hostel, QUO Milan, it would be 25 minutes by public transit, or a 45 minute walk. Of course, i thought a 3.3 kilometer walk first thing in the morning would be a good way to get the ol' blood flowing, plus i could see a bit of the city.
    One of da Vinci's best-known paintings, The Last Supper, was commissioned by Duke Ludovico Sforza, who gifted this small vineyard to da Vinci in appreciation for accepting the job. At 60 x 175 meters, it was just large enough for 16 plants. As his family had been winemakers for generations, da Vinci valued the gift greatly, and took pride in taking care of the land. It's just across the street from the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the famous fresco was painted; da Vinci would often retire to the vineyard after a long day working on the piece.
    Today, the vineyard is supposed to be accessible through the rooms of Casa degli Atellani, one of the few remaining Renaissance-era buildings that has not been altered.
    On the way there, i accidentally stumbled upon a statue called L.O.V.E., which i recognized from paging through Atlas Obscura. Even if i hadn't, i probably would've stopped and at least taken a picture, because this one stands out.
    L.O.V.E. is a statue of a giant hand with the middle finger extended. In fact, the other fingers have been severed. It has been placed in the middle of Piazza Affari, right outside the headquarters building of the Italian Stock Exchange.

    The name, L.O.V.E., stands for Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternià (Freedom, Hate, Vengeance, Eternity). Artist Maurizio Cattelan has never publicly commented on its meaning, but as it was erected in 2010, many have suspected it to be a response to the 2008 financial crisis. It's also been noted that, if the other fingers weren't severed, it would resemble the famous fascist salute.
    I arrived outside of  Santa Maria delle Grazie not long after, but i seemed to have walked past da Vinci's vineyard? I walked back and forth a couple times, but i wasn't seeing it. I was at the correct coordinates. I was at the correct physical address. But i wasn't seeing it, or Casa degli Atellani.
    I hit Street View on Google Maps. Sure enough, it was showing a large window with the inscription "da Vinci's Vineyard" on a building right in front of me. The configuration of the windows matched, the bricks, everything...it's the same building, except now all of the glass was frosted, and there were no words identifying the building. The door had a handle marked "Push," so i did. It was locked. I did find an informational sign, in the style of other "historic Milan" signs i'd seen, giving a quick blurb about Casa degli Atellani, but it yielded no further information on what was going on or where else i might enter.
    Guess i will not be seeing da Vinci's vineyard on this trip.
    Well, the museum's supposed to be close to here. This one is not an Atlas Obscura location, so i didn't have GPS coordinates. I searched "da Vinci museum" in Maps, and the first thing to come up was Leonardo's Last Supper Museum, directly across the street.
    Huh.
    That's probably worth seeing, while i'm here.
    I walked over to it, and a security guard stood at the entrance to the queue. There was a posted sign saying that all entrance times were sold out for today.
    Well. That sucks, but i didn't know about this museum until just a couple minutes before, so i could probably live without it.
    I pressed on to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology.
    The description of the museum that i had from the tourism web site that recommended it had suggested that the museum would showcase modern technologies, as well as works by The Man himself. So i had expected some kind of mixing of the two, perhaps a throughline of how da Vinci's works influenced what came after and how we've built upon his ideas. As with other museums i've visited on this trip, i expected to spend about two hours here.
    After buying my ticket, which was a mere €10, a pleasant surprise, i followed the yellow arrows toward the "suggested route," rather than the "quick route." I first found myself in an exhibit on combustion engines, beginning with a room dominated by one which measured 14,450 meters long by 6,650 meters wide by 3,870 meters tall, known as the Regina Margherita Thermal Power Plant. Commissioned in 1895, it powered 1,800 looms at a silk workshop.
    The exhibit contained many more specialty engines from across the centuries, until i abruptly found myself in a section about modern recycling and waste disposal. No transition, no indication that the subject was about to change, just whiplash.
    The museum went on like this. The history of steel, colors, food science. It's a really nice museum and overall i was enjoying the presentation of everything, but i was feeling my day slipping away, and i had not yet seen a single thing related to Leonardo da Vinci. I couldn't remember what time i had entered the museum, but the first time i thought to myself, okay, i should get a move on, let's find the da Vinci stuff, i checked my watch, and it was 12:30.
    I had been carefully going through the exhibits, reading everything. I learned a lot about the history of combustion engines. It was time to start skimming.
    It was 1:30 when i ascended the staircase into the da Vinci exhibit. Finally, the thing i came here for! The exhibit diverged in two ways. Arbitrarily, i chose left.
    There was a lot of cool stuff, and, again, the presentation was very high-quality, but it still wasn't what i was looking for. Everything, every single thing, in the da Vinci exhibit, was replicas. Models that were constructed from da Vinci's blueprints between 1953-57. None of "The Man's" original works were on display. The closest it came to original works was a gallery filled with paintings by da Vinci's imitators, calling themselves the Leonardeschi. The room was dominated by a version of The Last Supper painted by Giovan Mauro della Rovere, aka Fiammenghino, completed in 1626, with an interpretation more in line with the baroque period.
    Suddenly i was in space.
    There was, again, no indication that this was about to happen. After the paintings, i went through a room with curved walls and scenes from da Vinci's sketchbooks being projected on them in motion, and once i exited the back of the curve...space.
    There was also an exhibit on the natural world, including the way we pollute it, and one on the history of telecommunications. After that, all i could find was an unlabeled staircase leading down.
    The space exhibit was cool, but of course i would think that. Very relevant to my interests. Some notable items in the collection are a piece of the Friendship Rock, which was collected by Gene Cernan on the final moon walk in 1972, broken down, and gifted to other nations as a sign of goodwill; a Soviet dog space suit; and a space suit from Russia's scuttled moon landing program. After Americans first landed on the moon in 1969, Russia quietly ended their efforts, having never officially announced they were working toward a moon landing. They destroyed everything, so that it could never be proven they were even trying. However, this space suit somehow survived, one of the last bits of evidence that Russia ever had a moon landing program.

    Okay. I'd sure like to see the rest of the da Vinci exhibit, though. The only way i could find was to go straight back through everything i just saw, and return to that junction.
    Going right brought me through several short exhibits, with more replicas of da Vinci's designs, including a large collection of his war machines. There was also one on the things he collected, including bones. One case contained a human skull, though it did not specify if it was real.
    Alright. How do i get out?
    It was now 2:30.
    I went back down the stairs that i'd climbed to get to da Vinci in the first place, but that just left me at the food science exhibit. Did i really have to go back through everything, all of it, that i'd already been through? I turned around, and ascended the stairs once again.
    I took da Vinci's left fork, revisiting his models, again. Through space, again. To that unmarked staircase. No idea where this would take me. It's plain white with no signage. For all i know, this leads to an employees only storage room or something.
    I descended two floors, and came out at an exhibit on the Large Hadron Collider.
    Incredible.
    Here, i saw more prototype pieces of the device, as well as pieces of older, decommissioned pieces of CERN technology. I wasn't really reading the things, though. I was trying to get out, and i'd been to the real thing just a few days ago.
    After this exhibit was a fork. To the left, a café, which was closed. To the right, the Toti Submarine, the Railway Building, the Air and Water Building, and Exit.
    ...
    Okay yeah i kinda want to see the submarine.
    Turning right brought me to a door, which went outside. There, an entire Cold War-era submarine stood, supported by steel beams, suspended above the asphalt. Informational boards gave the history of this Toti submarine, which was designed during World War II, but the conditions of Italy's 1947 surrender forbid them from building new weapons systems, including submarines. This provision would end if they joined the United Nations. Italy joined NATO in 1949, and was admitted to the UN in 1955. They immediately began production on the Toti submarine.

    There was a stairway leading up to the hatch of the submarine, indicating that it was possible to tour it, but it was gated off. Thank god, i guess, because otherwise i definitely would have blown half an hour or more inside of that thing.
    Okay where's the exit.
    Oh cool, there's one of the European Space Administration's VEGA rockets on display just past the sub! Got sidetracked by that for a while.
    Okay where's the...
    TRAINS! This shed is full of old trains!! Okay i have to poke my head in here for a few minutes, at least, and see the trains.
    Okay where's...
    Wait that WASN'T the Railway Building? There's a sign pointing past where i just was, tempting me with its yellow arrows, to follow it to the full Railway Building.
    I...
    I can't. I gotta get out of here.
    The exit is through the Air and Water Building.
    I entered.
    Holy shit look at all this cool stuff.
    There's entire boats, planes, and helicopters in here!
    They have a cut-up section of an actual 1920s cruise ship, the Conte Biancamano, Italy's last transatlantic liner, with its full ballroom intact in here. That's fascinating. How did you get part of a ship? Where's the rest of it? It looks like you literally constructed the building around this chunk of cruise ship. That's awesome.
    This. This is the stuff i could spend hours on.
    I wish i'd blasted through the early exhibits much quicker, and spent my time on the Railway Building and the Air and Water Building. But i felt my day slipping away, if i was going to accomplish anything else today, i needed to leave.
    I took a quick lap around the gift shop, and was out the door.
    I thought the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology was really nice. Everything is well put together, there's lots of hands-on activities, the information is presented in a digestible way. I'm disappointed that i didn't see any of da Vinci's original artwork, inventions, sketchbooks, or anything of the sort, but that's more a problem of managing expectations, not really a strike against the museum itself. Overall, the biggest problem is just that this is an all-day museum, and i did not know that going in. Especially when the whole thing only cost €10. What an incredible bargain.
    For my midwestern bretheren, i'd compare it to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. It's in the same league.
    It was 3:15.
    Okay first of all, it's been six hours since breakfast, i'm gonna need some food. I'm in Italy! The hype around food here is so real! Amanda and i hit both Rome and Venice in 2013, and we had SO much incredible pasta. I need to experience that again.
    Google Maps returned a very highly-rated restaurant about a half mile away called Via Pastaria (literally, Pasta Street), so i went for that. I passed several other places along the way, which all looked pretty good themselves. But i had made a selection, based on empirical data, i was gonna stick to it.
    I got fusillo with bolognese, and an Aperol Spritz. Both items are Italian creations, so i thought this would be a good move. The spritz was served in a carafe, which felt unique, and was exactly what i expected it to be. The pasta...
    ...was just okay.
    Having average pasta in Italy is a crushing disappointment.
    I walked away, thinking that i'd better make sure i get something more worthwhile for dinner.
    There were a couple of Atlas Obscura locations nearby. I stopped at the Ear of Vicolo Gazzana, which is a sculpture of a large, yellow ear, attached to a wall in an alleyway. No one knows why it's there, but it's suspected to be the work of an art collective called The Urban Solid, which is known for random body part sculptures.
    This is definitely a better use of my time than staying at the museum{.}
    The Devil's Column is also barely noteworthy. A vertical white column outside of St. Ambrose's church with two holes near the base. The story goes that the Devil tried to tempt St. Ambrose with a life of debauchery, but the stoic holy man was immovable in his faith. The Devil was frustrated, and headbutted the column, leaving these two holes with his horns.
    The Ruins of the Cicero Romano, also unimpressive. This is all that's left of the Roman circus. The ruins were thought lost for centuries, but were unearthed by new excavation in the 1930s. Many of the ruins have since been used as the foundations for new buildings. Only a few short, square blocks remain as a public monument.
    I definitely should have stuck with the museum.
    The next point that i investigated was more worthwhile. The Wall of Dolls is a feminist landmark, erected in 2014 by singer/songwriter/activist Jo Squillo of Milan to draw attention to the issue of violence against women, in particular, femicide. The dolls have been donated to the wall by victims, some using the effigy to tell their stories. Every year, on the first day of Men's Fashion Week in Milan, Squillo and several volunteers hold a ceremony at the wall, and add portraits of women who died as a result of misogynist violence in the previous year. A documentary about the wall was made in 2016.
    Women are encouraged to add their dolls and their stories to the wall. It has remained a growing project for the last decade.
    It's a poignant and haunting monument.

    I didn't know how to follow that.
    I started looking through all my articles again. There were a few more things i was kind of interested in, so i started looking for directions and, oh. It was 5:40pm. Even on a Saturday, most of the things i was looking at either closed at 5 or would close at 6.
    Maybe i just want to have a drink and relax for a minute.
    I headed toward BackDoor 43, which claims to be the smallest bar in the world. At only 43 square feet, it has space for the bar itself, three barstools, and a bathroom, and that's it. Some outdoor seating is available. Most patrons can only order drinks through a slot in the wall, where only the bartender's hands are visible. It's said that if you take a peek through the slot, the bartender will be wearing a mask.
    The secrecy is the point. To actually get inside the bar,  you need to know a password. When the bar opened up a few years ago, there were no big announcements or ads, word was spread through a series of riddles and secret books hidden around Milan.
    It was closed. I got there at 6pm, it didn't open until 7:30.
    I wasn't going to hang around. I had two more bars on my list, though, so i thought i'd give those a try.
    BackDoor 43 is located on Ripa di Porta Ticinese, a busy bar and restaurant district along one of Milan's canals. It's very much like Nyhavn in Copenhagen, just as crowded, but with a narrower walkway between the tables and the water. I fought my way through the slow-moving herds of people, finally reaching the end, and was about to take off toward the next bar when i saw a gelato shop.
    One thing i remember fondly from our trip through Italy in 2013 is stopping at gelato stands for a scoop at least once a day. How can you not? But somehow, i had gone this long today without getting any. Time to fix that.
    The line was pretty long, but i dutifully stood in it, watching the artistry that this tired-looking woman put into every confection. She was a true artist, she just seemed bewildered at the still-growing queue of people waiting for her treats.
    As i stood there, well outside the door, i saw a sandwich board advertising their specials. I decided i wanted the Chiedimi se Sono Felice - Pistacchio, which came in a waffle cone and had several garnishes on the top. The description read: White chocolate and hazelnut gelato, pistachio gelato, milk cream and pistachio gelato, crunchy crumble, mini cone filled with white melted chocolate, caramel topping, mini white chocolate and pistachio bar.
    That sounds like a delicacy.
    A second employee finally arrived to give her some backup, and things started moving a little more quickly. After she took my order, she took some more orders, to build up a bit of padding so she didn't have to run back and forth between the cash register and creating food each time. The other employee started scooping up the orders after me, though, so at first i wondered if i had been skipped and why, but i soon realized it was because the original employee was making my cone fresh from batter. Incredible.
    Once it was done cooking, she flowed around that kitchen effortlessly, putting each of the ingredients in, as if it were a dance. Finally, she handed me the creation. I thanked her warmly, feeling truly blessed to have this work of art.
    It didn't look much like the picture. Lot of empty space in that cone. I started walking down the street, and within a block, gelato began weeping through the cone, all over my hand. I found spot to sit down and focus on eating it as soon as i could.

    The melted white chocolate in the mini cone was far too rich for my tastes, as was the mini white chocolate and pistachio bar. The straight pistachio gelato, which curled around the top of the paler flavors like a green turd, was sticky and had a texture like cheap cake frosting. As quickly as i ate the gelato with the provided spoon, it wasn't enough; melted goo just kept bleeding through the cone, making a huge mess on the cobblestones between my feet. I was halfway down the cone when the bottom collapsed, bringing my thumb directly into the cold treat. As soon as i was able, i shoved the rest of the sugary mess into my mouth, and walked away, hoping people would be paying enough attention to the ground not to walk through the puddle i'd just left. There was nothing else i could do with it.
    It was a long walk from there to Bar Luce.
    Bar Luce is the creation of famous film director Wes Anderson. It exists as part of Fondazione Prada, a culture institution co-chaired by fashion icon Miuccia Prada. Prada had personally invited Anderson to design the space, which bears the signature look you would expect from one of his films. Strong pastel colors, vintage wallpaper, quirky details, an overall 1950s vibe.
    I walked in, a sticky disaster, and tried to order a drink from one of the three men at the bar, who were all dressed as soda jerks. None of them spoke much English, just enough to tell me to go see the woman at the register, who had appeared in the last two minutes after i'd walked past it. She asked what i was in for, i said i could use a drink, and she handed me the drink menu. "We have many options...Spritz, others..." she said, pointing right at the Aperol Spritz.
    "Yeah i could go for an Aperol Spritz."
    I paid for the drink, and then asked about the bathroom, to go wash my hands and face. She pointed me downstairs.
    Going downstairs was a whole different vibe, yet still in line with the Wes Anderson aesthetic. Black and white tiles, a really weird door, just a whole other end of the 1950s - almost atomic, while retaining that diner feel.
    Coming back upstairs, i retrieved my Spritz from the bar, and went to sit down at a table, only for one of the soda jerks to come out and tell me it was reserved. Sure enough, there was a "Reserved" sign on the table, but they all had that, so i had just thought it was part of the decor. He instead pointed me to a rather awkward square chair, part of a cluster of square chairs, with a desk that could swivel over your lap. This chair stared directly at the reserved table. The ones on the other side stared at the bar.
    I just cannot picture a scenario where sitting in these chairs, which are a bit lower than the tables, is not offputting. There's nowhere to look that doesn't seem like you're leering at somebody.

    The soda jerk brought me a little bowl of nuts.
    As soon as i took my first sip, the group of six that had reserved the table came in and sat down. I'd hoped i'd be gone by the time they arrived, but it was not to be. Now i was awkwardly watching somebody's dinner party.
    I tried to focus my attention on the pinball machines off to my right, which are custom-designed based on Anderson's specifications. One of them features Steve Zissou.
    It's hard to put into words, but i didn't really feel welcome at Bar Luce? I don't know. Vibes were a little unfriendly. Then again, i can't really count myself among the Wes Anderson faithful; i feel like i would like his films, i just haven't taken the time to watch them yet. I've only seen the two stop motion ones, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs. Maybe if i experienced more of his oeuvre, i'd appreciate the atmosphere of this little café/bar a bit more.
    The sun had gone down by the time i finished my drink and left.
    Okay. I still had to plan my next moves. At this point i didn't know where i would be going the next day. So. From Wes Anderson's Bar Luce, do i:

    (A) Go back to the hostel, pick out a destination and some trains, and book a hostel,
        or
    (B) Go to another bar for a signature drink?

...

......

...Bar.

It was much too far to walk from Bar Luce to Bar Basso, the famous Italian tavern where the Negroni Sbagliato was invented in 1972.
    Do i know what a Negroni Sbagliato is?
    No.
    I usually drink rum and cokes. I don't tend to get much fancier than that. I don't know a lot of liquors and i don't know a lot of cocktails. It's like sushi, though; i couldn't name many sushi rolls, but i've never had one i didn't like. I go to a sushi place, i order a bunch of stuff that looks good, and i retain the names of none of it. My hit/miss ratio isn't quite as good on cocktails, but it's still in the black.
    It was 8:30 when i arrived at Bar Basso.
    It was swamped. Every outdoor table was either taken or so recently abandoned it still hadn't been bussed, and the inside was packed. People were all over the bar.
    Did i want to fight my way through that crowd to get a drink that i know nothing about?
    Not really.
    Where am i even gonna drink it? Standing outside, by myself? That seems the most likely outcome.
    I turned and crossed the street, heading back toward the tram.
    Ugh. No, dammit. I'm here to get out of my comfort zone and do things i normally wouldn't.
    I went back into the bar, entering just behind three other people much better dressed than i. One of them approached the bar.
    "You have to get on the list, and wait outside," the bartender told her.
    Oh.
    Yeah i am not going to do that.
    I suppose i could've asked him if you needed to be on the list just to get a drink, but i didn't. I was tired, and i still had mission-critical objectives to accomplish before i could go to bed. I got away from the crowd, and pulled out my phone to look up transit directions.
    It would be about a 45 minute walk, or a 25 minute public transit ride. I'd already walked 12 miles today. I elected to take transit.
    I walked to a bus stop. I missed it at first, because there were cars parked in front of it. Cars are allowed to park in front of the bus stops in Italy? That's kinda shitty. I walked back right away. I was right on time for that bus, and even though i'd overshot the stop, i had been on the right street. I hadn't seen any bus. It must be running late.
    The LED sign above the bench said 12 minutes for the next one, which is what the app said also. So either i did miss that bus, or it didn't actually exist.
    I waited for a while. When i looked up next, the sign said 8 minutes for the next bus. It felt like i had been waiting a lot longer than 4 minutes.
    I checked directions again. If i took a quick five minute walk, i could get to a tram station where i could catch the 19, which drops me right in front of the hostel. That's much better than what this bus was gonna do anyway. So i started walking, not convinced that a bus was ever coming to pick me up.
    I sat down at the tram station, and waited.
    One minute before the tram was supposed to arrive, a different one pulled in, a 5. That seemed a little odd, so i checked the map again.
    I was at the wrong damn station.
    The one i needed was just around the corner. Literally, same intersection, just the other corner. Shit. I got up and booked it.
    Got there just in time to see the 19 pull away, the shiny 1922 denoting its inception date on its posterior taunting me, like a full moon.
    It had been thirty-four minutes since that initial bus i was supposed to get on had allegedly left that bus stop. I would have to wait another fourteen minutes for the next run of tram number 19.
    I should've just walked.
    But, i waited.
    I followed the instructions presented by Google Maps, and rode that tram until it told me to get off. Once i did...it quoted me a nine minute, 750 meter walk.
    What the hell?
    The tram was gone, so it was too late to jump back on. But i looked at the map, and i could see the next tram stop, right across from the hostel. Google had just told me to get off the tram one stop early, for shits and giggles, and i had listened, like a sucker.
    I've complained a lot about Google Maps leading me astray, a little in this journal, a whole heck of a lot in my video logs. At this point, i feel like it's fucking with me on purpose.
    It ended up taking me 50 minutes to get back. Should've just walked.
    Where do i want to go tomorrow?
    Okay. No matter how indecisive i feel, i cannot extend my stay here. I absolutely must leave Italy tomorrow, September 29th, because i have been made aware that there is a planned rail worker's strike beginning on September 30th.
    I'd really like to go to Andorra.
    I looked for hostels. There were two really nice-looking options in La Massana, super cheap at €20 and €22. As i started reading their descriptions, about how close they are to the mountains, talking about how you can ski down them in the winter, and bike down them in the warmer months. All the hiking trails nearby.
    Oh man. This sounds beautiful. This is the kind of stuff i had wanted to do, but i ended up just sticking to cities, because it was significantly easier to do by train, without meticulous planning ahead.
    Both hostels had plenty of availability.
    But! We must remember our order of operations!
    I checked the Eurail app.
    Nothing.
    Nothing at all.
    I Googled, "Is Andorra covered by Eurail pass?"
    Andora has no railroads. Never has. No train has ever gone to Andorra.
    Well that's inconvenient. How do i get there?
    The official Andorra tourism web site offers a couple of options. It lists the nearest train stations, coming from either France or Spain, and offers a few bus and taxi options, or suggests just renting a car.
    How much is an international taxi going to cost? I clicked the link, but i saw it was loading from Uber's web site, and i closed it. Absolutely no way is that gonna be cost effective.
    The bus looked a lot more promising, it should only be €8...but i could not figure out how to buy tickets. The route was listed on Andorra's web site, but to book you have to go through the bus company directly, and they did not list any itineraries to Andorra. Plus, the route i was looking at started from a train station just outside the northern border, in France, and for some reason drove around the eastern rim of the country, into Spain, and entered Andorra from the southwest.
    I spent at least an hour on this.
    There was no way to make the logistics work in the time that i have left.
    I had to cut Andorra.
    Oh shit, i forgot to get a good Italian dinner! Well. Sandwich from the bar, i guess.
    Sandwich was not bad, i liked it.
    So. Where do i go instead?
    Nice? Marseilles? Do i just head straight for Barcelona, get a few days around that city in before i settle into film fest mode?
    The itineraries going all the way to Barcelona were fucking garbage. No i do not want to do a nine-hour overnight layover at a train station in the middle of nowhere, France.
    I ended up going to bed without making a decision.