The Way To Ilmenau!

Written by: Ahmed El Garhy
Starring: Ahmed El Garhy
Directed by: Ahmed El Garhy!

15 trains, 1 plane, a ferry and a Taxi! 5 welcoming messages… here we go:
I started my journey on the 28 of April at Cairo airport; yes ….10 days before ISWI starts, I first landed in Madrid, Spain after 5:25 hours of flight. Then I took a train to Barcelona in 2:35 min and that was the best mean of transport that I ever experienced in my life. From there I took another train to Cerbere on the French-Spanish borders, it took 4:20 instead of the planned 3 hours as because of “technical problems”! Then…..-take a deep breath first!- I took an overnight train for 8 hours by mistake to Paris in the north instead of Marseille!

I woke up in the morning to find a very big billboard: Bienvenu à Paris!

I kept laughing for almost half an hour and asked all the people around me and they assured me that I’m in Paris!

I had to stay there for the whole day to catch the next train to Marseilles, it took almost 3 hours. Then from there I took another train to Nice in the Côte d’Azur for another 2:20 hours.

After waiting for some time in the train station as usual, I took the next train to a city on the French-Italian borders called “Ventimiglia” after spending a day and a half in French train stations :).


From there, I missed the last overnight train to a major Italian city, and that all because I missed the train from Nice as the ticket was written as 6:34 and I said by the EGYPTIAN mind set, well…..so it is quarter to seven then!

The funniest part was in Ventimiglia where I asked the lady in the train station…..”are there any more trains to Italy tonight?”, and she yelled at me: “We are already in ITALIAAAAAAAAAAA!”

I had to spend the night in the train station again! But I didn’t miss trying my first Italian Pizza over there  and it was awesome!

Next morning I took a train to Milano which should have taken almost 6 hours, but I saw on the map that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is on my way, so I changed my plans!

I went to Pisa then I took another train again to Florence for another 1.5 hours. Then from there I went to Roma through 4 hours train trip again!

The next day I took a train to Venice in another 7 hours then a ferry there for 15 minutes.
Afterwards I took a train to Verona in 3 hours then another one to München in 8 hours through Austria!

From there I took the FINAL train to Saalfeld, and guess what: The German train was late for 1.5 hours! So I missed the last connection to Ilmenau!

But! There was a German gentleman sitting beside me, and FORTUNATELY he was the only one going to Ilmenau in the train! He asked me if I’m going to ISWI! He is a student there and he contacted the Info-Point for me to wait there till 2 AM!

We took a taxi to Ilmenau then I guess that I was looking somehow similar to… a human being :)

Lessons:
1-Being punctual even for few seconds is a MUST!
2-Work on your French not to go to Paris instead of Marseilles!
3-Study the Italian map well! Ventimiglia is ITALIAN!