Out and about on Sunday
On Sunday we planned to catch up with some friends-of-friends. They're a bit out of town so this involved some detailed research on the unnecessarily obscure local bus system (we took two wrong buses on our way to our accommodation on Friday). Bus research was hampered by:
- Our bus stop not seeming to exist in route details (this may have just been my terrible/non-existent Italian).
- The route we thought we needed (the one we arrived on) having no status information available in the local public transport app.
- Previous experience with Google Maps public transport suggestions for Italy being less than reliable (not helped by the "Google may not have access to the latest timetable" warning).
- Route changes because of a marathon (I think) running the same day (not supposed to affect our route, but who knows).
The bus was to get us back to the train station we had arrived at (Venezia Mestre). We had tickets booked for the 20-minute ride to the closest station to our friends, so needed to get to the station on time (20 minutes up our sleeves if the bus was on time) to make our train.
Needless to say, the bus was not on time (and two buses arrived prior that were due after). As such, I was very much starting to doubt my ability to interpret bus timetables. However, 10 minutes late and travelling by a route somewhat different to anticipated (after our Friday bus incidents we were watching routes/directions carefully), we made it to the station with 8 minutes to spare.
As usual, the train was delightfully pleasant, and our friends picked us up at the other end without a hitch (thank you all). We had a lovely visit and delicious lunch out.
