All aboard THE NIGHT TRAIN!

Thank you, James Brown. And don't correct me.

I have to admit, I was a little excited about the night train. There's something about it. Something so old world and romantic about. Yeah, too bad you're with yourself, PR.

I splurged a little so that I could have a sleeper to myself. I wasn't too excited about being stuffed in a sardine tin with a stranger for the night, nor was I excited at the prospect of someone in a six-sleeper taking off with my bag. So, me, tiny room on a train, 12 hours in front of me.

The only problem with the night train is that you can't see the scenery. We went through the Austrian Alps, and I missed them, but more about that in a sec.

I got an approximate (and surprising) 6.5 or so hours sleep on this train, thanks partly to episodes of "The Office" that I remembered to load onto my computer before I left home. But then my battery ran low, and the only outlet in the cabin gave little pulses of electricity every 15 seconds or so.

I fell asleep around 11 and woke up at about 2. I scurried to the window and could make out the shadow of a mountain with snow on top of it. I stayed awake for an hour or so, then fell asleep again.

I woke up at 6:30 and the landscape looked different. We were in Italy. We went over a river that was a beautiful aquamarine color. Definitely different.

A sweet breakfast, three hours, and a two mile long bridge later, we were in Venice. And Venice is DEFINITELY different.