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The alarm rings. It’s 4:30 AM. Uhhhhh.

I drag my carcass out of the dorm, and I slip into the late night. The sun is slowly rising, behind a cloudy horizon, into pale red and gold colours. As I finish the short ascent part of this morning’s hike, and begin the long way down to Italy under a halo on fire. It was a pleasant walk though, with few cars, and fresh temperatures, ideal with the weight I’m carrying.

Just before reaching the border, I stumbled upon a bus stop tagged with the number of the line I’m aiming to take. It seemed that one of the morning buses goes through this stop. I hesitate… I have way too much trust issues when it comes to buses… I enventually decide to go forward to the stop in Italy, where there are mre buses passing by.

I cross the street, and somewhere in the next path, between two buildings, I cross the invisible line. San Marino was a pure blast! It’s stunningly beautiful, and not that expensive to be honest. Lovely little place.

Ciao Italia!

And just like that, I was back in the EU, Schengen, Interrail, and the EuroZone. Yes, even though San Marino uses and even makes their own euro coins, they are not considered part of the EuroZone, like Vatican City, Monaco and Andorra (Montenegro is yet another case).

The bus arrived with no issue, other than being quickly full packed, and here I was, way ahead of time in Rimini station.

The high-speed train to Milano [Milan] was amazing. Super fast, perfectly silent, so somfy… A pure bliss.

For the second time since the 2022 Warm-up trip, I find myself in Milano central station for a few minutes, and that’s the only thing I’ll see of it. Maybe one day?

Hop I jump into another high-speed train, a Swiss one this time. We quickly reached the mountain, and the scenery started to be grand. Passing lake Como, we crossed the border.

Hallo Schweiz!

A country where I’ve been countless times, but only around Lausanne. Again, I’m out of the EU and the EuroZone, but still in Schengen!

The train goes on the opposite lakeside of the Italian enclave of Campione d’Italia and its awful casino building.

In Bellinzona, I had not much time to see around, as I had yet another change for Olten, where I would finally meet with my friend Nicolas, who’s joining me for a short week in Switzerland. This train was even more silent than the previous ones, and passed through EPIC mountains and canyons and valleys. Great, great stuff.

For the first time since Belgium, in mid-February, the controller asked for my ID after seeing my Interrail pass. It was a perfect opportunity to remark that in four months of travel and 30 Interrail countries, only Belgian and Swiss controllers have done so, and we talked a tiny bit.

Three hours later, I was reunited with Nicolas. It’s great to have two different people joining me back-to-back on this trip. It’ll make June less lonely. We had much to catch up, and none the least important, a train, a last one for today.

It was a short 10 min ride to the small town of Egerkingen, where we did a bit of grocery (he will cook – I do the dishwashing, that’s the deal). From there, we took a bus for 10 min for an extortionate five euros each.

The airbnb was great. A very comfortable room in a cute house, perfect to gather some strength tonight.