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Some bunks bed were empty, but I got to sleep in one random single bed, too small for me and with no lockers and shitty pillow. Ah, I was only there one night.

Bologna is beautiful city (like most Italian cities, let’s be honest), in a style that I will not be able to name. It’s mostly made of brown stones, with arches and arabesque-like decorations. It has one of the World’s largest old town, and the oldest university in the World. I’ve only scratched the surface, but what I saw blew my mind. The highlits include the Neptune statue, and the Due Torri, the biggest going as high as 97 m!

After laundry (I am on my last clean clothes), and a bit more walking around, it was time to get the train to Rimini. As usual with Italian train stations, the platforms were overcrowded. Italy’s rail network is really really good. It’s not a centralized one, so you may need multiple changes to get to your destination, but there are dozens of trains every time going everywhere.

An hour and a half later, I was on the coastal town of Rimini. But no time to visit! I jump on the shuttle bus to the first microstate of the trip.

Ciao San Marino!

Uh? Why is the bus turning back immediately after entering the country? Oh no, we’re leaving, there was no one going in and out the bus at this stop, and the bus route goes back through a bit of Italy.

Ciao Italia!

A very short stop-less bit though. That is not good for my OCDs…

Ciao San Marino!

For real this time, right? Right.

This little country looks suddenly much bigger than on the map now that we’re climbing the big mountain in the middle of it. The bus drops me off just in front of the hostel, in Borgo Maggiore. The dorm is a bit shit, but just the fact that there’s an hostel in the country is unexpected, I won’t complain.

I went for a bit of grocery (and got already a local coin!) and a walk, but there’s not that much to do in this part.

Today I realized that I have already fucked up on my planning. I have booked a train leaving early from Rimini, assuming there would be buses. However, the first one is much later, and as a result, I will have to leave the hostel at 4:30 AM for an hour and a half of walk to take a bus in Italy for Rimini. Oops.

The bus network in San Marino seems quite undevelopped, surprisingly. There are few buses, stopping at 18, and not running at all on Sundays. I expected this country to have much better infrastructure to be honest.

Eyh! Don’t go away! It’s the end of the month!

Now that we’re dead close to ending the Great European Train Tour, let’s see what happened in May? Quite a lot: Starting with Kamel in Albania and Montenegro, then going through Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, meeting with Duha in Italy, and finally arriving in San Marino. I got out of the Balkans, back in central Europe and through the epic Alpine landscapes, slept in six different cities in my favourite country of Slovenia, and added 51 trains to the tally. I’ve slept in 82 different cities since the start of the adventure (and 5 night trains). That’s 20 a month!

Just reaching country number 32 today, I’m bang on time, especially considering there are 5 more microstates on the way.

June is coming up, and with it the smell of the finish line. One last month, eight more countries. It feels both too soon and welcome at the same time. It will be mostly lonely, except for the first few days in Switzerland where Nicolas will join me. It will also be freaking expensive. Whatever, that’s what money is for.