Interlaken to Roma!

Interlaken to Rome!

There are a few trains on my route from Interlaken to Rome. I'm sad to leave summer/winter camp, but excited for Italy, so I'm not worried about the 12 hour travel time. 
I see stirrup pants! Unfortunately, (as if there could be a fortunately where stirrup pants are concerned?)they are on an older woman who just keeps pacing up and down the aisle. She always stops at my seats and then back....sometimes six rows sometimes ten. It's a two hour trip. Her face doesn't look happy. I have to know if she's okay.  I ask her but she tells me (in Italian) that she only speaks Italian. Now I'm thinking of signals. I finally come up with something that works because I get a huge grin and she's nodding her head. Oh, thank God! My heart was starting to hurt. I'm thinking something has  gone very wrong in her life, she's a nervous traveler, she's sick...whatever it is she's smiling as she paces now and eventually sits down. 
Right before the train pulls away, four customs agents come marching down the aisle. They are very serious looking and very intimidating. They pass by me. Quickly I grab my passport and Eurail pass-I'm ready. What a little nerd I am! The next time they come through they're looking at people but not doing anything?? One just smiles at me. Okay, but I'm ready! During our first stop in Italy (!) three police officers come on and walk through? Odd. I haven't seen this much action on all my other trains combined. When I get to the train from Milan (12:05-7:26) I'm actually kind of relieved, because this one arrives in Rome! It's my last train;) I am nothing if not optimistic. A Pakistani guy and I have a car of six seats to ourselves. We each take a side. He is heading to Rome because of an issue with his passport. He's working as a beautician while going to university for computers. He seems perfectly nice. About two hours in on one of our stops some policemen come on and enter the car next door. There is a lot of yelling, mostly a police officer yelling in various languages to please exit the train. Whoever they are telling this to is not interested in exiting the train. Things get louder and I can hear things/people hitting the sides of the compartment. Pretty soon a guy is dragged down the hall face down and literally thrown from the train! He is still yelling so the cops have a go with him. My cabin mate is cracking up. I am not finding this funny. He speaks Farsi Italian and English so he tells me the guy did not have a ticket. Really kind of scary. The Pakistani doesn't agree. Really? Because all of his friends are still next door and we have about five hours left to go. He goes to the restroom, in the meantime two of the guys from the cabin next door start to throw something out the window in the hallway. They see e and go back in the cabin. How did I get placed with these guys? Very scary! Random guys just walk by with their hoodies pulled over their face. Thecpakistani keeps puffing himself up. I should say he is tall but very skinny and has rhinestones on his jeans...not totally intimidating. But I'm glad to have a guy in the cabin anyway. And I'm really glad when we finally pull in the station in Rome. In addition to the scary looking/acting guys, the heat doesn't work and it is freezing! Colder than I ever was in Interlaken. Ugh! About 15 minutes from the statinon one of the ticket taker people comes by and asks if the heat is broken and offers for me to move cabins...seriously? With everything else that's gone on in the last 7 hours or so, moving cabins for 15 minutes for heat seems like the craziest part of it all. I ask him about the guy who was ejected, but he shrugs his shoulders as if he has no idea what I'm talking about. Hmmmm....he was one of the guys in the cabin getting him out! I honestly wonder what condition the man is in. My cabin mate says "he is black, he is a very bad man" racist much? This whole trip has been very odd. The while time I keep thinking about the nice hotel I will be staying in and how much I can't wait to shower! As we pull into the station I take a swig of my water. I actually bought regular old  flat water! Haven't done that since Ireland;) ( it all comes back to Ireland) I have bought water, but mistakenly sparkling. I'm mostly a no bubbles girl! Water or wine, actually. I haven't been drinking it on this trip because I didn't want to leave my cabin to use the WC. :( just too eerie on this train. I have one more 12 minute train to the main station...the light at the end of the tunnel? I am so excited to see it! I did not like the ejection/beating thing. I've heard of it happening, but never witnessed it and I don't want to again.