Hugo Has Arrived (3)

Hugo did not choose those expensive private carriages like a fool; his experience rising from the bottom had taught him to be frugal.

Hugo's plan was to take a public carriage and spend fifteen days traveling from Venice to Vienna, though it was necessary to take a gondola—a type of small boat—to tour the "City of Water" while he had the rare chance.

Then, he discovered the Venice railway station, where signs displayed the available destinations and ticket prices.

"It can actually go directly to Vienna!" Hugo could not help but exclaim aloud.

He thought to himself that it would be wonderful if a railway could be built between Paris and Toulon, as it would make things much more convenient.

In reality, the French were indeed building this railway, but progress was worrying because much of the land belonged to farmers who were immovable, greatly increasing the cost of investment.

Therefore, the speed at which the French built railways was much slower than in Austria, and the costs were even higher than those of mountain railways.

However, Hugo was unaware of these circumstances; he only felt that the Austrian investment in railways was astonishing. Yet, Hugo soon discovered something even more shocking.

Vienna was not the terminus at all; the railway from Venice could reach as far east as Belgrade, as far north as Saxony, and as far west as Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.

"What a barbaric country! Its people must live lives worse than beasts of burden! Just like the pyramids of Egypt and the Colosseum of ancient Rome, it is entirely a manifestation of personal vanity."

But since there was a railway, Hugo could not possibly choose to take a carriage.

Ticket Clerk: "To Vienna, is it? Which class of carriage do you want?"

Hugo: "The