A long journey
This post will cover the trip from madrid to switzerland, and hopefully some of the start of italy.
First off, spanish are nicer than the french, and my skills were quite useful. Smoking was smoking as usual. I think the guy yes guy working the hostel desk was hitting on me because he was being a little overly helpful with my spanish learning and kept winking at me. Maybe he was just being nice. We met a nice girl who was studying abroad on the bus to toledo as well.
The next day, I took off for Barcelona in order to try and get a train to Geneva as soon as possible. Jon was going to be in Switzerland from only the 16-19, and I left madrid on the 16th, so it was rush time so to say. Now the only night train from BCN to Geneve was booked, and they stupidly have no stand by option, so I waited in line for 3 hours or more on three separate occasions in BCN and Madrid trying to come up with a solution. I vowed to spend the night at the train station if needed, I was going to switzerland no matter what because I had some time to blow and wanted to see the alps. Jon supposedly [later certainly] had a nice house in the mountains and an SUV. The station attendants were not helpful and even in spanish sent me to this line and that untill I finally found an options. Switch 5 trains and arrive 36 hours after I departed first, which was the best at the time option.
The spanish and the rest of the systems all use the German [again they are quite efficient] system to find trains. Of course it can't handle all the options so I decided to go north ASAP on any available train. In the end I switched at Barcelona, Cerberre france on the border, Marseilles, Lyon, and finally geneve to get to Aigle switzerland. This involved staying up for almost 2 full days with no complete meals. When they kept jobbing me around at the stations I was amongst the most frustrated I had been since I potentially had mono. Luckily, I got a chance to make 1 hours worth of calls and talk to my relatives in Milan. But, after meeting some canadians, turkish, aussies, americans from the east coast, brits, and finally jon, I made it.
My favorite part about the whole experience was the train from cerberre, to marseilles, which went from midnight to 5 am. It was literally nothing but backpackers and we had so much fun on the train. I hung out with these hilarious canucks the whole time, and met a turkish fellow who was with his new wife on their honeymoon. He kept trying to give away the spanish wine from the region, sangria because he was so happy to be on vacation with his new wife. I told him I was heading to turkey, and he gave me his number, and offered advice and a place to stay! I told him it'd be awhile but I'd call. Rolling solo like this was really fun just to be around so many students my age and I hope it happens again soon, since it is more infrequent with more carefully defined plans and friends to be with. Still, it had been a long time since I had seen anybody and I wanted to get there soon. I finally arrived at Aigle the next day at 2 pm, having left the previous day at 6, so it was a long time with no break. It was enough time to polish off 500+ pages of books, and I exchanged some with other travelers. This one girl was really nice too, and she loved animals. Its hard to recall all details, I have met so many people from all over the world. However, I thought she was indian, and it turns out she was jewish.
Trains:
-fun, but unpredictable. Get worse as you go south, and booking on full trains is a huge pain. Its a relief to have it figured out. Go regional, and its free with a pass, but hot hot hot and very uncomfortable. I had a nice talk in spanish to an elderly man who was trying to learn it.
-after this, I didn't even want to see a train for another week. When jon picked me up in a brand new BMW x3 suv the next day I was nearly extatic.
-I still am to proud to pretend to be canadian, regardless of whether or not its a good idea
-when in doubt plan ahead. or prepare to wait.
-figuring it out yourself can work as well
-the spanish are idiots when it comes to scheduling, there are only like 4 trains that leave the country each day
-these 18 yearolds from delaware who hadn't started college yet bought some hashish which is similar to marijuana from this dude on the train, and then proceeded to "hotbox" one of the cars. No one seemed to care about this amazingly. Only in europe...
First off, spanish are nicer than the french, and my skills were quite useful. Smoking was smoking as usual. I think the guy yes guy working the hostel desk was hitting on me because he was being a little overly helpful with my spanish learning and kept winking at me. Maybe he was just being nice. We met a nice girl who was studying abroad on the bus to toledo as well.
The next day, I took off for Barcelona in order to try and get a train to Geneva as soon as possible. Jon was going to be in Switzerland from only the 16-19, and I left madrid on the 16th, so it was rush time so to say. Now the only night train from BCN to Geneve was booked, and they stupidly have no stand by option, so I waited in line for 3 hours or more on three separate occasions in BCN and Madrid trying to come up with a solution. I vowed to spend the night at the train station if needed, I was going to switzerland no matter what because I had some time to blow and wanted to see the alps. Jon supposedly [later certainly] had a nice house in the mountains and an SUV. The station attendants were not helpful and even in spanish sent me to this line and that untill I finally found an options. Switch 5 trains and arrive 36 hours after I departed first, which was the best at the time option.
The spanish and the rest of the systems all use the German [again they are quite efficient] system to find trains. Of course it can't handle all the options so I decided to go north ASAP on any available train. In the end I switched at Barcelona, Cerberre france on the border, Marseilles, Lyon, and finally geneve to get to Aigle switzerland. This involved staying up for almost 2 full days with no complete meals. When they kept jobbing me around at the stations I was amongst the most frustrated I had been since I potentially had mono. Luckily, I got a chance to make 1 hours worth of calls and talk to my relatives in Milan. But, after meeting some canadians, turkish, aussies, americans from the east coast, brits, and finally jon, I made it.
My favorite part about the whole experience was the train from cerberre, to marseilles, which went from midnight to 5 am. It was literally nothing but backpackers and we had so much fun on the train. I hung out with these hilarious canucks the whole time, and met a turkish fellow who was with his new wife on their honeymoon. He kept trying to give away the spanish wine from the region, sangria because he was so happy to be on vacation with his new wife. I told him I was heading to turkey, and he gave me his number, and offered advice and a place to stay! I told him it'd be awhile but I'd call. Rolling solo like this was really fun just to be around so many students my age and I hope it happens again soon, since it is more infrequent with more carefully defined plans and friends to be with. Still, it had been a long time since I had seen anybody and I wanted to get there soon. I finally arrived at Aigle the next day at 2 pm, having left the previous day at 6, so it was a long time with no break. It was enough time to polish off 500+ pages of books, and I exchanged some with other travelers. This one girl was really nice too, and she loved animals. Its hard to recall all details, I have met so many people from all over the world. However, I thought she was indian, and it turns out she was jewish.
Trains:
-fun, but unpredictable. Get worse as you go south, and booking on full trains is a huge pain. Its a relief to have it figured out. Go regional, and its free with a pass, but hot hot hot and very uncomfortable. I had a nice talk in spanish to an elderly man who was trying to learn it.
-after this, I didn't even want to see a train for another week. When jon picked me up in a brand new BMW x3 suv the next day I was nearly extatic.
-I still am to proud to pretend to be canadian, regardless of whether or not its a good idea
-when in doubt plan ahead. or prepare to wait.
-figuring it out yourself can work as well
-the spanish are idiots when it comes to scheduling, there are only like 4 trains that leave the country each day
-these 18 yearolds from delaware who hadn't started college yet bought some hashish which is similar to marijuana from this dude on the train, and then proceeded to "hotbox" one of the cars. No one seemed to care about this amazingly. Only in europe...
posted by Gary Fox @ 8:25 AM
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