Today was the ultimate travel day. The day we would put our travel skills to the test. The day we would draw on any luck we have or will have to make it through this day. Of course, to add some extra challege we made sure to drink the night before and stay out late. Bright and early we were at the train station to see if the looming strike would effect us or not. Luckly, the train would still run. After, the first transfer had a two hour layover which we spent cure our hangover (mcdolands). We look at the board and sure enough the second train is running. Perfect, we are still good...the strike hasnt happened yet.
Happy and content at this news, we go sit in the train. We assumed it was a city train and you could sit anywhere, so we just went in the first coach and sat down. Then we looked at our tickets....its assigned seating.....we are in the wrong seats....now we have to grab our bags from up top and move again. ARGH! What a pain! So we look at the ticket and we are in Coach 17. Crap...thats got to be near the back of the train! So we get out of the train and start walking. Thats when Christie realizes the Coach we were in was number 17. We were just one seat back. Wow....we are stupid.
Our next layover was in Montpellier and this one was four and a half hours. We booked some more hostels for Prague and Madrid then sat in this park across from the train station for awhile. All of a sudden, a march of people come out of no where going down the road. They are carrying flags that read CPG and are making alot of noise. Blaring music and setting off these firework drum that at first sounded like gunfire....scary. There must have been 4000 thousand of them walking along. We finally asked a french couple what it was all about. Workers from various professions on strike, protesting for better wages and pension. They are unhappy with the government. Something tells me we will being seeing alot more of those as the econmic situation in Europe becomes more grim. Lets just hope it doesnt escalute to Greece standards.
After, we got some subway but still had a couple of hours to blow. We were pretty bored and tired of doing nothing. But, as backpackers you have to learn to amuse yourself. We saw a man with a dog. The dog had dirrehea, the owner had nothing to clean it up with so just threw a napkin over it. We started to place bets on who would slip on that shit. We re-arranged our chairs to get a better view and watched as unsupecting victums barely escaped the messy situation. That cheap entertainment kept us entertained for an hour. You back home may say, " Really, you have nothing better to do?" But times of nothing but sitting around (espeically on travel days) happen often, so really Im just proud we are creative enough to make our own entertainment. Btw, much to our disappointment....no one slipped in the shit.
Our next train came...almost out of France, almost in the clear. We are chugging along in the train almost at the next train station for our last transfer of the day. Then the train comes to a screaching halt, shuts off, then the lights go out. Shit. Is this the strike? We sat there for awhile anxiously awaiting an announcement. But, after 20 min the train just started up again and we made it (barely we had to run to catch it, sidenote: not fun in 15kg backpacks). On the train to Barcelona.
So on this ultimate travel day, you may be wondering if we ran into any interesting characters as we so often do on the train. We did. We call this couple "Hippy Love". This German pair was on a couple trains with us, but the last one to Barcelona there were right across the isle from us. Now, picture this. The man is 6'2, blond natural dreads inches longer then my hair, one eye that doesnt quite look in the same direction as the other, hippy looking clothes and teeth rotting out of his mouth. O, and the smell. Christie was lucky enough to be sitting right next to him when he took off his sweater.
The girl was beautiful. Also, very very hippy looking. But without a stitch of make up, she was still stunning. Just a couple hair wraps on her. Now, obviously these people are not really our style persay, but we couldnt help but admire them. These guys were in love. They were camping their way through Europe...and still they are gazing into each others eyes so much in love. That, and I always read the girls what I wrote for the blog....and the couple was laughing! They loved the blog too!
We finally, after 15 hours made it to Barcelona. We got to our hostel no problem. The hostel is great, small but has nice sized rooms. Right now there is not alot of people staying here. But we briefly met a guy from Holland who did a 4 week hike through France. We are definatly going to have to talk to him more later!
Christie went to bed, but me and Stef were itching for a beer. So we headed down the main street Las Ramble. The hostel is in a great area of town! We found this pizza and beer place and had a seat. The pizza was incredible (but your in Spain not Italy...shouldn't you be having spanish food? Well....the pizza was really cheap and the beer was included.) Sitting in this small place enjoying amazing pizza we looked around. There was a group of guys sitting in the cornor. They seriously could not have been over 15 years old. Heard a British accent....wow, they must be in their glory. After we watched a guy throw up near our table....we knew it was time to go back to the hostel.
That night my mom skype me. Because the hostel is small I decided to go and sit on the stairs in front of the door that leads into the building. The door is glass with bars, so its safe and secure but you can see threw it. As Im talking with my mom, theres a banging at the door. I look up (never look up, never look up) Theres a guy standing at the door...and then just whips out his penis. All of a sudden Im running up the stairs to the hostel. My goodness....everything happened so fast....ewwwwwwww. My mother of course laughed and said " Lesson # 25: Dont be sitting downstairs, skyping , late at night". Hmm, interested how Barcelona will turn out.
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