Train Travel

In response to the advice of a friend, I have decided to update my blog with a little taste of Europe. This is our 4th country on the list so far. We spent a week each in France, Spain, and Portugal and we are now in Switzerland staying with Melissa's family. While I would like to give a detailed report on everything we have seen and done thus far it would be far too overwhelming for you...and me. For now, I shall limit myself to some amusing incidents pertaining to train travel:

-Our first night train...we're both dead tired after sleeping only a couple hours the night before and carrying our packs around all day. We are looking forward to a few hours of relief in a BED. Walking through the claustrophobic, over-crowded hallway we begin to notice a wretched smell. Now, if you know me at all, you probably know that I don't "DO" smells, or travel(I puke on planes/cars/boats, the works). Smells and travel together can only result in disaster. Hoping for some relief in our cabin I shove through the crowd and poke my head into the door. To my HORROR, I discover that the smell is coming from our room. Melissa, who had beat me there, turns around to find me (in her words) GREEN. I looked at her and calmly reported that I didn't think I was going to make it. Her firm response that I WAS coupled with the fact that I really didn't have any other option left us both in hysterical laughter as we lay on our beds, hoping to sleep. While no sleep occured that night, I'd proud to report that I was able to hold my dinner through it all...:)

-Melissa and I both have these Merryl hiking sandals that we LOVE. Unfortunately, they leave our feet smelling pretty nasty. Sometimes, if we're doing a lot of train travel, we aren't able to wash them (the sandals) every day. This was one of those days: We were sitting on a train in France in seats that face the row in front of you. There was a young guy sleeping against the window on the one side, and a large, vivacious black woman sitting in the isle seat right in front of Melissa. Melissa, trying to get comfortable, casually slips off her Merryls and puts them under her seat. Next thing we know the black lady facing us takes the scarf around her neck and pulls it up over her nose. Shocked and embarrased, Melissa asks me if I can smell her feet which were up on her seat. I pause, take a big whif, and shake my head "no". All of a sudden the black lady BURSTS out laughing, shaking her head, and signaling with her hands that she couldn't smell the feet. The three of us were crying we were laughing so hard. We let it go and tried to go back to being well-composed train travelers. About twenty minutes later the black lady catches my eye and bursts into laughter again. It was a wonderful bonding moment...when words aren't necessary.

-Last train story. We are in Madrid trying desperately to get to Switzerland. All the trains are full for next five days and our train ticket guy who speaks almost no English keeps trying to send us back to the information counter that hadn't helped us to begin with. Finally, we get an alternate route that means we take a night train to Cerbere, southern France, and then a whole series of commuter trains all day long until getting to Geneva. It's basically a 24 hour trip but by now we will take ANYTHING. He printed the whole intinary out and we finally felt like we had a plan. So, we hop on the night train and have a relatively incident free, almost, experience. Upon waking, however, we find ourselves not in Cerbere, but in Barcelona. You can imagine our shock. BARCELONA...again!! Still in Spain. After much confusion we finally made it to Cerbere and to Switzerland. We checked our tickets again to see how we missed it. Apparantly the destinations are listed as train stations, not cities...fancy that.

Anyway...there is so much I could write about. God has been teaching me so much. Will save that for the next blog though.