This is a whirlwind train trip — traveling from Budapest to Venice overnight, and then from Venice to Milan, and Milan to Nice. It has been nearly 24 hours on the train, and I decide to break up my trip to Barcelona by stopping in Nice.
The time surprisingly goes by so quickly, as I sightsee out the windows, listen to my iPod, and catch up on reading, and even, yes, catch up on sleep. And then there are the numerous people I meet on-board the trains. Most Europeans laugh when I say the distances that I travel on trains. To them it seems too far, what with low-cost airlines now crowding the skies over Europe. Maybe it is because we don´t have such extensive train networks in the States, that I really don´t mind experiencing the distances by train at all. In fact, I now find the whole experience enchanting: The people, the sights, the conversations.
On the train through Southern France, I meet 28 year-old Laurent, who is traveling towards Marseille to meet his brother for deep sea-diving. Laurent can now dive 30 meters without an oxygen tank, and is trying to best his brother, who can go 60 meters deep. He notices the blank look on my face, and I explain that I never really learned the metric system, that most Americans never have. He laughs at this. “Really, everyone in Europe uses the metric system. How can you trust anyone’s measurements?” he asks. “Good question,” I agree.
He reaches for his laptop and tells me that he has the perfect song to download on my Ipod, since I seemingly am so challenged by numbers. Quite funny. After a quick lesson in metrics, our interests turned more audial, and we fall asleep listening to music with shared headphones from his laptop.
The next morning, I am on way to Barcelona via Montpellier. This is really peak season time, and the station attendants in France repeatedly tell me that the train from Montpellier to Barcelona has been sold out for days. But I decide to press my luck and try to buy a seat reservation directly in Montpellier. I meet two other Canadian women who have the same plan, and to our relief, the conductor sells us a seat reservation on the train platform. He tells us that we may not have a seat on-board, and that we may have to sit on our suitcases in the walkway or in the train cafe. But for a 10 Euro seat supplement, he will let us on the train with our Eurail Passes, and let us fend for ourselves in trying to find a free seat. This is great news to us, and we receive even greater news on-board when other passengers alert us to a few empty seats.
Train Tip: Beware the month of August, especially if you are traveling around the Mediterranean. By far, I have experienced the most difficulties of this year obtaining seat reservations in August. It is all quite logical though: many Europeans, not to mention foreigners, flock to the warm beauty of Southern Europe. Book your seat reservations in advance. You can attempt to ask the conductor to sell you a seat reservation on the train platform, but it will not always work. We got lucky on this trip to Barcelona.
Benjamin Thomas
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