Euro Adventure 2005

An early start this morning was a bit of a struggle, the alarm going off at 6.45 in order for me to get to Barcelona Sants station for my train to Nice. I’ve been trying to give myself a little extra time than is probably needed in order to make it in time for the trains without having to stress too much and after a brief stint checking my email in the hostel (too early for brekkie unbelievably!) I headed onto the metro to the train station 4 stops away.

Despite giving myself what I thought was ample time I hadn’t quite figured for the complete stupidity of Barcelona Sants Station! Following on from my joyous adventures in trying to buy a ticket, I now found platforms 1-6 easily signposted and very obvious to find. The problem? Well, I wanted platform 7. After walking around the station for 10 minutes not going any further knowledge, I opted for the “ask the guard in your best Spanish” approach. The end result was me following the instructions (as I understood them) and still coming up blank. Now getting nervously close to my train departure time I started to panic just a little when I noticed a sign…hidden away indicating platforms 7+. Asking a puzzled looking lady “Siete?” she took some time before nodding and waving me to follow her into a lift. With minutes to spare, I made it. Just!

The train journey to Montpellier was pretty much uneventful and the early start meant I just crashed listening to music. Despite being about 15mins late into Montpellier, I had plenty of time before my connection in about 2 hours. A coffee (really THAT was a coffee???) and some book reading later and I was back on a train (nice easy platform finding mission this time!) and headed to Nice…..

…Via Marseilles! Marseilles??? Hold on, I just passed through Marseilles!!! Fortunately, as it turned out I was on the right train, they just loop back through! Phew! The train ride itself is worth the money!! A glorious mix of hill, mountains and beaches!! The joy of just being able to watch the world go by!!

I found my hostel in Nice eventually after initially locating the street with no problem at all just unable to find the number! With luck on my side (???) a couple of Chinese guys were also looking for the same hostel and we uncovered it (seriously, there is not one signpost indicating this place even exists!).

Located on the 2nd floor of an old (and, yes, crumbling) apartment block in the middle of what can loosely be described as “Chinatown”, not far from the station, was my “hostel”. I use the term lightly here! There isn’t a lot of life here, it feels like the three of us are the only ones actually staying here and the room was certainly the grimmest I’d stayed in yet. The mattresses looked like you would pick up a disease from just being near them and there was no security in the rooms at all. Hopefully I’ll even figure out how the lock on the door (and main door for that) actually work before I leave here!

One other person did arrive, an American guy whose name escapes me. We wound up going for a beer and something to eat. Well, actually I went for a beer, he didn’t order a drink (jeez!) and the Chinese meal was pretty average. I got the feeling pretty quick that I want going to get much life out of this guy tonight so we just headed back to the hostel (I was actually pretty tired anyway) to catch some kip.

The two Chinese guys leave tomorrow so looking at this place it could just be the two of us left tomorrow!!

Why do it?

That question has been asked by so many people about so many things!

Why do you do it?

A very similar question yet somehow slightly more personal!

I’ve been asked both of these on many, many occasions! Yet most seem to come the day after a big night out and usually involve me in a somewhat hungover state!

Today, it’s me asking that question of myself! Or phrased in a slightly different way, “Why do I do it?”.

There are no two ways about it, I’m hungover! Not so much the sick hangover, more the dead to the world hangover! That funny feeling that nothing is going to get done today! I’m not alone though! The whole hostel seems to have a rather subdued feel to it today, like someone stole the life out of the place! There is an unusually high number of people just floating about the common room, awaiting regeneration of some kind and I guess I’m one of them.

It certainly feels like I’ve got to know a lot of people here now….there’s a lot of a familiar faces around and conversation (of the basic hungover primitive kind) is flowing with them! Mainly the stories circulating from the previous night’s excesses! There were those that stayed till the light had risen this very day and those that, just well, hadn’t coped too well with the over indulgences, those that had mysteriously disappeared and not heard of since and the one who had managed to end up with his hand bandaged up after putting it through a glass stage!!

I wound up spending much of the late morning come early afternoon with Ned and Francis (who seem to be getting on rather well although (and trying to put this a nice way) I think she’s using him somewhat. I mean, I’ve seen it a hundred times before (normally involving me), she has a boyfriend back home, is pretty damned cute in a I look like I don’t know it but secretly I do kind of way, and is enjoying the attention and security of a guy showing interest in her! Now, if I’m wrong here, I apologise right now! Dragging my thoughts back to reality, we eventually decided that some form of food was needed and Ned returned 30 minutes later with a KFC bargain bucket!!

Now, eating a KFC was also on my list of things not to do on this trip…somewhere after watching footy, eating at the golden arches and scoffing a McDonalds (all already notched up) yet it has to be said that on this day at this time (am I really saying this??), KFC never tasted so good!!

I decided midway through the afternoon that I really needed to get out for a while so went for a bit of a wonder down to the Ramblas mainly to go pick up some essentials from the supermarket (or anywhere that happened to sell the goods in question). It being Sunday, there was very little open. Not just like back home where a good few places close, I mean, I struggled to find one place open!!!). Eventually tracking down what I needed I wondered back up to the hostel, passing as I did a bar who looked like they were showing Southampton v Derby in a couple of hours time.

Trying to persuade the masses back at the hostel that watching the aforementioned game was an attractive way to spend 2 hours of their day was like trying to persuade the Americans to take up the sport! And just like the yanks taking it up, I managed to drag a few stragglers with me! Unable to cope with any more beer, coke sufficed for the duration and when all was said and done I could leave reasonably happy!

The evening degenerated into poker night again and although buying myself a litre of beer for the evening I just couldn’t face it! Now, those that know me will be aware of me suddenly producing a pack of cards from nowhere and attempting some rather lame magic tricks! No need to go finding cards tonight and it has to be said, feeling unsure if I had my new gem down I was a little nervous about performing in front of a crowd (albeit a small one!). In the end it all went pretty well and I went to bed silently chuffed it had all gone so well!! I might just have to try this again sometime as it turned out pretty good entertainment…and a good way to meet folks!

I opted for a fairly early night given that I had to be up pretty early to catch my train to Nice tomorrow. With the hostel being full, I’d had to shift rooms for my last night and unlike my last room, this was tiny!!! The bed I had been allocated looked empty but I really wasn’t sure so just went with it. Unfortunately the shouts at 4am of “the bastard stole my bed” not only made me realize I was in the wrong one but awoke me from my sleep!! If they had stuck with the allocated beds in the first place we wouldn’t have had this problem. Oh well, I’ll be gone in the morning! Back to France and the Cote d’Azur to Nice!!

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