Euro Adventure 2005

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!!

Oh man!!

I woke with a hellish hangover this morning! Not really headache bad, but just totally drained! At least I woke in my bed! I’d somehow managed to get back to the hostel! Even better, back to the right room and even into the right bed!

The confusion came when my total drunkenness of the night before seemed to be common knowledge with my roommates! It’s one of those times that has you thinking terrible, terrible things about what might have happened last night between me leaving the bar and winding up in this bed!

It seems after Debbie (my American roomy) had been back in the room for a while her decision to use the bathroom had been somewhat foiled by the door being locked! So wondering if someone was in there, she banged on the door asking. Nothing! No sound from within. It seems several thoughts had gone through her head from wondering if someone WAS unconscious in there or if the staff had locked the door for some reason to show they were unhappy with us.

Sacha was the next to return, obviously wasn’t her inside. So getting a little worried as to what was going on and getting no response to the shouts and banging on the door, they were on the verge of calling security. Then it seems they heard snoring!

Dave!

I vaguely recalled some of what had happened as deciding I was close to being rather “ill” last night I’d gone for the security of being next to the toilet. When after a while nothing materialized, for some strange reason I decide to just lie on the floor and had obviously fallen asleep in my rather uncomfy surrounds! It seems I did however manage at some point to drag myself out and back into bed!

So, feeling somewhat worse for wear I opted for a wonder rather late in the morning around the local area in Montmarte. I wound up finding the Sacre Cour and started what was to be a rather slow trudge up the hillside!

Now, having been harassed yesterday near Pigalle I was hardly chuffed to pieces when 4 or 5 guys swarmed on me, one of them chasing me for about 100 yards to try and put what was basically a piece of string, around my wrist. Despite my constant “non, non, non” he persisted until I eventually managed to shrug him off and move onwards. This is really starting to annoy me about this City!!! There’s a lot to see but it seems everywhere I go I have someone bothering me. It’s not what I want at the best of times and especially not today, nursing the consequences of last night’s over indulgence!

The Sacre Cour is beautiful!!! Nothing short of spectacular and some great views of Paris to be had as you climb up! It would certainly be up there in my top 5 of things to see here in Paris!!! To think, had I NOT been hung-over, I probably would have wound up elsewhere!

From the Sacre Cour it was an adventure down to Austerlitz station to go and get my ticket onto Barcelona for tomorrow. Not really realizing just what this trip entailed it was a bit of a surprise when I wound up on a train!!! I hadn’t expected this! I just hoped I was going in the right direction as the platform instructions were sketchy at best!

I did make it to the train station, in what was actually a pretty good dry run for tomorrow as at least now I knew what would be involved in getting there and just how long it would take. Unfortunately at the station, I couldn’t get the direct ticket to Barcelona I had wanted, it seemed they have already sold out! Certainly a lesson to be learned here for the rest of the trip! Instead I’m on a later train and will have to change near the French/Spanish border in Port Bou. They wouldn’t let me make a reservation on from there to Barcelona as it seems I should just be able to jump on the connecting train.

In the evening, I wound up at a restaurant with Sacha (cool!!) very near our hostel. It seems she was recommended this place with someone telling her they had eaten their best meal of their trip here and it just happened to be round the corner from us!

It certainly didn’t disappoint either! My Duck in Blueberry sauce was terrific and there was plenty of it! The price was a little more than I’d normally want to spend on my meals but a treat every now and again is worth it! We sat outside watching the world go by and eating for a good couple of hours! I must admit I could have stayed there all night, I was enjoying myself and the company wasn’t too bad either!!

We ended up at the internet cafe and finally (after just 1 month of trying) got hold of Alan!!! At least I have a phone number for him now before I arrive in the city he lives in!!! I’ve also booked myself into the “Barcelona Dream Hostel”. Might just be another “interesting” location with it being situated just off the rather lively Ramblas!!! Lets just hope it lives up to its name!