Train Ride From Hell
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008So I arrived at Santa Apolonia station for my 4pm train ride to Paris. I was extremely surprised to see only a handful of people getting on the train. I got to my assigned seat and had it all to myself. The happiness I figured would be short lived because the next stop was Lisbon Oriente, which is the main station for international trains. Again, to my surprise, only a handful of people got on, and none of them were in my cabin. I couldn’t control my happiness. I hate sharing cabins with people. I never feel comfortable falling asleep with all my stuff lying around, especially my laptop and railpass.
Two more stops, 6pm, almost no one got on. I finally decided to relax, close the door, and try to get some sleep. This was just in time for the next stop, in which I could hear the hordes of people getting on the train. Several seconds later, 4 people who I could only describe as looking like Gremlin junkies, came into my cabin and started throwing their stuff around. Motherfucker!!! Out of all the people I could have had to share my cabin with, and it was junkies. At that moment I resigned any idea of me getting any sleep that night. I stayed awake, carefully guarding my things. The entire night they kept bouncing off the walls, opening and closing the window, opening and closing the door, going out to the walkway, then back in again. I was seriously thinking about jumping out the window, and if I survived, walking to Paris.
The 3 guys finally went to the bar and left their girl friend there. The entire time she kept staring at me. I was actually kind of scared. To make things worse, she kept sneezing without covering her nose, and then she coughed and, like in super slow motion, I could see a huge ball of mucus/snot/spit flying at me and landed on my knee. Not so much as an “I’m Sorry”. She just stared at me. Can’t wait to see what kind of disease I contract from that. Maybe some TB or a little syphilis or something.
Later when she feel asleep, if I had any thoughts of falling asleep, they would have gone out the window because she was probably the loudest snorer ever. On top of that, I was mesmerized by the constant waterfall of drool running down her chin, soaking the front of her shirt. Thankfully the guys stayed in the bar, and she slept through most of the rest of the trip until Hendaye station where I transferred trains to Paris.
mrnational