Monday 21-07 - Omens

The first thing we did was walk down to the train station to get tickets for that night. I still don't think it would have made a difference if we had booked the evening before. The whole night train was booked. We had to settle for a train at 1-30 to Toloun (on the way to Bordeux), then to Paris, then to Strassbourg.

It was annoying to be sure. It was also made worse by the fact that I was at the peak of the hormone roller coaster. I wasn´t in the emotional state to deal with unexpected situations. I thought I was going to explode.

We went on the net for a bit to rearrange a night in Strasbourg and had some breakfast. i was feeling a bit better (also by then got my hands on some neurofen).



We went to the art gallery, but it was closed on Mondays. Oh well. We browsed shops as we walked gradually up to the station. We found a bookshop with a French-English dictionary and both got excited about the idea of learning some of the language. On the trains I dug into the book and started putting together some vocabulary lists.





The fist train arrived late, just as the second was pulling out of the station. We didn't quite
know what to do at this point. There must have been a few people in the same situation. The loud speaker of the train said something in French that mentioned Paris and Marseille. A French man next to us showed us his ticket, which had the same two train numbers. He said we were told to change trains at Marseille instead.

So we waited to the next stop and jumped odd as fast as we could to the next platform. We really didn't need to. The Paris train was 20 minutes late of its own accord. Which mean we would have 40 minutes only now to get to the other Paris station. Still doable if we hurried. The train stopped more and more. We were getting nervous.

It finally came to a stop 40 minutes late, leaving us just over 15 minutes. It took 5 of those just to get through the people and off the platform. Then another to get to the metro station. It was then we realised there was no realistic way we were going to catch that train. We tried the ticket office. The next train left at 6-30 the next morning.

We rung the insurance hotline. At first they seemed sympathetic and until they asked about the cause of the missed connection. I told them the train was late. The man on the other end said we weren´t covered for everyday lateness. Only for storms and fog and train strikes. He gave me some unhelpful suggestions but nothing else. This is the second time something has gone wrong on the trip but the fine print has left us in the dust. What the hell did we pay all that money for anyway.

Suffice to say, we were pissed.

So there we were, stranded in Paris with no where to sleep and a room in Strasbourg we couldn't use. Plus a wasted useless rail ticket. Funnily, I wasn´t as emotional over this upset as over the morning upset, even though this was far more inconvenient. Possibly my hormones had finished their circus act by then and left me more in control.

We found a near by hostel in the LP book and grabbed 2 beds there. The room was very basic, but that's all we needed for the night. We decided to get up extra early the next day. We just wanted this day over with. That night we went to sleep unsettled.