The Long Train Journey
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2007
1
14
26
Trip End
Aug 01, 2007
Milan,
Italy
Sunday, July 15, 2007
The seat formation was one seat on one side of the train and two seats on the other side. I got the single window seat - lots of legroom, and quite a nifty reclining option - not only did the back of the seat recline, but the legs came up too...bit like an advanced lazyboy chair. When I got on in Barcelona, the carriage included me, an old guy from Italy I think, and 4 teenage guys (about 18 years old). Was actually a relaxing peaceful ride (yes, the teenage boys were behaving themselves!) until one of the first stops (can't remember which one), when the carriage was invaded by a bunch of about 15 15 year olds and what looked like two teachers. Then things got a bit less relaxing. For some reason, one of the 15 year old girls was loudly bawling her eyes out with lots of concerned companions with her. Not sure what would have brought on such an episode, but I suppose, she was a 15 year old girl...enough said.
I escaped the madness briefly (in particular the sight of two 15 year old snogging each other in the double seats across the aisle from me - euwwww gross - yes, ok, so I was teensy bit jealous as I didn't have a friend to snog...) and headed for the bar in the hope of more grown up company. Used my newly acquired Spanish to get myself some food (sandwich) and some wine (rioja) and to have a bit of a chat to the barmaid. Turned out that they didn't serve wine by the glass, rather they served it by the half bottle...so I settled in at the bar for a bit. Grown up company wasn't all it cracked up to be (no good looking Spanish / Italian or other men!!) so I returned to my seat with the remains of my red wine.
I managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep - while it wasn't as good a sleep as I was expecting (mainly due to the uncomfortable contours of the chair), I still missed a large number of the stations through which we passed due to my eyes being firmly closed! But, on the occasions that I did open my eyes and paid attention, I took note of a few of the stations that we went through...I've put them on a google map so we can all have a vague idea of the route that the train took (see
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl =en&msa=0&msid=113436632606130318201.000437319d46a81 87afd1&z=6&om=1)
(let me know if the link doesn't work)
I'm not entirely sure that I saw Lyon station as it looks a little out of the direct route - but I wrote it down, so have put it on the map.
The last couple of hours on the train did drag a bit - was definitely over doing the puzzles in the special puzzle edition of the Daily Telegraph and had even read the paper cover to cover. I did end up having breakfast in the 'bar' - couple of strong coffees and a croissant and got into a conversation, mostly in Spanish, with an Italian guy. Was good to know that I could at least have a basic conversation in Spanish after a month of learning...
We arrived in Milan a little later than scheduled - closer to 10am than 9am...but that was fine with me as my next train (to Florence) was due to leave at 11am, and the less time I had to spend loitering around a train station with my luggage, the better.
