Another long haul on the train

Trip Start Apr 08, 2007
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Trip End Oct 01, 2007


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Flag of France  ,
Saturday, May 12, 2007

We've just come to the end of the second of three long treks in the trip. France may not look so huge on the globe, but it takes quite a while to go from one corner of the country to the complete opposite, even with modern, high-speed rail! From St. Malo this morning we had to catch an early train out to Rennes, from where we transferred onwards to Paris Montparnasse. In keeping with our other two entrances into the city, we then had to negotiate the metro to get to another station, this time the Gare de Lyon. Once there we got to throw down a baguette lunch and sit around for a couple hours until our last connection to Nice.

Paris was just as grey as Brittany had been, and the overcast conditions continued for a good hour or two into the southward journey. I nodded off for a bit somewhere in there and awoke around the two-hour mark to blue skies and rather more Mediterranean scenery. I guess the direct trains to Nice don't bother with stops anywhere across central France; even Marseille was quickly passed by until our first stop at seafront town Toulon. After that we suddenly came to an unexpected halt at Saint Raphael. An announcement came on in French that there was an "accident personel" at Cannes and that we were going to be delayed for an undetermined period.

Seems like there was a jumper or something in ritzy Cannes, putting us behind for what was already a long day of travel. They came on a couple times afterwards to announce that it would take at least one hour, then two. Fortunately, after the latter, worse news, the conductor came back on and corrected himself: we were going to be on our way in a few minutes. All in all we wound up about an hour and twenty minutes behind schedule. We managed to just make it under the wire for the bus cut-off so we could get to the hostel. And, nicely, from the bus terminus we got to be picked up by the hostel staff and avoid the hard slog uphill.

Our lodgings are, well, "lively," I s'pose. Heavy on the American "just on summer vacation" element for sure. The food's relatively cheap, the facilities decent and our room quiet though. Bloody tedious internet however, despite it being free (that and you have to battle 40 people for a free, functional terminal). I'm pulling my hair out trying to find available accommodation for Italy next week that doesn't require an expense account. Having a keyboard that sticks and a snail-like connection doesn't help. Mayu is at the moment trying to find an inexpensive flight out of Athens for the end of the month so she can get back to Frankfurt. She seems to be having better luck than me. Such is the way of things at a big hostel, I guess.

We'll be wandering about Nice and the surrounds the next couple days, then we're off to Venice on an overnighter. Hard to believe it's been over a month already since we left. . .
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