InterRail Soap series part 11: Jay loves to eat

What did we eat?

                                                  

InterRail Soap Series part 10 : “Dutch inflation”

After two days Madrid (go there, It’s a lovely city!), we continued to the Spanish east coast. Out next stop was Salou to visit my “future family in law”, who were there for holiday. Of all places in the world, I never thought I would go to Salou. I’ve never been there before, but I already hated it. Salou is a famous holiday spot for Dutch people, who only go there for sun, sea, crowded beaches and party, just like Malgrat and Lloret del Mar. At least, that’s what I imagined when somebody talked about Salou. But during this Tour, I faced the real life of Salou; it was exactly what I had in my mind. Everywhere, in every shop, on the boulevard, on every corner, you hear Dutch people everywhere! Just terrible…

We planned a three day stop in Salou to visit Port Aventura, together with my future family in law. They had a huge surprise, when DJ and I arrived on the campsite: my girlfriend Maudy flew a day before to Salou to see me! She’s got a few days off from her internship and she booked directly a flight from Amsterdam to Reus. I had no idea, that she would be there! DJ knew about it since Malaga, about six days before. Maudy told him on MSN that she would fly down, once we go to Salou. Thinking of it, now I know why he was acting a little bit strange on a particular day in Malaga, when we were in an internet café checking our e-mail and why he wouldn’t let me watch on his screen…

Port Aventura is a huge amusement park! I always wanted to go there. It has Europe’s biggest rollercoaster: the Dragon Kahn. It has 8 loopings, so we all were a little bit dizzy after that ride. But of course, there are also traditional water tractions, where you get extremely wet! But what the heck, the sun is shining. We spent a hole day in the park, from 9AM till midnight!

Oeh, I almost forgot, Dirk fell in love, with this lovely girl he met in the park (see picture). As we left Salou, they just couldn’t say goodbye to each other. Deeply in love…

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 9: Jay loves waiting in line

248 people before us…
Somewhere in the second week. After Seville and Malaga, we arrived in Madrid. We found a nice place to stay close to Attocha train station. It’s a few days before August, before the holiday starts in Spain. In Spain, traveling by train is very popular. For the long distance express trains, a seat reservation with Interrail is compulsory. It’s impossible to get on a express train with Interrail, without a seat reservation. Our next leg will be from Madrid to Tarragona. So therefore we went on our first evening in Madrid to the station to reserve seats, for two days later. We thought, it wouldn’t take long getting a ticket. But of course, we were wrong again; we waited for 3 hours at the ticket- and information center of the Spanish Railways. As we came in, we had to take a number. The computer gave us the number 864. At the time that we took our number, the counter was only at number 616! So there were 248 people in before us, to get a ticket…   

                                  

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 8: Jay seeks toilet

"7) No toilet on a long-distance bus!
The next situation was so embarrassing at the time it happened. On the same Sunday where we were traveling to Seville, we took the bus from Ayamonte to Seville. There is no train service between the Algarve and Seville. After our train ride in Portugal, which only was 20 minutes till the end of the line (so we waited 3 hours for a 20 minute train ride!), we had to change on a ferry which would bring us from Portugal to Spain (Ayamonte). In Ayamonte we had to walk again about 3 kilometers to the bus station. It was an extremely hot day!

After we arrived at the bus station, we bought a bottle of water of 1,5 liters out of a machine. I remembered that my bottle was already empty after less than 10 minutes; I just needed something to drink because it was hot. At that time it was already 3 o’clock in the afternoon (Spanish time) and we were only 30 kilometers away from where we left, Tavira (we ‘traveled’ already for 5 hours!). The bus to Seville was suppose to leave at 4 pm. I actually had to go to the toilet but there wasn’t one at the bus station. So I thought, there would be one in the bus, so I can hold it up. Finally, we boarded the bus and inside the bus, it was cold because of the air-conditioning. We left Ayamonte and I wanted to go to the toilet. But where was it? Imagine, this was a long distance bus/travel coach. There was no toilet on the bus and it was a three hour drive till Seville! Oh my got, what should I do now, I thought… I had 1,5 liter water inside me which had to got out! DJ was reading and I saw that he had a little bit water left in his bottle. I remember, I almost asked him if he would drink his bottle empty, so I could pee in it! And with the air-conditioning on, I just couldn’t hold it any longer.

And then, after 15 minutes of driving we stopped, somewhere in the middle of nowhere on the highway, to let a passenger on board. This was my change. As the bus driver closed his front door, I ran through the bus and with almost tears in my eyes I asked the bus driver to wait, so I could pee outside. At first, I wouldn’t let me, because you can get a fine for it in Spain. But I almost cried, so he let me go. I ran into the bushes and relieved myself from this situation; Now I was peeing in front of bus with Spanish people looking at me. When I was peeing, I saw a second passenger running through the bus to get out. He came next to me, and do you know who it was: right, from all the people in the bus, it was my travel buddy Dirk Jan! So now the Spanish passengers looked at two Dutch passengers, peeing in the bushes. Could you imagine what the reaction was as we got back on the bus again… Yup… we moved to the last row…

After 9 hours we finally arrived at Seville at 7 pm! What a day… 200 kilometers in 9 hours, and an very embarrassing situation… Today, Dirk Jan and I can laugh about it, in fact, I had trouble writing this now, because I had to laugh again about this day!"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW... 

InterRail Soap Series part 7: The bloopers continue even further

"6) Sunday Schedule
On our second Sunday of our trip, we were in the Algarve, on the Isle Ilha da Tavira. A lovely Isle, you just have to go there. We stayed at a big campsite next to the beach. On Saturday we spent the whole day on the beach, sleeping from 10am till around 3pm.

I remember, as we went to the beach we had a nice spot on the sand, somewhere in the middle between people. After 4 hours sleeping, I woke up in the front row, almost in the water… It was high tide…

We stayed two nights on a campsite. On the Sunday, we wanted to continue our travel to Seville, only 200 kilometers away. We wanted to take an early train from Tavira to the Spanish border, to get early in the afternoon in Seville. So, we get up at 7.30am, made ourselves ready and then strike our tent. We hoped to catch the 10.45 train, but to get to the station, we had to take a ferry to get off the Isle and walk a kilometer of 2 through the village of Tavira. We arrived at the station around 10, so it was only 45 minutes till departure of the train.

10.45am. No train, and just 2 other travelers at the station. No announcement of delays or whatever. Suddenly a Belgium man came to us; he came to the station to see a train in Portugal. He also didn’t know what was going on. But then he noticed a remark on the timetable with the 10.45 train; this train doesn’t run on Sundays! The next train leaves at 12.45pm! So we had to wait for another 2 hours on a small, quiet station with no facilities. Of course, we were a little disappointed.

After 3 hours waiting (the 12.45 train was delayed for 20 minutes), the train showed up! And after a ‘hectic morning’ we finally left Tavira."

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap series part 6: The bloopers continue even further

"5) First Night train experience
After one night and a second day in Bordeaux, we continued our train travel to Lisbon, Portugal. In Irun (French-Spanish border) we got on our first night train. We booked a 6 persons couchette so we had to share our compartment with 4 other people. We were excited what kind of people these would be. Soon we heard a African woman shouting to her kids. We hoped that they would pass our compartment. And they did… After a while, 4 young noisy people entered our compartment. Oh my god, we thought… oh… and they were Dutch too :S

Alcohol, music… it’s going to be a long night we thought… And then… After a while an young (black) African man with white teeth, came to us to say hello. He was Dutch too, AND he lives in the same place where Dirk and I come from. ACTUALLY, in the same street as where I used to live! Is the world that small? Coincidence?

At 2am, the six of us were finally trying to sleep. Suddenly at around 3 in the night, the person who slept on the ‘top floor’ in our compartment, jumped out of his bed and ran out of our compartment. He was throwing up in the corridor. Could you imagine what a mess it would have been if he didn’t jumped out of bed?

Thank god, at 9m the boys got off the train in Coimbra, so Dirk and I had another 3 hours to get some sleep…
   
                                       

                                                                          Dirk and I in the night train

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 5: The bloopers continue

"3) No driver…
After six hours in Brussels, we got onto the Thalys train which would bring us to Paris. Time of departure approaches and after the scheduled departure time, we were still standing still in Brussels. And then came the announcement: “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a small problem: we don’t have a train driver, There is one coming from Paris (!), we hope to leave in 20 minutes”. We could hear that the man who was making the announcement was a little bit ashamed of the situation…

                                  

4) Empty train
On day three, after 2 days in Paris, we continued to Bordeaux. It was a Sunday. Unfortunately we couldn’t reserve two seats for a TGV train somewhere in the afternoon: Every train to Bordeaux was full for travelers using Interrail. So the options were: pay more than 13 euros to get a train in the afternoon or take the first train in the morning for only 1,50 euro reservation costs. We took the first train, which left Montparnasse Station on 7.20am! So our alarm clock was set on 5am! We left our hotel at 5.30am and took several subways on a Sunday morning in Paris to get to Montparnasse station….

At 7.15am we boarded our train to Bordeaux. Train is going to Bordeaux non-stop! The train moves, and after 5 minutes Dirk noticed that our carriage was completely empty! 

After 3,5 hours, we arrived in Bordeaux around 11 pm. We took a cheap hotel across the station and entered the town. But it was Sunday and there was totally nothing to do in Bordeaux… So we thought: Bordeaux was boring…"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 4: Jay goes backpacking

"SOME EMBARASSING MOMENTS

1) The first steps with a backpack
June 15th, Yes! Today is the day that we leave. With a heavy backpack we say goodbye to our family and get on the train to The Hague, where we had to change trains to Brussels. I was dragging a backpack and had a tent tide up horizontal to my backpack and stock out. 

When I was getting on that crowded International Train, I had some problems: I couldn’t get in the coach easily because my backpack was wider than the door (because of the tent)… When I got into the carriage, I bumped with my backpack into several people who were sitting (because I was to wide to walk safely through the carriage). And at that moment, I wasn’t aware of all those trouble that I was making. Dirk told me what was going on when we finally got two seats…

See the brown sack on the right of the picture? That’s the tent… 

2) Day Ticket in Brussels…
Day 1, we traveled from Netherlands to Paris and we planned a 6 hour break in Brussels to visit the city. It was a hot Friday in June. After we dumped our backpacks in a luggage storage, we headed off to the subway. In big cities with a huge network of public transport it’s the easiest to buy a day ticket which is valid in all busses, trams and subways, if you want to explorer the city. So we wanted to buy a day ticket in one of those vending machines. I read something of a discount in weekends; apparently in Brussels, if you buy 1 day ticket in Brussels in weekends, a second person can travel for free… It costs only 3 euro which we thought was cheap. Not thinking that today was a Friday, we only bought one ticket…. And then, at one ride on the subway, there was an inspector who wanted to see the tickets of all people… Of course we showed him our ticket and of course one of us didn’t had a ticket… Of course we tried to act liked ‘the stupid tourist’, telling him that we thought it was a Saturday and we made up a story that we had a jetlag etc… After a long discussion in English (of course, the conductor probably also spoke Dutch) , he was buying it and we didn’t get a fine…"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 3: Jay loves to photograph

Our route in Pictures:

      
                             Paris                                                                         Bordeaux

      

                        Lissbon                                                                       Ilha de Tavira

    

                             Seville                                                                       Malaga

    

                        Madrid                                                                              Port Aventura

                                                      

                                                                         Marseille

    

                            Nice                                                                        Vienna 

InterRail Soap Series part 2: Jay seeks travel route

"After long thoughts and reading and brainstorming of our interests in cities, we planned our route. It is going to be:

Haarlem (home)-Brussels-Paris-Bordeaux-Lisbon-‘Somewhere Algarve’-Sevilla-Malaga-Madrid-Salou-Barcelone-Marseille-Nice-Munich-Berlin-Haarlem (home)…

… in 31 days. We planned our route as a circle through a part of Western Europe, which was more interesting than just go from A to B and back to A over the same route. This route was approximately 9000 Kilometers, so were we actually ‘nuts’ to travel 9000 kilometers in trains in 31 days?

Today, more than two years later, Dirk-Jan and I still talk about our journey in 2005, as if it was yesterday. We succeeded to do our planned route with some changing in plans. We didn’t had any trouble nor great delays and we didn’t went from Nice to Munich but from Nice to Vienna (only almost 24 hours by train). We also had quite funny and hilarious moments which we thought It wasn’t hilarious at all when we were en-route. And some of those moments, Dirk-Jan and I decided to share it with you; it can be helpful for your planning…"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...