July 19 - Training Day Number 2

We woke early and wasted little time in getting our bags and getting down to the metro station where we caught the first two trains of the day, getting from our hostel to the main train station where we were told that if we wanted to go to Cerbere then we should make our way to platform 14. When we got to platform 14, we saw that the next train was bound for Portbou, which we managed to work out was right next to Cerbere, so we got on. This was a major blunder. The train turned out not to be going anywhere near Cerbere, but instead just went to another train station in Barcelona and though there was a train departing for Montpellier from this station (which would have been an ideal result) this train was full and we had to head back to the station that we had originally been at and then get the next train to Cerbere. This whole debacle cost us about 2 and a half hours.

Eventually we managed to get on a train to Cerbere, from where we had hoped to get a connecting train to Montpellier and from there make our way towards Geneva. Upon arrival in Cerbere some 3 hours later, it became evident that this would be easier said than done. Our connecting route was planned to be Cerbere to Perpignan, Perpignan to Valence, Valence to Lyon and then Lyon to Geneva which if you try is really not that difficult to say. But given that almost all of these trains seemed to be completely full, actually doing this route was flat out impossible. As a result, we got a new schedule. Cerbere to Perpignan, Perpignan to Montpellier (we got there eventually), Montpellier to Lyon and then Lyon to Geneva. Again, this all sounds pretty easy. In reality it was an adventure that took most of the next 18 hours.

Our primary problem was that we arrived at Lyon at about 11:15 pm and had to be onboard our train to Geneva at about 6 am. We were not at all inclined to be paying for accommodation for the 4 hours we would be there so we had planned on sleeping in the train station. However, despite Monty having scoped out Gare de Lyon's premier sleeping location, we were told that they shut the station between the hours of 1 and 5 am so we were out on our arses. After our attempts to find a cheap hotel fell flat we decided there was nothing for it but to find a good location and sleep in the park. This was tough as we were ideally looking for somewhere that offered some sort of protection from the prospect of getting all of our gear stolen, but also a bit of darkness and quiet. The result we managed was pretty good really - jumping the fence and sleeping in the garden of a pretty swanky looking apartment building. It was certainly not the most comfortable accommodation that we have managed this trip but it was certainly the cheapest and despite our lingering fears that we would be woken by either the apartment's security personel, random passers-by or wandering vagrants, we both eventually drifted off to sleep.

Jez