Tue, 14 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Barcelona, Catalunya, Espaņa
posted 10:06 CEST 17/10/03	section Europe2002/Europe/France/France 1 ( all photos )

Waiting for Trains ( No photos )
This was a day where not a huge amount was achieved, mostly due to the poor connections between trains across the south of France.
First we waited in Nice for a train which would take us to Marseille, then we waited outside the station there. I did a run down to the cheap food shops, returning with a couple of huge kebabs and some pasta sauce.
We plotted a route towards the famous yet hard-to-reach border station with Spain, Port-Bou. But by the time we had managed the changes in trains, we decided that a good place to rest for the evening was a few stops short in Perpignan. The main reason for this was there was a HI hostel only 400m from the station.
Arriving there, we found the town really didn't amount to much. A helpful woman at the station pointed us towards the hostel, where we trudged along for a while (notably further than 400m, though). In the dark this ugly town looked even worse, so we weren't expecting much. It turned out to be alright though, in a nice old Catalan-style house where everything was clean and functional, if far from new.
After waiting while the rather rude guy talked to his mates for twenty minutes as we just sat there with the bags waiting to check in, we did so. He seemed a bit apologetic and gave us a cheaper deal.
The kitchen was outside, where we had to elbow in for some space on the two burner stove (Campingaz, no less!), to cook guess what. Liz attended to that while I went for a walk with a Canadian guy called Mark, returning with some refreshments for the night.
We took note of the trains for the next morning, setting alarms to get up early for the 8:07 train to Port-Bou.

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