One of the interesting parts of traveling by train and bus is observing and meeting your fellow travelers. You also get a glimpse of the countryside between all the cities, which in Spain was continually surprising. I did not know how geographically diverse Spain was until we rode through. Here are a few of the more notable rides.
Segovia to Madrid
I was surprised at how rocky the terrain is outside of Madrid. All the images of Spain I had in my head looked like the central California coast. Before the trip, I felt like it would be mostly flat with a lot of yellow. Instead the sun shone down on granite and coniferous forests. Snow hung on the higher mountains.
San Sebastian to Carcassonne, France
Brilliant green fields flashed by, home to the quaint stone houses I imagined would be in the French countryside. The two women behind us couldn't see any beauty in the trip, however. They were so busy regretting all the things that had gone wrong with their vacation that they were only dreading the remaining days in France. In classic New York accents, they enumerated every inconvenience and disappointment they had experienced while traveling in France and Spain. To me, they represent one of the worst kinds of travelers - those who go to a foreign country and expect everything to be just like home. And then, instead of seeing the unexpected as an adventure, they go home and tell everyone how horrible the other country is.
Carcassonne to Barcelona
The train ride back to Spain was made extra long by a stopover in Narbonne and several customs checks. In Narbonne we found an old bit of Roman road and noted that the town was trying to be touristy like its more glamourous neighbors, but was really just a working town that happened to be on the railway. The customs checks were more exciting as several people were pulled off the train and we could hear their names being spelled over the walkie-talkies. We thought it must not be too serious since one of the customs officers was whistling a little tune as he walked down the aisle.
We talked to a nice 18-year-old Dutch boy named Colin for part of the trip. He was backpacking Europe for at least three months before entering University. We talked to him about what he had seen so far, where we had been, and where he was planning to go. He got off at Girona and gave his seat to a much louder 30-something Englishman from Manchester, Brad.
Since he had been standing up until this point, I'm not sure he had a ticket, but was friendly enough, even if he was a little grating. To me, he seemed like a good candidate for the land-based version of Up In The Air. He told us that he spends his life entertaining others, traveling for about 8 months each year. Most of that time is spent at resorts doing comedy, karaokee and bingo. It sounded like a pretty grueling regime with no days off since he was scheduled to entertain youngsters in the morning, teenagers around noon, host bingo in the afternoon, sing karaoke in the evening, and do stand-up late at night. He was finishing off a can of beer and said he won't do cruises because they have strict alcohol policies.
He tried one of his routines on us:
So I met this “cuddly” girl in Australia (you know, a little overweight) and I couldn't get rid of her. So I said, “Has anyone ever told you, that you are attractive”? And she kinda giggled and said, “No”. So I said, “There is probably a reason for that”.
He was really good with the kids who walked by, joking with them quite appropriately. Even though he was a very entertaining conversationalist, he also seemed a little sad. I pictured him waking up one day with regrets, realizing he had no lasting relationships. I wrote down that he had a kid back home that he never saw, but I can't remember if that was true or if that was part of the character I made up for him. His parting line to us was, "Look me up on Facebook!" It turns out with a name like Brad Summers, that is really hard to do.
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