Fool me twice? I’m a idiot.
Two interesting things happened today.
First, I figured out why the ticket people were laughing at me yesterday. They sold me a ticket from Sevilla to Madrid, instead of Madrid to Sevilla. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I cannot imagine how they would expect me to get to Sevilla in time to take a train back to Madrid. Especially when the train stations were closing. GRRR. I hope she dies alone. Just kidding.
I went to purchase the rest of my tickets this morning, and the super super helpful guy at the counter noticed the mistake and corrected it. He also helped book my return ticket, my sleeper trains to and from Lisbon, and then a train to San Sebastien. Except we made one small mistake which I will get fixed when I get back to Madrid (he booked the train from Madrid to San Sebastien before I actually arrive back to Madrid from Lisbon). I seriously need to pay more attention to these things.
Lessons learned? Always check your tickets. ESPECIALLY when the people selling you the tickets are laughing.
Now, the second “interesting” thing that happened today has more to do with my sheer stupidity. On the way to Sevilla the train stopped for about 20 minutes, and the power went off. I assumed the train was having trouble, so at 3:18 when the train stopped (when it was supposed to arrive), I assumed it was a station early. But just to make sure I got off the train and asked someone working there. I obviously don’t speak Spanish, but he pointed to the train, and gestured forward. I thought this meant I was supposed to get back on the train. I was wrong. As we rolled away from the station, I looked up and saw a sign. Sevilla. I missed my stop. One transfer and two and a half hours later, I arrived back in Sevilla.
I’m such an idiot.
Lesson two: When your train is scheduled to arrive at 3:18 and it is 3:18, look for a sign and get off the train. It wasn’t too, too much of a hassle to backtrack… but it could have been a disaster.
But I’m here now. In the hostel. Sevilla is like a sauna, but I like it.
Oh yeah, when I was checking in the woman “accidentally” shorted me on my change. Ten Euros, but I figured it out before I peaced out. I’m going to assume it was an accident.
Food time.
Madrid was a big city. Really big. And I liked it.
I stayed at a hostel (hostelworld classifies it as a guesthouse for some reason, but it really is a hostel) called Sant Jordi, and it was outstanding. Great people, great rooms. A little hot, but they are installing air conditioning which will be complete the day I leave. Ha ha.
The first night I walked around the city and snapped some photos. It was fun, and I was hanging around with some pretty awesome people. Nothing too exciting happened, but the hot night air was really cool. He he.
The next day I made some chill friends and we went to see the Royal Palace and had ice-cream afterwards. The palace forbid photography…
… and the ice-cream was probably the best ice-cream I’ve ever had. Jesse - one of the people I was with - has a similar itinerary to me and wants to go to Greece as well. And now that I have someone to travel with, the 22 hour ferry won’t be as bad. So your decision to send me there is going to work out well (after Italy, of course).
We had some really weird experiences this evening. Jesse was taking a night train to Lisbon tonight so I tagged along since I had some train tickets to buy. On the metro a Spanish man was starring at us awkwardly, and then decided to talk.
“Where are you from!?”
“Uhhhhhhh…” “… Canada.” Jesse is American.
I piped in “Yeah. We’re from Vancouver.”
“Oh. Well, you’re still speaking English. But I like Canada.” The man’s body language became less aggressive. “You’re less violent.”
“Mhm.”
“And I like how you are multi-cultural. Less of a melting pot.”
“Mhm.”
“I was on the train the other day and these two girls from Quebec were speaking French. I had no idea what they were saying. I thought they were speaking Czech.”
“Mhm.”
He eventually got off the train. It’s funny that the whole “I HATE AMERICAN” attitude really does exist in Europe. Now I’m not going to make make generalizations because that would be extremely hypocritical, but there are certainly some people who hold it. I’d say they are a small minority, but they certainly make their presence known. I guess I understand why many Canadians travel with Canadian flags. Maybe I’ll iron mine onto my bag tomorrow.
It’s really weird though. The whole anti-american thing is EXTREMELY hypocritical. Generalizing all Americans as ignorant or whatever is just as ignorant as Americans are said to be. And extremely ironic. Honestly though, I’ve only met one “stereotypical” American throughout all of my life’s travels, and he wasn’t even that bad. Le sigh.
When I got to the train station I had a situation of my own. I was in line to buy a ticket, and the “take a number” machine wasn’t working. I went up to a person working there and said “Hola! Hable ingles?” [Hey there. Do you speak English].
“No speak English.”
So I pointed to the ticket Machine that wasn’t working, and said “No Bilettas.”
In perfect English, she replied “That’s because we are closing in thirty minutes. Do you have a phone? You should call our ticket reservation line and come back tomorrow. Or you can go on the internet and book your tickets there. Sorry.”
No English? Excuse me? I decided to take this opportunity and lie myself. I had found an expired “number” on top of the dispenser and picked it up. It was 904 and the machine was calling 905.
I held out my ticket “Sorry. I missed my number.”
“Didn’t you hear it?”
“No. Sorry. I don’t speak Spanish.”
“Well, you are going to have to come back tomorrow.”
So I turned around and went to the information desk. Moments later she walked up to me and ushered me to another line, and a man sold me my ticket. He certainly made the process difficult, and was not smiling. She was talking to him in Spanish the entire time and they kept looking at me and laughing. It was really awkward, and I had no idea what was going on. It’s unlikely that they were talking about me… but still. It’s certainly a story worth sharing.
Did it ruin my trip? Not in the slightest. All I learned was that woman is a bitch… ha ha… and it was stupid to wait until 8:30 to buy my tickets.
