How to Get to Madrid...in 17 Easy Steps!

After my last entry, packed up my laptop and headed for the train station. My bus was supposed to leave at 10:15p and I wanted to be there early. So I sat at the station cafe and passed the time. When it was around 9:30, I headed over to where the bus would pull in and camped out. 10:00...10:15...10:30...no bus. There were only a handful of people hanging around and none of them spoke English. At 11:00, I gave up and figured the bus wasn't coming. Time for plan B...oh, wait...there is no plan B!!! So I crossed the street and checked into the hotel there (luckily not too expensive). They had free Wi-Fi, so I surfed to check train schedules. There seemed to be an 8:20 train, but it wouldn't let me book. After checking into rental cars (not a single car to be had in Narbonne) I figured I would get up early, buy a ticket at the station and be on my way. I slept fitfully through the night - it turns out things are noisy across from the station -and awoke early. After a quick shower (and dragging my 2 dreadfully heavy bags back downstairs) I was in line at the ticket window. But, alas, the train was sold out. Now I knew why it wouldn't work over the internet. So I considered options and decided to try and get to Barcelona. Back to the ticket line. When I made it to an agent, she told me that she couldn't book tickets for Barcelona because the train was set to leave in less than 10 minutes. However, if I talked to the conductor, I might get on. At about this point, an American man popped to the front of the line and said he was trying the same thing. So we sprinted out to the platform to find the conductor. He spoke no English, but he made it readily clear we weren't going to be getting on that train. So we headed back to ticket line for a third try. The ticket agent was very nice and laid out a plan for us. She could book us tickets to Cerbère, which is the last city in France before Spain. She could also book us tickets from Port Bou (the first city over the border in Spain) to Barcelona. We would just need to find a way over the mountains between the two cities. At this point Jamie and I were game for about anything, so we took it. The ride to Cerbère was relatively short and we went about finding a taxi. Turns out there were several other guys from Mexico City trying the same angle as us. We shared a cab over the mountains and found ourselves at Port Bou. Jamie spoke some Spanish and managed to get us a train to Barcelona an hour before the agent had booked us. A quick croissant and coke and we were on the train again. Barcelona station was a pretty intense place. You have to go through security to get on and off the platforms, not to mention the shock of all of the Spanish after weeks of French! After meandering for a while through the station, I found the correct window to buy a ticket to Madrid (the agent in France was unable to book this leg for me). Upon reaching the window, the lady immediately starting bawling me out for having 3 bags (only 2 were allowed) and told me I couldn't board the train with all of them. I talked as sweetly as I could, and eventually she sold me a ticket, but warned me they still may not let me board. At this point, I was willing to take my chances. Jamie and I parted ways (he was headed to Ibiza) and I went to brave security. Turns out, no one batted an eye at me. I lugged my bags on board and settled in for the 3 hour ride. The train had a readout that showed current speed, and most of the time we were travelling at 300 km/h (about 180 mph). Off the train, into a taxi and I arrived at the Cat's Hostel, my home for the next week.