I'm early today, but I'm about to leave for Pau. This is most likely the last internet access I'll have for a couple of days. Today I basically did nothing. I slept until almost noon and then we sat around and watched the tele (British for TV). Later, we got a ride over to Danny's house. We watched the tele. Then Danny's mother made us a really fantastic dinner of chicken, peas and carrots, mashed potatoes, and gravy.
 |
| The view of Danny's back "garden". You may notice that there is an awful lot of concrete in this "garden". I think people here hate the environment. |
Hopefully I make it to Pau without incident, and I can post tomorrow night. BYE!
EDIT:
So last night turned into quite an adventure. My first train (Warrington-Manchester) was only slightly delayed and I arrived without any issue. My second train (Manchester-London) was delayed about 35 minutes. This led to the highlight of the evening. I sat across from a table of extremely raucous business persons. They told me I was only allowed to sit there if I participated in their conversation. (It is worth noting that at this point, they had no idea I was an American, otherwise, I'm sure they would have just ignored me, or changed seats, or taken a different train, or fled the country or something.) They proceeded to start handing me beers, and I ended up having a great time with them. I didn't take a picture of this event. Bad decision. Once I got to London I missed my train to Victoria station so I had to take a bus. The man said, take the N73 (N stands for "night", and 73 stands for "don't get lost in some really dodgy area in London") bus to Victoria sation and pointed in a direction. What he didn't tell me is all of the N37 buses are going the same direction at Euston station. So I ended up going the wrong way on the bus, and got kicked off at the end of the line in some really dodgy area in London. But the nice bus driver kindly told me where I could wait for an N73 going the right way. He lied. After a while, I realized there wasn't going to be an N73 bus where I was waiting. So I decided to find a real stop. Those good news is, people in that neighborhood typically walk around with packed back packs, trumpet cases, and smaller back packs all at once, so I blended right in. Anyway, I finally got to Victoria Station and got a train to Gatwick Airport in London. From this point on everything went fine. I have decided that Europeans are better than us at most things, e.g., airline ticketing, airport security, trains, designing/building airplanes, coffee(I had the best Starbucks of my life in London), being environmentally conscious, without making a huge scene.
Sorry that was so long.
Stuff like that happens when you travel, because there are hundreds of possibilities for things to go wrong, and even if the chances of any one of those things happening is very small, the cumulative probability is pretty high. Sounds like you handled it really well. Be glad you were in an English-speaking country. We're enjoying reading about your adventures. Keep 'em coming.
ReplyDeleteAlso. U probably know this, but in addition to the route or line #, most trains & busses in Europe indicate the last stop in the direction they're travelling. The only problem is that you have to know which "last stop" is in the direction you want to go. Best to know this in advance, but don't hesitate to ask if you're not certain.
ReplyDeleteNo, this wasn't too long. A good travel story to share. It sounds as if your companions were happy to have you join them even after learning you are an American.
ReplyDeleteSo, this is the full story of you comment that you were directed to the wrong bus in the wee hours of the morning. Even a simple excursion like getting to the airport can be an adventure in unfamiliar surroundings. I daresay that this was the first of many such adventures to follow in the coming months.