Second Screw-Up

"He took the midnight train going anywhere..."

I can now relate to that song. So I went on the wine tour and it was alright. I was hoping it was a more tasting-orientated class - as in they would teach you about the differences of wine, etc. It was more of a how-wine-is-made tour. Our first stop was Chateau La Tour Blanche. We went through a tour and tasted this very sweet wine called a Sauternes. It wasn't desert wine, so it was supposed to be drank from a full glass. It was just too sweet for me to enjoy unforuntately.

The second place we went to was the Chateau Magneau. We tried two whites - one that was oak barrel aged and one that was not - in order to tell the difference. It was really amazing how different it was. We then tried a red, what they called a Grave Rogue. That was also quite good.

So my original plan was to take the wine tour, return to the hostel, grab my bags, go to the train station and take a train to Tolousse, France and spend the night there. In the morning I planned on departing from Tolousse to Barcelona.

The problem I ran into was that once I arrived in Toulousse at 10:30 PM, I found out that the hostel was full. Not just for that ngiht, but for the next night, and the night after that, and the night after that, etc. This presents quite a serious problem since there is only one hostel in Tolousse. So I decided that I had three options. Drink coffee and read my book till 5 something when the train leaves, dump 35 Euros on a one star hotel with a good view of some hookers, or take a midnight train going anywhere and figure it out in the morning (remember that I have an unlimited Eurail pass). Option one was quickly out of the question because I found out the station closed at 1 AM. So the only two train that were overnight were to Paris and to Nice. Nice is a coastal town on the French Riviera. I chose Nice.

The only problem with the midnight train to Nice was that it required advance booking. Something that is obviously not in my vocabulary. So I got in the line with all of the people with booking tickets and waved my Eurail pass. There was some brief confusion, but they ultimately let me pass to the station. Once at the station, I had to be the first person to ask the conducter if I could purchase a bed reservation otherwise all else would be lost (or so I thought). The train finally arrived after listening to some Italian women shout at eachother for a half an hour (the thing is...they were never fighting, they were just talking). I run up to the train manager and he says that there is no beds left. But as I turn around he says that there are seats on the last car of the train, and I quickly find my way to them to say the least.

The thing with a sleeper car is that they are not going to check your reservation and wake you up, so that's why they check your ticket before you go to the station. Therefore, I got a reclining seat to Nice for free. It was pretty hard to sleep on the train and I forget what really happened. It was all a daze. But I did end up in Nice at 9 this morning and followed some guys I met from Colorado to the nearest hostel.

So today I went to the beach on the French Riviera. It sounds really nice, huh? Well, the whole beach is made out of large stones so it makes it difficult to walk, relax or do any kind of movement you are typically accustomed to at the beach. Plus, you're constantly surrounded by RWA's (rich white...I'll let you figure out the last word) and their overpriced restaurants. But there are some pretty women here, I guess that's a plus. There is quite a constrast evident because you'll walk past the boutiques where all the rich people are shopping, and then right into the poor section of town where you're staying. No matter how fancy of a place I may go, I don't think anything will beat going to Atlantic City or Bethany Beach with the family.

I plan on spending two nights here and then taking an overnight train to Barcelona (where the sand is apparently sandy) after that.