A bus, a metro, an Airbnb, a plane, a hotel, a tram, a hotel, a taxi, another bus, a train. An unfortunate tale. For my second free weekend in Europe, myself and seven of my peers decided to book a trip to Bordeaux, France. On Thursday October 11th, 2018, we boarded a bus to Madrid. The bus ride was around four hours but our excitement to be in a new place made it pass by quickly. That night, we planned on staying in Madrid so we searched for a taxi from the tram station to the hotel but ultimately failed in finding one that would fit the eight of us. We headed across the street to the metro station and hopped on, heading toward the city center. Later, we went on a search for food. You would think that in a big city it would be a simple task to find a restaurant for dinner. You would be wrong. After searching the small streets around the Airbnb, we settled on a small pizza place. After dinner, we headed back to the Airbnb to get ready to explore the nightlife that Spaniards are famous for. We headed out at around 11:00 p.m. searching for a bar or club to have a drink at. Again, you would think this would be an easy task. Again, you would be wrong. We walked around the city for a couple hours and even waited in line for a club for a little while but eventually gave up and went back to the Airbnb for the night. The next day, we packed up our stuff and headed toward the city center. A while later, myself and two of my peers found ourselves at a small café for breakfast. The line went out the door and all the tables were full. We hopped in line and listened to the mixture of languages that hung in the air. An hour later, we were sitting at a small table with a steaming plate of eggs and avocado toast. This being the first time I had eggs in two weeks made it one of the best breakfasts I have had since coming to Europe. When we finished eating, we walked around the city for a little while until we found a less crowded café to do homework and rest in while we waited for our flight to Bordeaux. After four-ish hours of sitting in this café with all of our luggage, we hailed a taxi (this was quiet a process when looking for a taxi with five seats) and headed to the airport. At the airport, we discovered that all our luggage was too heavy so we layered up and condensed our suitcases. Once we finally made it to the gate, we found out that our flight was delayed by two hours. We settled in once again. That night, we finally made it to Bordeaux. I finally had the chance to shower (since there were no towels at our Airbnb in Madrid) and we all passed out. On Saturday morning, myself and three of my peers hopped on a tram and rode around the city. We happened upon a small carnival at the base of a fountain just outside the city center. Here, we got off the tram and began to walk around Bordeaux. While we were exploring, I noticed some people on the roof of an old building and wondered if we could have lunch there. We headed into the building, only to find out that it was a five-star hotel. When we got to the roof, we were seated at a table with an amazing view of the city. The waiter handed us the menu and we agreed to only get drinks (because it was all we could afford). The waiter came back to take our order but when we just asked for drinks he told us that we must be staying in the hotel if we weren’t going to order a meal. So, we took our college budget and damaged pride and headed back down to the streets where we found a small café. While we were sitting at a table on a plaza, the rest of our peers walked up and joined us. The group of us then headed out to explore more of Bordeaux. We ate a three-course meal, saw another main plaza, a few fountains, a Cathedral, some sketchy side streets, and grabbed some ice-cream on our way back to the hotel. That night, I headed to bed knowing that I had to catch a bus back to León at 4:00am. After about two hours of sleep, I woke up at 2:00am and packed up my things. My friends and I went outside to wait for our taxi to the bus station. While we were in the taxi, we quickly we realized that we were being ripped off. The meter increased by $0.10 every 15 seconds or so and our $20 taxi ride ended up being $40 (not to mention we almost died because of his reckless driving). When we got out of the taxi, we were confused as to what kind of bus station this was as it was just a parking lot off the highway. We waited. And waited. And waited. Thought we missed our bus. Then waited some more. The bus arrived half an hour late. When we finally boarded the oversized tour-style bus, we were greeted by the refreshing scent of dirty feet. Sure enough, as I walked back to one of the open seats, I spied the culprit of the stench (their bare feet propped up on an open seat). I took my seat and settled in for the eight-hour ride. After about an hour, the man sitting next to me fell asleep leaning against my right arm which promptly fell asleep. Eventually he woke up and moved over but fell back to sleep, leaning on me once again. After four sleepless and irritating hours, we stopped at a gas station and were forced to get off the bus for half an hour so the driver could take a break. When we boarded again, we were happy to find out the smelly foot bandit had transferred buses but not five minutes later, a child wet his pants and the driver had to mop it up, delaying us further. The last four hours were a blur of restless sleep and neck aches. Eventually we arrived in Valladolid where we waited for the train back to León. At this point we were more than delirious and I am pretty sure I fell asleep with my head down on a table in the café in the train station but that could be a hallucination. When I finally made it back to León, I pretty much ran home and collapsed in bed, exhausted from the weekend's mishaps.
1 Comment
Patricia Sargent
11/6/2018 10:10:47 am
Every experience both good and bad, will become memories you will look back on fondly. 😊💋
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