Day #24 - Lourdes & Biarritz, France

Overlooking Lourdes

Overlooking the Sanctuary Site

Overlooking Lourdes

Wednesday, April 7th

Today was a wild day. Alot of ups and downs - but I'm sitting safely now in a hotel room in Biarritz, France (small southwest town on the France/Spain border) - so everything is good.

I got up around 8am and packed up for a 10am train to Toulosse, France. I gave myself time to run by the internet cafe - as things are getting heated with my home negotiations. So, when I arrived at the train station, I did not see my scheduled train on the boards. It was scheduled to leave at 10:12am and it was now about 9:55am. I immediately went to the information booth but nobody spoke English. I was panicking. What should I do?

There were about 25 people at the station. I got up and said: "Does anyone here speak English?" 23 of the 25 people didn't even blink. This was just noise to them. In the corner, however, an older couple looked up. They stared at me like: "What's this crazy guy want?" I saw that they were looking - so I went their way. Freshly -shaven and flashing a smile, I tried to look as unscary as possible and reach them before they had a chance to run away. These people were great - from Northern Ireland. We reminised about the good old days in Belfast. After a minute of cheap-talk, it was down to business. These people are like: "France is killing us. The trains are on strike today. Nobody here speaks English, and we have a flight to get to this afternoon" I'm like: "Wow - you and I are speaking the same language - what do we do." This guy was like: "I have the insides on a cab to Toulosse, $50 euro a head, you need in?" I asked him to hold on for a second. I wasn't in a time crunch like these people, so I wanted to see if my cancelled train ticket could somehow be used for later. This time around - a guy came out from the back and did speak English. He said there was a train going late tonight. I communicated this to the very nice couple. I almost went with them anyway just for the conversation. 50 euro for conversation - I'm not that desparate yet. I'll live to fight another day.

It's 10am and I've been informed that the next train leaves at 6:18pm. That means I'm in Lourdes for another day. That's OK - I'm flexible. I did change around my strategy for the next few weeks however. Instead of going east and making a clockwise approach to my travels through Spain and Portugal, I'm now going counterclockwise. Barcelona will now be at the end of my time in Spain.

What do I do with 8 hours in Lourdes again? First, I do my laundry. Way overdue. I make my way to the one and only laundromat in the town. Nobody spoke English. I get to the machines and it appears like I may need a doctorate degree to make this happen. A very nice older women working at the place comes my way. If you were a fly on the wall, this conversation must have been classic. She was desparately trying to help me, but I couldn't pick up a lick of what she was saying. Finally, when I would do something correct, I noticed she was saying, "Wa-la". Like when a magician finishes a trick, they will say, "Wa-la" This was making me crack up. Everytime I would hit the right button or did something good, she would say, "Wa-la". It was like I was a trained monkey or something. So, when I finished something, I started saying, "Wa-la" She got, that I got, what she was saying. We were both laughing at this point. This was a great moment in the day. I was kind of sour aftering my train experience, but this made it all better

After the laundry, I worked on the computer and then hit some more sites in the town. I climbed to the top of this castle, it was awesome. The day was rainy but seeing the misty clouds over the Pyrinees Mountain Range - was a site to see. I hauled my bag afterwhere, getting stronger.

My 6:18pm train left on time. But, about 30 mintues before we were to arrive at my destination, the train stopped at a station, turned off the engines, and said, "Everyone off - train strike" Woo - this is unbelievable that they can do this. I happened to meet a really cool girl from Poland. She spoke exceptional English. She stated how France is notorious for train strikes and also notorious for not speaking much English outside of Paris. Again - no worries, I just need to adapt better. I need to learn to speak French - and pronto. This was a partial strike. Some trains were running. I was able to catch another train 45 minutes later to get me to my destination this evening - Biarritz, France.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, as I don't know if the trains will be on strike or not. My goal is to somehow get over the border into Spain. No strikes in Spain - that's the word on the street. Hope to be coming to you from San Sebastian or Bilboa, Spain tomorrow.