| Another train day... And the employees were about as outdated as this typewriter! |
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| Erin's San Sebastian Journals 6-21-02, Part 1 Today we planned to head over to Hendaye, where we were to catch the train to Milan (via Paris...I know, don't ask). First we got up a little earlier than the previous few days, which was made easier by the fact that we'd crashed early the night before. So by 8:30, we were getting ready to get up and start packing. I showered, then packed while Glenn followed suit. We were both pretty much packed and ready by 10am, but didn't have to leave till 11am (checkout time), so we ate some oranges for breakfast before paying and clearing out. We walked straight to the main train station in San Sebastian, to make our reservations for the Paris-Milan trip, and took a number. We waited...and waited...and waited... It was so ridiculous! There were 4 categories of numbers, the most important being those who were leaving within the next 30 minutes. Then you had the phone reservation category, which we figured didn't apply to us. We had taken the 'venta anticipata' category, which was for those leaving any time other than the next 30 minutes. There was also a category for information, but we had already done that the day before and knew which trains we wanted to book. So after waiting about 45 minutes, we saw that only one employee was helping all categories except information. And any time someone picked up a ticket for immediate departure, that number series would show up next, no matter what he'd been doing before. So soon, we see that there are other backpackers going up and trying to reserve tickets for Barcelona, etc., for departures tonight (all booked) or even days later, and the guy was helping them! Remember, these numbers should only have been for people leaving within the next 30 minutes. Meanwhile, none of the numbers in our category are running at all, and we've been there for an hour now. We weren't the only ones to notice this scam, so after watching person after person do this, we finally said screw it, we'll do it too. So we got an immediate departure number and waited. Sure enough, we were up at the window within 10 minutes. Only the guy didn't speak any English and was apparently sick of trying, because he refused to understand that we knew which trains we wanted and kept telling us to go to the information window to find out what trains were running tonight. We kept trying to make him understand that we'd already done that, but he quickly gave up and angrily shut his blinds! Well after his rudeness and our own frustrations of waiting for so long, now fruitlessly, we angrily went and got a number for the info window. The guy who'd 'helped' us went on break right after that, so we had to wait for the numbers to start up again anyway. We still had the first number we'd taken, but after going to the information window (after another 15 minute wait), we were provided with the same schedule we'd had from yesterday and the numbers still weren't running for the reservation line. Extremely angry at having wasted 2 hours of the only sunny day we'd had in San Sebastian, we planned to go to the regional train station that would take us more slowly to Hendaye and book our trip there. To hell with San Sebastian!!! Just as we were putting our bags on, the numbers started running again at the window next to the one we'd been kicked off, and as it was now almost 2 hours after we'd gotten our number, most of the people with numbers in front of ours had either left or gotten lucky with the other scheme. So we decided to wait a little longer to see if we could reserve after all. So after another 30 minutes, we finally got up to the window. I went this time, as Glenn was frustrated and we hoped my pitiful Spanish would help in the transaction. I showed the clerk our schedule of trains (from info) and said we wanted to reserve 2 tickets for tonight. First, he told me that he could only book the Hendaye to Paris section, and that the Paris to Milan part would have to be booked at Hendaye. Fine, I said. Then, he played with his computer a bit, and told me he couldn't even book the Hendaye to Paris part, as his computer wasn't connecting. So he booked us 2 tickets to Hendaye - for 9pm! Our train for Paris would leave Hendaye at 11:15pm, so we didn't want to leave it to chance that it would be booked by then. We angrily gathered our stuff and went back to Plan B, getting out of San Sebastian right now and heading to Hendaye to book the tickets. So we did. We caught a slower train, but it got us there just fine and was cheaper. We arrived there, booked our whole trip, and were eating lunch only 90 minutes after leaving San Sebastian. That's how easy the whole thing should have been! The Spanish train system is HORRIBLE!!! (Rant not continued next page) |
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