Sunday, September 2, 2012

Radio Silence, part four - "I Like Trains"

Thursday was not a great day.

We were supposed to leave our hotel at 8:00 to make our 8:20 train immediately next door. Okay, if you say so, Kristy. Unfortuantely, it took Gavin and I almost ten minutes to get our deposits for the room keys back (Gavin actually just went without his) so by the time we made our way to the train it was too late. It was still two minutes early and we could SEE the train on the platform but they still refused to let us on.

Frustrated, defeated, sweaty as anything, we set off to try and remedy our dilemma. The ticket taker at the gate sent us to one desk, who sent us to another desk, who sent us to a line, who sent us to a different building (at which point I deposited my luggage with Gavin outside so we weren’t hauling ALL of our stuff up and down stairs) where I was in the wrong line so I was sent back to the line I’d just come from in the first building, where I went, and was told “next train leaves tomorrow, standing tickets only.” Standing for twenty six hours? Alright. I called Kristy to confirm and she was furious but accepted our plan. So I went back in and swapped our sleeper tickets for standing tickets.

Then Gavin and I had to find another hotel room. The first several we found were full. The only lodging we could find was at a rather posh hotel. It was almost a hundred dollars for the night but split between two exhausted, sweaty, frustrated foreigners: that was nothing.

The rest of the day was mostly napping and reading and watching Netflix (yes, we had the internet but I was a little too overwhelmed to write. Don’t be mad mom). Besides, we had to get up much earlier the next day to ensure we didn’t have the same trouble.

No comments:

Post a Comment