6:00 am- Pay for a train to get to a metro station. Do not realize that we can use our Eurail pass to avoid this fare.
6:15 am- Arrive at metro station. Pay fare to get to another train station.
6:30 am- Arrive at train station. Are informed that there is a train strike in France and we cannot get to Nice the way we had planned. Nobody seems to have any information, so we take a train to a town at the border between Spain and France.
10:07 am- Arrive in Portbou, where there are many cops inside the train station. A man tells us the only way to get into France is by taxi, so we begin wandering.
10:30 am- Realize we are in a beautiful town right on the sea. Find a tourist information office and the lady there speaks English! She calls a taxi for us, so we continue to wander in search of food.
11:15 am- Find a restaurant willing to serve us this early.
11:45 am- Go back to the beach and practice skipping stones.
12:10 pm- Taxi arrives, and we take it for 10 euros with a young couple from California who had also been stranded. They had to hop through hotels all night without sleeping. We casually drive through the border into France with no notice except a small sign.
12:30 pm- Arrive in Cerbere, another beautiful time. The taxi driver tells us a bus for 1 euro will come at 1:30 to take us to Perpignan, a train station that can connect us to Nice. We wait on the beach and continue skipping stones.
1:30 pm- No bus. An older French couple calls the company and finds out that the bus does not run today or tomorrow. They call a taxi to go to Perpignan, and tell us it will be 20 euros each. We tell them we cannot afford that, so they offer to pay half of our fare.
1:45 pm- Taxi arrives and we drive through gorgeous scenery.
2:45 pm- Arrive at the train station. There is nobody at the information booth, so we wander.
2:55 pm- There is someone at the booth, and she speaks English! She plans out an itinerary for us with a few connections to get to Nice for free by 1:00 am.
3:00 pm- Get on our first train, which is supposed to leave any minute.
3:20 pm- Are told that the train is delayed until 3:40.
3:40 pm- Set off for Nimes!
5:55 pm- Arrive in Nimes. Look at schedule and realize that the bus to the center station in Avignon (our next stop) leaves in 5 minutes.
5:56 pm- Run to bus stop.
6:00 pm- Get on bus. A lady keeps talking sternly to Colleen in French but she is completely clueless.
6:45 pm- Get to the station. Eat baguettes because apparently they are all Europeans eat. Run to a shuttle to connect to another station.
7:15 pm- Take bus to station. Begin to understand why people do not bring suitcases on these types of trips as we run inside.
7:30 pm- Stop at information booth where they tell us it is impossible to get to Nice tonight. Settle on going to Marseilles because at least it is in the right direction.
7:40 pm- Run out of water.
7:45 pm- Realize we need a reservation for the Marseilles train. Beg a station worker (who looks like Owen from Grey's Anatomy) and the conductor to let us on. Almost kiss them both when they say yes.
7:50 pm- Leave on Marseilles train. A woman tells us that we cannot get to Nice for at least another few days by train because something collapsed and there are stones covering the tracks.
8:15 pm- Laugh so hard that we cry because of how unfortunate this has been.
8:30 pm- Ask at the Marseilles station if there is any possible way to get to Nice. A lady tells us there will be a bus. Colleen searches for a bathroom, only to find that they close at 8.
9:00 pm- Find bus. Make friends with a woman from Germany and a man from Taiwan who also need to go to Nice. Find out that the bus driver will not go to Nice and we have to end at Cannes, which is 6 miles away. Push our way on because it is utter chaos. Our friend from Germany doesn't make it.
9:27 pm- Depart on the bus. Everyone cheers.
10:00 pm- Couple in front of us tells us that the entire trip will take about 2.5 hours.
11:00 pm- Bus reaches Toulon and we realize that the bus driver doesn't know where he's going and the passengers are giving him directions.
12:15 am- Stop for a bathroom break.
1:30 am- Bus driver announces that he needs to take his 45 minute break. We are told that we are 10 minutes away from Cannes. We run inside and beg for a taxi. Colleen buys some sort of rice meal.
2:15 am- Take taxi and beg the driver to go fast because our hostel locks at 3.
2:55 am- Run into hostel. The man feels bad for us and changes our reservation to a private room. We now have wifi and cable in our room, along with our own balcony and bathroom for the same price. We refrain from crying out of sheer joy. Then Colleen realizes she has been eating tuna.
Moral of the story: no matter how many people tell you it's impossible to get somewhere, there is always a way. Also, France seems to be full of bad luck.
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