Day and Night of Day 9

Art and I checked out of our hotel first thing in the morning and went over to Hunters flat for breakfast and to say goodbye. We headed for the grocery store to stock up for our long day of travel. We bought cheese, wine and lots of chocolate for our 6+ hour train ride to Genoa, Italy. We said goodbye to our dear friend Hunter. Jon and Kelly took us to the train station in Toulouse where we said goodbye to them. We found our seats and began our journey to Italy. We were both looking forward to good food, good wine and peaceful lemon groves. We road the train all day and as the evening came about one hour before our arrival I began to poke around our map and guide book. I felt like maybe something wasn't right about how quickly it took us to get to Italy from France and sure enough we realized that we were on wrong train headed to Geneva Switzerland not Genoa, Italy. Let me quickly explain that first of all they don't put the country name on the ticket so its not like we weren't paying attention and the second thing is they use different names and spellings then we do for cities so we both thought that this must be how they spell Geneva but really mean Genoa. So we both looked it over and confirmed the direction that we had traveled was the wrong way from where we wanted to go. We decided that when we got to the train station we would purchase new tickets to Italy or worse case scenario we would stay in a hotel for the night and take the train in the morning.

We arrived at the train station at 9pm. Our first stop was the Internet cafe so we could look up the train schedule and see what our options were. We of course didn't realize that we were in Switzerland now and needed new money, because they don't use the Euro. So we had to find an ATM to get enough money to use the computer. We found the train schedule and the only thing they had available was a train that would transfer 3 or 4 times and what would take a normal 6 hour trip would take 12+ hours on the night train. So we decided to go with plan B and look for a hotel. As soon as we left the train station we were hit with the sadness of this downtown: prostitutes walking the street, drunk men throwing up and small gangs of men in the streets calling out to us. Of course we looked like prime targets with our backpacks on walking through the city. We found a few hotels only to find they were booked. So we kept walking only to find more hotels that were booked. Finally an English speaking woman explained to us that there was a political convention and a car show happening that night and we would not be finding any hotel with an open room. We asked for directions to the youth hostel and after walking 12 blocks we found out that of course they were full too. I sat down in the hostel and cried out of frustration and feeling forgotten that my prayers were not heard. We decided to go back to the station to see what else we could do to get out of this town. When we arrived all the ticket counters were closed and the only way you could buy a ticket was with a machine and it would only let you purchase a ticket for inside of Switzerland, which was the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. So it was decided we would sleep at the train station and wait for the ticket booth to open at 5:45 am. We decided to go back into the city and see what we could find to do for the night but Europe unlike America does not do 24 hour anything. All the fast food places were closed, we spent 20 minutes at an Internet cafe until it closed and kicked us out. We walked around as much as we felt comfortable and then back to the train station to make ourselves a camp. We found a nice little corner where we moved a few tables and fake trees around so we couldn't be seen. We would both take turns reading while the other one slept. The other not so wonderful thing about Europe is that they don't have public bathrooms available and this town especially had none! So Art being a man was able to find a spot to go but me on the other hand had no where to go so I just stopped drinking any beverages for the rest of the night. We were doing great until about 1:00am when a police officer informed us that we couldn't stay in the station because it was closing. What? closing? Where were we to go now? So we put on a few more layers of clothes and went downstairs to the outside mall. We sat down on the marble floor and I pulled out my towel to sit on and Art and I snuggled together hoping no one would see us or try to talk to us. That didn't last for the long. The drunks stated coming out. Our first "friend" was a really drunk French man who kept asking us if we wanted to smoke. He then sat down with us and fell asleep, every time he would wake up he would ask us if we spoke french and if we wanted a cigarette and each time we would giggle and tell him no thanks. I did appreciate the comic relief he added for the night. The second friend we met was a man from England! English we were so excited! He was in the same situation as us traveling alone and ended up in the wrong town and was unable to find a hotel. We talked with him about his life and appreciated having another set of eyes and protection if needed. Next came a really drunk Irish man who told us he hated England and then tried to fight our English friend but passed out on the ground before he got there. There were a few other drunks that tried talking to us but never stayed to our relief. It was quite an eventful night.

When the clock hit 5:30am and we decided to go see if the Starbucks was open for coffee, something to eat and a bathroom. We walked over to the coffee shop to find that they didn't open until 9:30 am! What?! What kind of a coffee shop opens so late! Back to the train station to wait for the gates to be raised so we could go back in. We were finally let in by the same night guard and we went to go buy our train ticket. We were first in line! When we went to the window they told us that the system was down and the tickets were not printing and to check back in 20 minutes. So we found a coffee shop that was open so we could go to the bathroom. In exactly 20 minutes we were back at the window only to find it was still down this happened three more times. Our train was to leave at 7:07 am and it was 6:50 am and we did not have a ticket in our hands! I prayed that the Lord would please get us out of that town and when we went back the fifth time the ticket agent told us no again. I asked him if he could write one out and he did...how crazy is that! We got our ticket and ran upstairs and boarded our train to Genoa, Italy. We were both so exhausted and glad to get our of there!