Bern
Trying to get out of Barcelona was more then an ordeal. They have two sets of windows at the train station, one that organizes connections for you and another where you actually buy the ticket. The former can not see whether or not a train is sold out and the latter can not check how to get from Point A to Point B. This created a situation in which Nicole and i were forced to go back and forth from window to window until we found a connection that got us out of Barcelona. We were trying to get to Italy but when the only option was a 22 hour train ride that we “might” make all the connections for, we decided to cut it from the trip. We eventually got tickets to the town of Mullhouse where we would have to get another train to Bern, Switzerland. We got beds on a night train thinking that they would be comfortable enough to sleep through the train ride. Our compartment ended up being smaller then some closets i´ve been in with a total of 6 beds, 4 of which did not seem to be held up by anything more then seat belts. Nicole and i chose to fall asleep on the bottom bunks to avoid adding any extra weight to the already precarious beds. At some point in the night the door to our compartment opened at 4 French men came in wanting us to get off of their beds. There ended being a ticket confusion, made worse by the fact that we were half asleep and English. Nicole and i moved up to the top bunks just in time to see what must be the only obese person in all of Europe climb into the middle bunk. If we were still on the bottom beds i would have to worry about being crushed by this seat-belt-snapping man and Nicole would have had a perfect view of his ass crack, which i can only assume he was rather proud of. We decided to take a breather in Bern. After moving from country to country with barely enough time to catch our breath we thought that this quiet mountain town would be a perfect chance to recharge our batteries. Plus, after discovering that a McDonalds meal in Bern costs about $13 and there is no restuarant with an average menu price below $25 we thought buying some fruit at the grocery store and staying in would be the best idea. The hostel had a selection of movies but ultimately the only thing they had that interested us was various VHS copies of Friends episodes. We ate oranges, watched Friends and German MTV, and played Skip-Bo with two Australians. Next stop: Prague!
