Trains, Trains and Trains

Day 109
I was up early, I had to be. It was going to take me all day to get to Nice, France. I would have liked to spend more time in Switzerland but it was really expensive and my budget had already taken enough of a hit. Switzerland was just about my favorite place so far and I know that I will return some day.

To get to Nice I needed to spend about 10 hours on five different trains. All the quick connections were booked up so I was stuck with local trains. I spent the rides to Bern and Geneva writing in my journal.

When I got to Geneva I had about 6 minutes to connect to my train to France. I was really sore from the day before and just not able to move quickly with all of my bags weighing me down and I missed it. I figured that it wouldn't be a big deal, there is always a later train. After checking with the reservations people I found out that I might not be able to get to Nice because everything was booked up. I was told to check in Marseilles.

I wasn't really nervous, I had begged my way on trains before and I was pretty sure that this would work out too. Still, it was in the back of my mind as I waited for immigration to open up. While I was waiting I met an American guy who was obviously very hungover and still drinking. He had lost his passport and was hoping that they would let him in with just a copy. In the end, they told him to get lost or show them him passport. My scheduling issue didn't seem so bad.

In Lyon I went ahead and checked to see if there was anything that had opened up. Fortunately a train was about 10 minutes late and I could get on it to Marseilles and then pick up the local train I was meant to get from the beginning. It's a miracle in France.

When I got to Nice it was still light out and I had no problems finding my hostel. Well, that is the restaurant that I was told to ask for the pink lady at. The pink lady (who always wore pink dresses better suited for a night club) and her friend (the blue lady?) were first hand witnesses to the French revolution. Coincidentally, that was the same time that the hostel was last cleaned. This place was gross, the dirtiest I'd been at yet. I was too tired to try and find a solution though and knew that I would rather pay the smaller price anyway. It was only 7 nights, how bad could that be?