The first part of this process was loading the car onto the train. Before we got on the train, the car was checked for height to make sure it would fit. After the lady checking the car made a face and came up to us saying, "that's a large car, but we'll see how it goes". This didn't fill me with confidence. Nevertheless, when I got to the ramp, the guy that was there said the car should be fine, but to stay in the very center of the path down the carriage or it would damage the roof of the car. I had to drive the car onto the top level of the train and drive down 3 carriages along a very dark track which was about 2 feet wider than the car and about 15 cm taller than the car. All went smoothly and I stopped the car and got out and realised I had to walk back the way I had come, while other cars were coming forward. At one point I had to hang out of the side of the carriage to let a Mercedez get past, but managed to get out safely.
Our carriage was almost at the front of the train, so we headed all the way forward and climbed onto the train. To say that our cabin was cramped would be an understatement. The room was the size of a small bathroom with 2 sets of bunk beds, each barely the width of a towel and a gap between them only large enough for one person to stand between them. Basically if you wanted to be in the cabin, you had to be lying on the bed. I thought this would be ok as I would find the restaurant or bar area and spend most of the trip there when I wasn't sleeping. You can probably guess what happened....there was no restaurant or bar. Not even a kiosk from which to buy water or junk food. The toilets were not pleasant and the first one I went into - not long after the train left - had no paper.
I resigned myself to sleeping through the whole trip, but this proved very difficult. Firstly the beds are so tiny you can't get comfortable and then part of the way into the trip we realised the heating was on. This on a hot summer day and on a train where people sleep in their clothes. We had the door and the window both open and the cabin was still as hot as a sauna. Eventually I got out of bed as I couldn't stand the heat anymore and went and stood in the corridor with my head out the open window and noticed several other people doing the same thing. It turns out that the whole carriage was being heated, not just our room, so I decided to find the conductor and get him to turn it off. After looking everywhere, we couldn't find him and after about 20 minutes a conductor from one of the other cars was walking past and told us that our conductor was asleep in the last cabin and went to wake him up. After complaining to him, he told me the whole train was heated (which I knew wasn't true as I had walked through several cars trying to find him), but eventually went and turned it off. I asked him for some bottled water (which the other conductor had told me he could provide) and he told me he had none, then about 5 minutes later came and brought some to us. The mind boggles. I did manage to grab a few minutes sleep here and there, totaling maybe a few hours. When the sun finally came up, the views were spectacular, steep hills and deep gorges, long tunnels and glistening lakes. If I wasn't so sore and tired I would have enjoyed it more, but it is amazing country.
When we arrived, it was a simple matter of driving the car down the ramp, loading up and onto the road. As we drove along the coast, I began to realise why so many people from all over Europe come here to spend their holidays. The water looks amazing and the mountains seem to rise straight out of the water, with ancient ruins and monastaries and small villages perched in seemingly impossible locations. Walking into our apartment and looking out the windows was a revelation. Our front door is literally 5 meters from the water. Here are the photos.
The view from our kitchen windows:
The view from the balcony:
And finally, the view from my shower....yes, my shower has it's own window.
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I'm surprised you're surprised by the conductor's ... er ... conduct.
ReplyDeleteEurope is magnificent and people are amazing, friendly, hospitable in every way. But you do encounter more of that don't-give-a-sh!t-itude too.
What surprised me was the difference between the conductor on the next carriage - very helpful and friendly, but upset that he had to do the other guy's job - and ours. In a country with such high unemployment you would expect that people who were really good at their jobs would be the ones employed, but there are still plenty of the old guard in jobs which are/were theirs for life so they don't HAVE to be good. This is all changing slowly and I guess more and more people will be hired on merit as this older generation vacates these positions.
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