Day 17: "You Guys Had the Right Idea With the Wine

We woke up to a gorgeous view out of our hotel window of someone elses backyard and several Texas-like buildings. So we quickly packed up our stuff in attempt to leave as soon as possible.

At the train station in Montpellier we tried to purchase the next ticket out of there, destination: Perpignan. Because the line was moving like an escargot, we attempted the ticket machines. Of course, this would have been to easy. None of the machines seem to like American credit cards. We were running around the station, with people attempting to help us, for about a half hour until we realized our train was due to depart shortly. We decided to do the unspeakable: board the train with NO ticket. Such rebels. AND, we sat in first class.

The whole ride, we held our breath as each person made their way past us in hopes that they were NOT the conductor. By the time we reached the second to last stop, we decided we were lucky enough to make it this far for free, so we might as well get off before we are charged extra for an onboard ticket. Bonjour Narbonne.

We bought tickets to Barcelona, but of course we had to wait four hours until our train. With much time to spare, we set out to find a beach. We rolled our luggage around for about ten minutes before we decided to ask someone which way we should actually be headed. He laughed and told us it was about 50km away. I guess that means we can't walk there. He offered us a ride on his bike. Seriously. Thanks, but no thanks.

We walked back to the station and entertained ourselves for hours with no ipod. We played the few songs that were saved on our phone. A boy asked if we had any family from the Netherlands because "he had seen us before." We tried to tell him that it was just because we were famous. I don't think he believed us.

After over two weeks of no iced coffee, I felt that all the spare time we had left would be enough to attempt at requesting this foreign drink. I tried to explain the concept to the man at the coffee bar, but he simply did not understand. So I asked for a coffee and a glass of ice. He gave me a weird look when I poured sugar into the glass of ice, but finally he understood when I poured the coffee in there. I may have started a revolution of ice coffee in France.

Finally it was time to bored the train. As we got on the train, we could not find a single unoccupied seat. This led us to another opportunity to make friends as we propped our suitcases on the floor and using them as seats. To add to this, we popped a bottle of wine to make the trip go a little faster. Four hours on the floor would not be so fun. To make even MORE friends, we started singing. A woman stood up and gave us a thumbs up. Success.

After a few stops we found two seats that were previously occupied by a woman and her cat. This is when we began our real concert. We started singing a variety of songs. A woman stood up and said "que bien" to us and began clapping along with her friend. We noticed a boy who had a guitar and we begged him to begin playing and we would be the lead vocals. Finally, he agreed and we started a sing-a-long with half the train car. We sang James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Jack Johnson, etc. Something for everyones entertainment. Multiple people took out their video cameras to tape this scene. Let's just say after a four hour train ride, we were sad for it to come to an end. Best train ride EVER.

Finally, we have reached our final destination: Barcelona. We dropped our bags in our hostel and set out to find some good (cheap) food. We found an area filled with Turkish food, and picked the best looking one (the one with the most people inside). It was really delicious (and cheap).

Then we headed back to the hostel, got dressed and headed out on our typical American companion finding mission. This was the most difficult one yet. Especially since everyone thinks we are locals, they don't seem to be too friendly until we start talking, it is the exact OPPOSITE reaction with the locals.

We snuck onto a bar crawl without paying the unaffordable 18 Euro. We got free drinks, we got into the clubs for free and met some great people. We are probably the most economical tourists around. It was a good night. Only problem is, Barcelona stays up too late and smokes inside way too much.

-J and C