Night Train

So even with 5 days to make plans, we didn`t buy our tickets to San Sebastian until the last minute. We planned on taking the night train to save some money on hotels and some time. We only had a choice of buying 1st class seats or a 2nd class couchette sleeper. They were both about the same price and the guy at the counter suggested that riding in the first class seats was better than being packed into a tiny compartment with 6 people in beds. I agreed, so first class it was.

Now, I know everybody has an idea what first class means to them. Free champagne and choclates, perhaps a butler (I wasn`t really expecting this but I was expecting some manner of luxury) It wasn`t terrible, but a bit dirty with a crapy bathroom nearby. We expected a little more. I couldn`t help but wonder what the regular class was like. No worries, only about 9 hours to endure and at the moment we had the 6 person carraige to ourselves. We were relaxing and about an hour later another person got into our carriage. We exchanged respectful hellos and all tried to settle in. After about another hour we all had two seats to ourselves and were laying down in the dark trying to get some sleep. Hey, this isn`t too bad. Í felt the train stop again and we prayed that nobody was coming into our car. The chattering and noise got louder and stopped in front of our door then all hell broke loose.

The door opened and we all sat upright and clicked the lights on to make room for what arrived. It was an older bedouin couple from Yemen just chattering away at the top of their lungs. We were half-dazed from sleep and this was quite a rude awakening. They spent about 5 minutes arguing over the suitcase while it was on my foot. `Yeah dude, just put it up in the lugage rack, that is where it goes.` Now as they sat down still talking non-stop, I noticed they were on the phone, long distance or something with cousin Faesal. They had the phone away from their ears just yelling into it. Brooke and I were exchanging horrified glances with each other and the other guy in our carriage. The phone conversation lasted at least 15 minutes, but when they were off the chattering continued. This was quite a poor turn of events, but nothing to do but sit back and suffer.
The talking eased off just a bit as time went on and we may have even dozed off for a bit. When we got to Pampalona, the conductor came by and announced it and the giant signs outside stated that we were in Pampalona. The bedouin woman must have repeated Pampalona, Pampalona like 50 times to Brooke, yes woman, this is clearly Pampalona. All our roomies got off a bit later and we were able to sleep horizontally for about 2 hours for the final leg into San Sebastian. Next time we are flying.