Honestly not a whole hell of a lot happened in Malaga that is worth writing about. So feel free to skip to the photo of me with my tongue out and the caption “this is where shit gets epic” if you just want to read what, I feel, is a throughly entertaining and purposeful slew of events.

I did meet back up with the two girls from England that I met while hiking in Granada. After having Sangria on the roof  of the hostel we went out to dinner together. We all ordered food, I went to the ATM to get some more cash for the next couple of days, when I got back to the table things had taken a turn for the worse.

I guess the girls wanted tapas and we’re getting full rations of everything they ordered. It was an absolute shit load of food, the girls were pissed and I was just caught in the wicked crossfire of them arguing in rapid Spanish with the waiter about what they had ordered. The server held strong that they were the ones who had fucked it all up because they didn’t specify “tapa”, to be honest I was on the servers side, they fucked up tuff. But I kept my mouth taught. All through dinner the girls were all put out and pissed off, they said they weren’t going to pay for their food…My meal arrived and I happily mowed it down,drank my wine, and payed for what I ordered. It wasn’t the best dinner vibe I have had yet, to put it nicely.

I throughly wanted to rid myself of these chicks, but also wanted to be polite. So I said lets join the pub crawl, we did, but it still felt like I was all wrapped up in a wet blanket of sour emotions with these chicks, they wouldn’t let the restaurant thing go…So we called it an early night and I walked them back.

The next morning I took a walking tour… It was okay but I was just pretty tired, went to lunch with a bunch of people afterwards, which was bomb. We got so much damn food it was great. Then I went to the beach, I feel like I am spoiled having been to Lagos no beach can hold a candle to that place…It was too good. The beach here is manmade, they have extended the city about 100 meters…my hostel would have been in the ocean in the early 1900’s, funny thing to ponder.

I relaxed on the beach and read Uncle Mike’s (Michael Fleming’s) book, Follow Your Heart, I enjoyed reading until the sun went down and then wandered back to the hostel. I was going to call it an early night and head to bed, I was kicking it on the roof having some Tinto de Verano, a tasty Spanish drink, when a cute little French girl came and sat next to me…We went to the pub crawl….I didn’t get in bed until 4:30 AM, some “early night” that was haha, met a lot of rad people though, two girls from Canada, one from Poland, a dude from Boston and Andre from Sydney.

Left the hostel the next day to roll out to Zaracoza, Spain. When I was leaving to walk to the train station I overheard a girl saying that she was catching a train at about the same time. We hadn’t met, but I introduced myself and we walked to the station together, she told me to hit here up if I go to Munich, she’d show me a good time…In Europe it’s really that fucking easy to meet people.

I remember a person said to me before I left, “You’re going alone? I thought you loved your friends, won’t you get lonely?” HA!!! Life is what you make it, one of my favorite quotes is from President Lincoln, he said “People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” I have learned to embrace that aphorism as fact. I am stoked every god dammed day because I choose to be, not everyday is perfect and I have had a few lonely stints, but all in all its been epic over here. Everyone should make this happen in their life at one point.

Anyway, back to the actual trip here. I made it to Zaragoza (photos above) and found my hostel just fine. Got there put all my luggage away, looked on trip advisor for a highly rated local restaurant and rolled out. Wound up at a tiny place called Encontro. It was so bomb, met the owner and everything. Turns out the dude is from Portugal, but moved to Zaragoza so he could do his Ph.D research. I strolled the town, there was a very impressive and dominating building that was unfortunately closed the entire time that I would be in Zaragoza, there were also, what I would guess, we’re Roman ruins by the looks of them…also closed…I walked past a building earlier in the day that reminded me of my man Jack Hall, he just got accepted in the Architecture program at the University of Utah and I am sure he will be designing shit like that in no time (I am talking about the super modern building in the photo above)

I went back to the hostel, turns out there was a concert in the basement. Pretty rad. It was very funny to hear the singer singing 80’s covers in English and then speaking rapid Spanish as soon as the song was over. I went and talked to her after the show…She didn’t speak English, just sang in it haha…Then I hit the sack.

This is where shit gets epic…

So I get up at 9:50 AM and had to catch a train at 10:46 AM…I was cutting it close, but I am not a morning kinda guy, skipped the shower, day 2.5 without a shower, mowed down a quick breakfast of rice cereal, its all I can really have haha and sprinted my ass to the bus stop about a kilometer away in hopes of getting to the train station on time. Caught the bus as it was pulling away from the stop, impeccable timing on my part. I got on the bus, paid my fair and finally relaxed for the first time that morning, I’d make it to my train! 

I put on some tunes, my sunglasses, and smiled, everything was flowing like a picturesque unobstructed stream when without warning we hit some fucking stage 5 rapids. Eeerrrr, fucking crunch, my relaxation lasted all of 2 minutes of Take Me Home Country Roads by John God Damned Denver, When I was rudely yanked from my relaxed state in a hurry, the bus tagged a Ford Focus. My immediate thought, I am gonna miss my fucking train…We all had to leave the bus, wait 15 minutes, then cram all of our upset asses onto the next bus. The people in the Focus were fine, by the way, and the bus hardly had a mark.

Got to the train station, ran into the terminal just in time to watch my train pull out of the station. I was so fucking irate, the next train wasn’t for hours, I’d blown it. I tried to keep my composure, but went ahead and threw my hand through a wall of the train station for good measure, had a calming effect I must say. Anyway, I calmed down quickly and figured I would just catch the next train to Nice. It was going to be a 13 hour travel day anyway, what does it matter when I get there right?

So I went and talked to the customer service dude for a half hour and it was determined that the furthest he could get me was Figueres, Spain. The train didn’t leave for another 3 hours, and I had to pay an additional 11 euros for another reservation fee, the ticket that I had for my 10:46 train was now useless they cut me zero slack…Sweet…

I went and sat in the waiting room at the train station, reached for my lifeproof water bottle that I keep on the side of my bag and realized my reach was in vain…I left that hog carabined to my bed at the hostel that morning…FUCK!!! I seriously debated pounding the daily bottle o wine right then and there at 11:32 AM in the Zaragoza train station.

I was bummed… Then I realized, hell,I’m lucky enough to be on vacation and Spain isn’t a bad place to be stuck. I firmly believe that for every down there is an up, after all I am an engineer, and took several classes proving that all you need to remember is that F = ma and you can solve a lot of shit. Science explains all. I had a misfortunate force push me into this situation, I just needed to find my opposing fortunate force to balance the equation that governs life, F = ma.

I decided that while I would lose out on the 30 bucks I had paid for my hostel in Nice, I could at least go and get my water bottle back from the hostel today. Hell, the water bottle is more important than one night in a bed. Its a lifestraw water bottle, look that shit up, pretty important and pretty convenient, I’d highly recommend it hahah… Anyway I was back on track with a plan in mind and laughed the whole situation off.

I jumped back on a bus towards my hostel, it was the same driver that had smoked that Ford focus earlier that morning, we recognized each other talked about what happened and laughed about the whole situation everything turned out okay on his end as well. I got off went to the hostel, picked up my water bottle, had a shower and headed back to the train station.

I got on my train to Figureres. It would be a nice place to stay, I loved the town itself, it’s just tiny, a little north of Barcelona, and it is where Salvador Dali grew up and is buried. Pretty rad place, but I was still set on getting closer to Nice, if not to Nice that night. I used my rail planner app to figure out all possible routes and my phone to look up temperatures at all the stops along the way. I had a hammock, and figured now would be the time to put it to use if it came down to it. I got to Figureres stepped out of the train and stayed on the platform.

Some train stations are like airports, they have ticket checkers and security check points before you can get to the platforms, but if you are on the far side of security you can go to any gate or terminal. So I just stayed on the far side of the terminal, so to speak, and waited for the next train to come that was going in the right direction.

I jumped on a train headed to Paris, rode it for a few stops and made it to Narbonne, France before the ticket checker came and rudely kicked me the fuck off, it was a TGV train…I needed a reservation to be on board. I was a little closer to Nice though, even made it to France! Caught another train that took me to Nimes, it was a regional train, so I didn’t have to dodge the ticket checkers this time, it just gave me more time to plan how I could make it so Nice that night. I got in to Nimes at 22:08 and could catch a train at 22:17 that would take me to Aix En Provence, it was a TVG train, meaning I’d have to remain incognito until I made it to Aix En…It was only 3 stops away, I thought I could manage.

The train was 15 minutes late, meaning that I may miss my connection in Aix En, I jumped on anyway and grabbed a seat. Before too long I heard the ticket checkers coming before I’d even made it to the first stop, I got up, put on my bag as if I were exiting at the upcoming stop which was still 15 minutes out…I thought they’d catch me for sure, but I got off at the first stop, and turned right back around and jumped back on.

Went straight to the bar this time. Grabbed a small bottle of wine and blended in, thought I was safe… The fucking ticket checker came into the bar and asked where I was going, I presume, she was speaking French though, I said Marseille, she said cool and walked off! I pulled it off!!! HELL YEAH!!! I watched the sunset, enjoyed my little bottle of French blend while we were rippin’ through the French countryside.

I got to talking to the bar tender he was pretty rad and luckily for me spoke English. I heard an announcement,all in French, but caught the word “Niceay” which I correctly conjectured to mean Nice in French. I asked him what was said and he told me that if you were going to Nice tonight, the connection is no longer in Aix En, it is in Marseille instead. I was so pumped!!! Not only had I made it to France, I was actually going to make to Nice, presuming that I didn’t get booted off that train as well, as it was also a TVG train the required a reservation. I am happy to pay and make the reservations, however, they were completely booked that day, is what the dude in Zaragoza said that morning. So I was essentially bootleggin’ my way for 13+ hours and several trains to Nice that day.

Then another announcement came on, and again had the word “Niceay” in it… The bar tender came up to me and said bad news man, there is no way to get to Nice tonight that connection is not longer going to work. Damn I thought… I said to him,  “oh well, I have a hammock and it’s only supposed to get down to 55 (~12 C) not bad camping weather.” He shook his head and told me,  “Marseille would be okay if you get a hotel, but if you made it though the night and woke up with all your belongings and health, I’d be surprised.” Great I am going to have to fuckin camp in the ghetto of France. Meh,  I thought to myself, it’ll make for a good story and epic memories and I’ve still got a full bottle of wine in my bag, I was sure I’d be fine. 

As we are pulling in to Marseille a third announcement was made…”Niceay” This time the ticket checker and bartender came up to me. The ticket checker said, I asked you before where you are going and you said Marseille! I was thinking, well, this is about to get awkward when she asks to see my ticket and I don’t have one. When instead she says, “Well since you were going to Nice and we couldn’t get you there the company is going to put you up in a hotel room here for the night…All you need is an ID and your TICKET.” It was hard to stifle the little man within me from screaming FUUUUUCCCCKKKKK, the one time I really really need a ticket, my Eurail pass wouldn’t suffice.

But I remained calm, and just figured I had made it this far ticketless, I could bull shit my way into a hotel room at this point. While waiting in line at the customer service counter there were several people talking about renting a car and driving there…Feasible, yes, however, it turned out the car rental places all closed at 8:00 PM and it was now 11:00 PM…I really had to bullshit my way into a hotel or I was gonna be the only English speakin’ honky in the ghetto of France for the night.

Well which way do you think it turned out? Either way I am here to tell the tale right?

I ended up meeting two fellow backpackers from Sweden while waiting in line for hopeful a chance of scoring a free accommodation, getting a 12 euro dinner voucher to Machdough…Unfortunately that’s French for McDonalds, but hey, they had normal chicken wings, and free was the only way I’d eat there this trip. I had only had rice cereal and wine for the day, I was in deep need of some feed. Of course we all finally cracked into that bottle of wine that had been calling my name all day. I crawled into my own private room at a hotel at 1:30 AM. The hostel even canceled my booking, so I was only out the 12% deposit. Hell of fine day, I must say.

Woke up to an included breakfast and am currently on my way to the Cinque Terre Italy…I may meet up with those two Swedish chicks I met last night in Lake Como, Italy, so perhaps that bus misfortune was no misfortune at all.

Life really is what you make it.

-Cbutter

P.S. hope this shit made ya laugh, it certainly did for me both living it and reliving it while writing it all down on the train ride this morning. Haha

P.P.S. If you’re reading this, Happy Belated Father’s Day Dad!! I had quite the Sunday, and have just now realized Father’s Day was yesterday and I forgot to call, I think you’ll now understand why. Hahaha Talk to you soon!