Barcelona to Lille
September 25th 1995
New Moon
I managed to wake up at an hour that had recently become early for me, and get out of the house in time to catch the train at half past ten. It was great to be on a train and on the move again. And it felt good to be heading for home too.
Yeah, bugger it! i thought. I'd head straight for Britain. I really didn't want to spend any more time in a city and i really couldn't face any extra travelling. When i'd started out on this journey, nearly three weeks ago, i hadn't felt too bad about travelling, but now i'd completely had enough again. I began to wonder how i'd manage to go to India, if i felt like this now. But i realised that it would be different. I'd make sure i got it right this time, and i'd fly to where i was going and stay there. I wasn't going to do much travelling in India. Also, i'd make certain i didn't have so much weight to carry with me. In the tropics it's easier to travel light. And i'd make sure i was travelling as light as i possibly could - taking into account the fact that i'd have my computer with me! But that would be just about all i would have.
At Cerbère i checked out the fastest way to get to Paris. In the end i got a ticket that took me on the normal train to Avignon and then by TGV to Paris, where i would arrive at about nine o'clock that evening. If i didn't have to wait too long for a train from Paris to Calais, i could be back in England early the next morning. I checked my ferry timetable and saw the ferries run all night, near enough every hour, so i wouldn't have long to wait at Calais. What i'd do when i got to Dover, i didn't know. It could be really early in the morning, like about four o'clock or something, so all i'd be able to do would be hang around and wait for the first train or bus.
It took quite a few hours to get to Avignon, but it was a reasonably pleasant journey, despite the fact that i hadn't eaten anything at all that day. We arrived at Avignon at about five in the evening and i was absolutely starving. Of course, there wasn't anything vegan to eat on the station, except a large bag of crisps. Oh well, i thought, i'll be able to get something on the ferry.
The TGV, which stands for Train de Grande Vitesse, or "very fast train", was quite comfortable. Once it got past Lyon the track was a special TGV line and it got up to its maximum speed. I don't know how fast they go, and it's difficult to tell from the inside, but it certainly seemed to be flying along. And the trip from Avignon to Paris, which was quite a long way, only took about four hours.
I looked on the rail map that i had with me and i realised that, going this way, i was passing so close to Turin that going there on the way wouldn't have involved very much more travelling at all really. Never mind, i was on my way somewhere else now, there was no point in thinking about what i could have done. It was such a relief to get out of the city that i wasn't really bothered by the fact that i was missing out on another one.
- - -
When i arrived at the Gare Du Nord in Paris, i discovered that there weren't any more trains to Calais that night. It was only about half past nine and it seemed quite ridiculous that they should have finished so early. There weren't even any more direct trains to London until about half past seven the next morning. And i'd thought the trains in Britain were bad! It was strange that such an international link would finish so early. But maybe that summed up the French view of other countries in general, and Britain in particular!
What a disaster, i really didn't want to get stuck in Paris for the night. There must be some way to get out, surely. But it didn't look very hopeful. I checked my map and the few trains left on the departures board that night and decided that my only hope was to catch the eleven o'clock TGV to Lille. That was fairly close to Calais, although far enough away to make it unreachable without public transport, and i thought there might be a chance there'd be a later train from there.
When i'd got my reservation, i walked out the front of the station to look for some food. There are bars and restaurants and hotels all along the road opposite the station. I got some chips and a fruit salad from one of the fast-food places and went back to the station to eat it. I bought a can of beer and sat down on a bench to have my first meal of the day.
After that i felt better, but i didn't feel like i'd had enough - either of the food, or the beer - so i went back out and had another look around. This time i came back with a salad sandwich and some more chips. I bought another can of beer and had my last meal of the day.
On the train i summoned up as much French as i could manage and asked the ticket inspector if there would be a train from Lille to Calais that night. He laughed and said no, it was finished. So that was that. Stuck in Lille for the night. It's always the same, with journeys like this. You can find a way to keep going up to a certain point, and then you reach the end of the line. You have to stop. It was like that in Sumatra, when we were trying to get from Jakarta to Pakanbaru. We reached the end of the line at Bandar Lampung that time. I thought back to that journey, almost exactly six months ago now. How much had happened in that six months. How many thousands of miles i'd travelled. It was incredible really. We'd come to the end of the line that night in Bandar Lampung, just before the southern hemisphere autumn equinox and now, i'd come to the end of the line in Lille, just after the northern hemisphere autumn equinox. Half a year away and half a world away. The thought was kind of mindboggling really!
I looked around the hotels near the railway station for a little while before eventually settling on one just over the road. It was the cheapest and, although i wouldn't normally have considered paying that sort of money for a bed for the night, i cheerfully handed over, i think, about seventy francs, or ten pounds. The first train in the morning was about half past six and i couldn't decide whether i wanted to drag myself out of bed for it after only five hours' sleep, or whether i wanted to relax and take the rest of the journey easy - after all, there was no great rush. In the end, i decided not to set my alarm clock, but to just see what time it was when i woke up.