My night in the Marseille train
station
It's true. I spent a night in the Marseille train station. I
didn't intend to do it, it just happened.
I spent my junior year of college in Madrid, Spain. A couple of
friends and I planned a train trip to see other parts of Europe
during our Christmas break. How hard could this be after all? We
were about to find out. We decided to not lose time by travelling
long distances during the day and took the overnight train from
Madrid to Barcelona. This was in the dark ages, before the high
speed trains that are now the norm in Europe. Our next stop was
Carcassonne, France, an ancient walled city not too far from the
Spain/France border. I don't remember much about it other than I
had a fabulous lamb meal. I believe we only spent one night there
and we were on our way to Italy the next morning.
We were about to learn that you must make sure you sit in the
right car as parts of the train do not continue to travel on to your
desired destination. I can't remember how we figured it out but I
do remember a little boy laughing at us when we discovered we were in
the wrong car. This part of the train was not going on to Italy, it
stopped in Marseille, France. And there were no other trains to
Italy until the following morning. Okay, don't panic, we thought.
This will work out. We'll get a room for the night and head out to
Italy the next morning. Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men.
Our worst fears were about to come true. We walked around town to
find a room for the night only to see the word "Complet" (full in
French) on every hotel door we happened upon. We had no choice but
to spend the night in the train station. I had never felt so
frightened in all my life! Thoughts of what might happen to us kept
creeping into my mind. We found some chairs and decided to take
turns "keeping watch", meaning one of us would stay awake while
the other two would try to snooze. I don't know about my two
friends but I did no snoozing that night!
Finally the hour came for us to board our train to Florence and at
that point in my life I had never felt such relief as I felt that
day. I had planned on viewing and photographing the French Riviera
on my way to Italy. Alas, it was not meant to be as I could not stay
awake. I recall waking up at one point, looking out the window at
the beautiful blue sea and thinking "I wish I could stay awake for
this" and then putting my head back down and sleeping through the
entire trip.
The rest of our trip was uneventful, thank goodness. We have fond
memories of Florence, Venice, Pisa, Vienna and Munich. Some day I
will go back to southern France and capture the beautiful Riviera in
photographs. That was quite the lesson for 20 year old college
students. We had no choice but to be brave that night in the
Marseille train station but I don't think I will be going back to
Marseille any time soon.
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