Getting to Spain.

We left our hotel in Perpignan early to make sure we got a train to Valencia by nightfall. We arrived at the station in good time, before 7am. We were told by the ticket man that the train to Valencia was sold out, and he could only get us as far as Barcelona. Okay, hiccup. We accepted the Barcelona tickets, and boarded the train - all the time keeping our fingers crossed that we would easily get tickets to Valencia from the Barcelona station.

We crossed under and around the Pyrenees, following the Mediterranean to our first transfer station -Port Bou - our first steps in Spain. We headed to the ticket shop to buy the Valencia tickets, hoping for better luck now in Spain. We bought two tickets to Valencia - only to be told (after we had paid for them) that we wouldn't arrive in Valencia until after midnight......the other option was to buy first class tickets, double the price but we would get there before dark. We returned to the counter & asked for the first class tickets. The lady said that was fine, then cancelled our current tickets, and started the process for the new ones. "Full" , she said, meaning that in the time she had offered them and us agreeing, the tickets had sold out. We reluctantly said ok, and we'll take the original ones arriving after midnight... "Full" she said...what?? In the time she had cancelled our tickets to book the new ones, our old ones had resold.....She said she could not help us anymore and we would just have to go to Barcelona....we boarded the train to Barcelona, a little worried that we would end up without a bed for the night for the first time.

On the way to Barcelona, we discovered in our guide book that there were buses running from Barca to Valencia 19 times a day....hopefully they would not be full and we would have a life line to cling to.....We arrived in Barca at 12;46pm and made a beeline for the bus station. WOOHOO - a bus would be able to take us at 6:00PM - we would get there at 10PM, but at least it was before midnight! (And, it only cost us €44 as opposed to the first class train tickets that would have been €125.00!!!)

We spent the afternoon in Barcelona, had sandwiches and rested in the park, and boarded the bus feeling quite pleased with ourselves. We sniggered a little, and made fun of the train lady who had got us here in the first place. The bus was more than comfortable, we were safe among old folk and a jolly bus driver.