Days: 70 days
Time: April
Per capita: 50000 yuan
With whom: with friends
How to play: free play
The author went to these places
Lisbon
britain
Madrid
Portugal
Venice
Florence
Germany
Italy
France
Spain
Genoa
London
Paris
Sevilla
Published on September 26, 2014 12:32
Are you ready for a train trip to Europe?
In recent years, many publications have advocated the concept of "traveling to Europe by train". I also bought one and looked forward to it. This spring, I traveled to Europe by self-service train with five donkey friends for 70 days, 15 countries and tens of thousands of miles (it's not worth careful calculation). Maybe we are old, maybe we are too stupid, maybe our English is too poor, In short, along the way, we constantly make mistakes, constantly recover mistakes, or constantly bear the consequences of mistakes. Here, I don't want to talk more about European scenery or interesting news, because there are many related beautiful pictures and articles on the Internet now. This time, I just want to use the Internet to write out a lot of embarrassing and troublesome things that we have encountered in this trip, so that our friends who want to help themselves out in the future can make fewer similar mistakes.
Because I (also on behalf of us) am traveling by train, I mainly write about traveling by train, and mainly tell the "story" of taking eurorail and British Rail to travel by train
The first embarrassment, stolen and cheated
On this morning, ah a and I walked out of the hotel early in a good mood. The hotel we stayed in yesterday had good conditions, and the kitchen was very pleasant. We hope to have a tour of Lisbon today, and then go far away. Just out of the door, an old Mercedes Benz car stopped in front of us. An old white haired man in a blue uniform asked us where we were from and where we were going. We replied that we had no clear goal but just wanted to see the appearance of Lisbon. He said that you could get in my car. I like China and Chinese people. I'll take you there. Because I often meet good people in other western countries, especially good old people, I think this time we are lucky again. I think he is old and bored and has nothing to do, so I pull people around to talk. So a and I got into his car one by one. First, he would take us around several times on the road to the top of a hill in Lisbon. When we got off the car, we found that the view on the top of the hill was excellent. There was an old castle on the opposite side, and the houses with red roofs were scattered below. It was so beautiful, let alone taking photos. So we took photos,
During this period, the old man bought red wine for us to drink. At first, we refused. Later, we felt it was not good for him. So I drank a small glass first. A didn't drink at first. Later, he couldn't resist his warm advice and took a sip. We had a conversation. He said that he was a retired pilot and had worked in Macao before, which added to our chat. After that, he took a picture for both of us. A said he would take a picture for him too, but he refused. So a may have taken a picture of him out of defensive psychology.
The second time, he took us to a seaside and asked us to get off and take photos,
I got out of the car this time with my handbag, but when I got back to the car and sat in the co driver's seat, I found that his car was very low and his waist bag (full of valuables) was too much in the way, so I put it in my handbag. Then he took us to a church by car racing. The church looks old, and we certainly want to take photos, At this time, the old man said, you can put your things in the car. I wanted to take them out of the car, but for a moment, I thought they were kind-hearted. If I took them out, I doubted the old man's meaning. As soon as I softened my heart, I threw all my things into his car. But as soon as I stepped on the accelerator, the car disappeared in front of the church, I immediately reflected that he was a big liar, an experienced liar. He went to the police station to report to the police. As a result, the police station asked us to go to another tourist police station. Ah a also took out his camera to show the picture of the old man. Unexpectedly, the police raised their heads and laughed. We didn't know what it meant. We guessed that he was a recidivist, Did the police see him too much?
I thought that my cards, including public cards and private cards, were all in the bag. I had to call home to report the loss. Otherwise, I would be ruined by him. I went to a shop opened by a Wenzhou man to explain the situation. This Wenzhou man asked me to pay five euros (no money, borrowed it) for his phone card and taught me to make international calls at the telephone booth, I just did the most important thing and went to the police. After the police recorded it, they told me to go to another place (probably criminal investigation section) the next day. After that, we went back to the hotel in frustration. I thought, I once made an inner pocket. I wanted to separate the money, but I didn't use it all the way. Now all the foreign currency and all the money have been lost. How can we go in the future? Although I said I had friends to borrow on the road, it was a big blow after all. I thought my passport and EUROLINK were still in the hotel, and I was a little lucky. But when I went back, I found that all my documents and train tickets were in the bag, and I lost them all! At this time, I was at the bottom of my heart. I was so flustered that I didn't know what to do. I twisted my head blankly. Suddenly, eh, I saw a miracle! My handbag mysteriously appeared on the coat hook. I quickly opened it to have a look. Fortunately, except for all the euro, pound, RMB and HK $10000, I didn't have any money left (fortunately, the big expenses on the road were handed over to the "public" for safekeeping and consumption), and the remaining credit cards, all kinds of cards and European and British train tickets were in it! I turned sad into happy. I didn't lose my train ticket and passport. On the contrary, it was the greatest blessing. I had a good night's sleep!
This is all due to meeting an old thief with professional ethics.
Unfortunately, my friends who didn't catch the Lisbon train were stolen by thieves in Madrid fast food restaurant. They lost a bag, their money and their mobile phones. EUROLINK stipulates that tickets can't be reissued free of charge if they are lost. In order to get the police station to issue a certificate all the way, it's a toss to buy a new ticket with less money!
Appendix: the next day, I went to identify the criminal truthfully. An old policeman quickly called out the old guy's file. The front image and the side image occupied the whole page of the computer. I think since the file is so complete, it should be no problem to arrest him. Can I get my money back? The police didn't answer.
But when I returned home, I received a postcard from Lisbon police station. It was in Portuguese, not even in English. I waited for a month before I found a chance to ask someone to translate it, to the effect that his behavior did not constitute a crime.
My God, in Portugal, what's a crime?
The second embarrassment is getting in the wrong car
On this day, we are going to Florence from Venice. Our previous experience is that everywhere we go, we will ask the station information center for a departure and arrival timetable at the railway station. Therefore, we also asked the staff at Venice railway station for a timetable. However, due to the wrong format of this timetable and the timetable printed in Germany, I was careless, I mistook the latest departure time to Florence and spent too much time browsing in Venice, which made us miss the last train to Florence. In a hurry, a tall young Italian came up to the station to help us. He asked us where we were going. I said to Florence, and he said that he was also on the train, So we were secretly glad to meet the noble man, so we followed him to the train in front of us and got on the train. But when we got off the station at 10 o'clock in the evening, we found that this station was not Florence, but another place called renza. We were in a hurry at that time. There was no one at this station, and there was no hotel nearby. We had to rent a car to walk for several tens of kilometers to get to the hotel in the city, Moreover, the taxi fare is quite expensive. Besides, the hotel we reserved in Florence is yellow. It's even worse. So the six of us spent the night lying on the cold station bench wrapped in scarves. We didn't catch the train going back until five or six o'clock. In addition, we transferred to Florence. Ah, we didn't sleep well all night!
Lesson 1: the format of the timetable printed to you by each country or station may be different. Some countries even don't have a timetable to give. You must carefully look at it before deciding the number of trains you want to take.
Lesson 2: try not to take the last bus to the next destination, because if something happens, you will have no backup car to remedy.
Lesson 3: it's better to write directions on a note, because the language and accent (especially in non English speaking countries such as France, Italy and Spain) although the local people are very enthusiastic, their wrong listening will lead to trouble, as we did this time.
The third one is wrong
We come to every new place, and the station name of every country is new and strange to us. Therefore, we should first find out the arrival time of the target station, listen carefully when we are about to arrive, and pay more attention to the station name, so as not to get off the wrong train. In Genoa, because we don't know whether there are two stations in Genoa, we still get off the wrong station, Although we got off at Genoa west station, the station where we could get to the train should be Genoa east station. We had to wait there for the next late train to come, wasting precious time in vain.
Therefore, the station name on the ticket must be clearly read. A city, especially a big city, may have many railway stations, such as London and Paris, which have eight or nine railway stations respectively. Moreover, the station name on their ticket may be abbreviated. Here we have to be more careful, and we must make sure of the exact full name of this station.
Lesson 1: after you get the ticket, first make sure the full name of the station you are going to get off.
Lesson 2: ask more staff on the train, when to arrive, and prepare in advance.
Lesson 3: before you get off the station, carefully read the station name (there will be signs on the platform), because their station name sometimes makes you confused.
Lesson 4: ask the passengers who will get off when necessary.
The fourth scandal is in the wrong station
It's not only possible to get off the wrong station by bus, but also possible to get into the wrong station. For example, in Madrid, Spain, we were going to take the night train to Portugal, but we were all careless. The station from Seville to Madrid is not the same as the station from Madrid to Lisbon, Portugal. One is Atocha, One is Chamartin. We came to Atocha an hour in advance. During the consultation, the police told us that we should go to Chamartin station to wait for the bus. So the kind-hearted police helped us to buy free tickets to and from the two stations, and we arrived in time. Unfortunately, our other donkey friends got lost and they didn't catch the bus, We can only arrive in Lisbon the next day. What we have lost is: the hotel fee reserved that night, the hotel room fee rescheduled, the full train ticket fee for one person to get on the train that night (because the group ticket is in one person), and the speeding up ticket fee made up by the people taking the bus the next day. Many more unfortunate things have happened (see the first scandal), What a double whammy!, You can see how miserable it is to encounter such a thing abroad.
As soon as you buy a good ticket, check the station name carefully,
The fifth embarrassment: I can't buy a ticket
When traveling in several countries in Western Europe, although we have bought EUROLINK, we find that it's different to ride. For example, German railways basically don't need to buy express tickets. Even for ice high-speed trains, except cross-border trains, any domestic train can take EUROLINK, but TGV express in France and Renfe high-speed train in Spain can't, You have to buy another express ticket in advance, which is equivalent to our previous speeding up fee. We went from Spain to Lisbon, because we had already reserved the express ticket for several days in advance, we ignored the reservation of the express ticket from Portugal to France. As a result, when we went to buy the ticket three days in advance, we were informed that the ticket was sold out. We have no other way to go back to France from Portugal, but we have to go back because we want to take Eurostar to England across the sea, and the tickets for this day are reserved at home (otherwise it is more expensive). What should I do? So we tried to take a circuitous tactic. First we bought a short journey, then we changed trains, and then we changed trains. We took whatever bus we had to go back in the middle of the journey. After four turns, we had another sleepless night. We stopped at a small station for several hours, and it was very cold that night, We had to lie down (or sit) in a glass house on the platform to get warm. This station is very humane, with heating on for passengers, so we can have a rest here. Otherwise, we will suffer more.
Lesson 1: some tickets must be purchased in advance (the same is the case with speedup tickets), especially when there is only one line and one car, and there is no alternative for the journey behind you, so as to avoid passivity.
(to be continued)