Monday, September 15, 2014

Day 19

Trying to exit the camino was proving to be more difficult then doing the camino.  As I told youbefore I had a young man helping me on the Alberque computer which by the way cost 1e for 20 minutes to operate.  The trains to Paris were prebooked full for three days and at the time we could not figure out why.  What Sandy and I found out later was Air France was just hours away from a strike, so not wanting to be left high and dry folks were booking the train.  I thought that I would have a better chance with a bus but I neede to get back to Burgos.  My ipad has a Spanish/English translated app that proved its weight in gold.  I printed out the fact that I wanted a taxi ordered for the following day to take me to Burgos and then handed the pad to the Alberque help.  She was most impressed with the tech knowledge.  She got right on the phone and ordered a taxie.  10:00 a.m. Be ready to go.  The taxie was right on time.  When it picked me up it also had two young ladies in the back from Sweden.  One could speak English very well and said they were going to get a train to Madrid.  I asked them if they already had their tickets.  They never and I didn't have the heart to tell them what I knew..  
When we got to the the bus terminal I got out to get my bag out of the trunk and asked the driver how much I owed him.  He wrote 40e in the dust on the cab.  I thought he had made a 2 instead of a 4 he was good natured about it but thought I was trying to stiff him for 20e.  I knew about what it would cost in that the fairs were posted in the lobby of the Alberque.  I gave him another 20e and he was happy.  You need to remember that gas here is about $8.00  gal. American.  In the bus terminal I found out that a bus would not be leaving for three days.  Same as the train.  And I found out the bus ride is about 14 hrs long.  In the mean time Sandy is on the phone with Delta trying to get me back home and actually had my ticket changed three different times. She was on her phone and our iPads were on face time and I could hear her tell delta that I had contacted the hi- bolical-flip ups and was feebly trying to get home to modern medicine. I purchased the bus ticket for 89e and then found a hotel to kill time in.  While on the computer at the Alberque we checked into the air port at Burgos and found the only air line that I could get on was aTurkish air line for just over 500e I gave it a miss and went for the bus.    
I actually lost my pen bag several days ago and now was in the habit of pining my wet laundry on my pack to let the Spanish sun finish drying them.  When I went into the hotel lobby with my pack, unshaven for several days and my nickers and socks swinging back and forth it was me that looked the part of joe shit the rag man. But even so a credit card that works makes the lowest of man look like a king.  My check out time is 12 noon which means I have 9 hours on the street to kill time waiting for the bus.  Like it or not I will need to go for one more day on the room and then leave about 8:30.  I figured that on the street all I would do is spend money, so even if I don't sleep the last day I pay for it will be better then being on the street. 

This one will be continued.......

2 comments:

  1. Wow, the adventure continues...Bobby suggested one possibility of catching the Chunnel from Paris to Heathrow, pending your arrival in Paris, hoping to head out of London. Might be just as chaotic. Hey, the Camino lesson continues. From our perspective, leaving from Barcelona to JFK was an option; airport is beautiful there and fairly easy to navigate (compared to Paris). Just a thought...maybe have Sandy talk her way through. The bad news is that with a strike pending, many embargoes go up with passes as agents scramble to reroute booked passengers so we wouldn't be of much help at this point. Not sure how far you are from Lisbon or Barcelona or even the Italian side...worse come to worse, full fare ticket from Paris to Greece ran 200 euro so it'll give you a rough idea of jumping to another city. Best of luck trying to sleep now...but as the Camino taught you, you can make it!

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  2. Love your description of hotel arrival. Nothing like arriving at the reception sweaty stinky and downright dusty. Oftentimes I felt like “Pigpen” and hoped I didn’t smell too offensive. Private bathrooms were a dream weren’t they?.

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