If I had written a couple days ago, I would have written a tutorial on how to not get to Nice, France.
All in all, it's quite simple to accomplish. Don't do your homework. Don't prepare and research and reserve train seats like you should.
Trying to be spontaneous often doesn't work.
I've now learned that you need a reservation for every TGV (Train de Grande Vinesse- high speed trains in France), and that because I've been using a Eurail pass, reservations can't be made the day of because they (SNCF, the French train system) limit how many people can use these passes for each train. Though the Deutsches Bahn doesn't seem to do the same.
Hmmm.... I now know why I couldn't get out Paris when I wanted to the last time.
Maybe I should have read the brochure they gave me into STA travel office. That probably would have saved me some headaches....
Well, my trip was going smoothly until I got to Paris this time.
Because of the SNCF's cap on how many people using Eurail passes can reserve spaces on each train (or maybe they don't allow day-of reservations....), I wasn't able to reserve a space to go to Nice.
BUT I WAS NOT STAYING IN PARIS.
My first thought was to just board the train I wanted anyways.... but the Gare du Nord was not the one I arrived in, and it was just not what I was used to.
Okay, so I was just a bit freaked out by my idea. Even though I figured that the worse they would do is chastise me for being a dumb foreigner, maybe make me get off at the next stop, I just couldn't bring myself to get on that train.....
Oh, and the option of buying a regular seat was out of the question: 100Euros? You've got to be kidding me!
So I decided that I was going to go to the airport and try my luck there.... You see it all the time in the movies, on television- it couldn't have been that hard to do.
I know what you're thinking... I won't dish out the 100Euros for the train ticket, but I will spend the money on a plane ticket?
Well, no. Once I got to the airport I thought this idea was ridiculous and decided to stick with my original idea. Luckily there's also a train station in the airport. Who knew?
Even though there was no trains headed to Nice from this station, I decided I was going anywhere as long as it was out of Paris. And since I had talked about Strasbourg to begin with, it seemed as good as anywhere.
So, I didn't have a reservation, but dared to be daring. Basically, all that happened is that I had to pay 10Euros more for a reservation than I would have if I had done it ahead of time.
Did I mention that my route from Frankfurt to Paris had passed Strasbourg? So I spent 25Euros and 7 hours on a train more than I would have if I would have just decided on Strasbourg in the first place. Hmmm...
Well, I really really need to head to bed. I have to work early again in the morning (6am), which means that I should get up earlier than 5:30.... but this week so far I've been getting to work with plenty of time to spare.
I promise (like I have been for awhile) that I will catch you all up on how things have been going.... because there's definitely a lot to say!
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