Leaving Barcelona and Arrival in Montpellier

We arrived at the rail way Barcelona north station half an hour prior to train departure only to find out that the international train is an hour late! So much for the “excellent” European rail service. Also we had to go through security gates, the same x-ray machine they have at the airport; that was OK, except the fact that if you need to go to the washroom, you have to go all the way around with the ticket in your hand and after to come back to the “boarding” area.

Finally the famous Talgo train arrives an hour and something late. There was no announcement as how long the train will be at the station, so we got on the first car available and walked with our heavy bags (did I mention that we packed “light”!) to our car. We had the worst seats on that car, the only seats that were facing backwards---I was furious, we purchased tickets in advance just to make sure we get good seats, train is late and our seats are bad; the guy sitting by me (he was not French, not sure what nationally but he wasn’t smelling very nice to say the least). I sat there fuming inside and cursing the European train.. Luckily at next stop many people got off and Mark and I had nicer seats-only 2 of us in the row.

From home we had rented via Internet an apartment for a week in Montpelier; upon arrival in Montpellier at 10 pm we were very pleased to see that our host Philippe and his wife were patiently waiting for us at the rail station. It turns out that the apartment was only 15 min walk from the station and also right downtown. As they accompanied us to the place, we were chatting in French and English, my very broken French and funny English.

The apartment is in a 1750’s building. There is a stone spiral staircase, we are on the 3 rd floor, every time I go up and down I feel dizzy. The light is on the timer, so we have to make sure we are fast enough up and down before the light turns off.

The apartment is very small, I mean really really small I don’t think that I have ever been in such a small place. We can not walk by each other, one has to be in the bed or bathroom for one to be in the room.


The first night I wake up in the middle of the night with a very bad claustrophobic attack, I was breaking into a sweat and I just wanted to run down the stairs and be out. I managed to calm myself down, telling my self that it is OK, there are 2 windows, I can open the window at anytime and I can go downstairs at any time. I knew that if I can not get over that feeling Mark will understand me and we will eventually find an other place. But the next day I was OK, the apartment is small, but is only for a few days, it is clean, excellent location and we will be out most of the time. At the end I had a good sleep.