Trust in the generosity of others

(the other titles I was contemplating were: "Train Adventures II - Self-Inflicted Pain", and "Karma Rules")

I (Dan) left Eric and Amber a few days ago to head down to Bordeaux to visit Melo and Calvin in their Apart'Hotel (longer term hotel). They graciously let me sleep on pillows in the hall, and despite the infamously horrible smell of Calvin's farts, we had a great time (hehe, sorry man!). To cut to the chase, I will recount only yesterday's climax of adventures, starting with today as foreshadowing.

I had a very lucky train experience today. At 10:30am we woke up from a horrible dream where I got on the train and then realized that I had forgotten my guitar. I guess I haven't told you that I am building a guitar right now. I'll have pictures later, once it's finished. Right now it only has 1 string and 12 un-intonated frets. After slowly lumbering around Melo & Calvin's room, Melo reminded me it was probably time to rush off to my 11:57am train back to Paris.

I tried taking the tram, but since it was sunday, if I took the tram, I would arrive after my train was supposed to have left. So I decided to walk. As it turns out, I began walking with 12 minutes to the next tram, and when I got to the station, there was 14 minutes to the next one, so I gained 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I arrived a few minutes after 12:00 noon. Optimistically hoping that the first train out of 12 or so would happen to be mine, I jumped on literally seconds before it started moving. The train conductor was amazed at my good fortune since it was only due to some confusion with a new guy at the train station that the train was late at all.

So back to yesterday now, where we had another different train adventure.

Melo, Calvin and I decided to visit Arcachon for its beaches and the largest sand dunes in Europe. We couldn't get the ticket machines to buy us tickets to Arcachon (70km away) in time, so we ended up missing the first train and waiting in the station for 2 hours for the next one. It didn't occur to us that this was an omen of things to come.

In Arcachon we sunbathed, rented bikes and rode to the dunes, sunbathed more, and hiked to the summit of the dunes. It was an amazing view: Lush green forests on the left, down a steep sand bank (200m?), and the ocean on the right. A cool breeze rushed up the sand bank carrying only the smallest particles of sand, and a refreshing evergreen smell from the forest below.

After sunburning ourselves, we returned to Arcachon to return the bikes and eat a plate of seafood before catching the last train at 8-something pm. We enjoyed raw oysters, and summoned the courage to down raw clams, raw mussels, and two types of cooked sea snails and finished with cooked little shrimp, prawns, and scampi (langoustines). Unfortunately, I bought a pastis and Melo bought a coffee before leaving, while Calvin ran ahead to buy train tickets.

Melo and I downed our drinks as quick as posssible and headed to meet Calvin at the train station. Unfortunately, what we met was the train leaving. We had a quick conversation with the last guy at the train station who laid everything out for us: no train, no bus, taxi is 140 Euro (210 dollars). After not much thought, I suggested we try hitchhiking back.

It turned out that our first ride was so easy that we accepted a ride halfway between Arcachon and Bordeaux (I think called Molis). There we tried for an hour maybe, with different techniques and signs, but everyone was going to Arcachon instead of Bordeaux. We figured it would be better to try to find a place to sleep in Arcachon instead of some farmer's field in Molis, so we returned back to Arcachon. Just as we were resigning ourselves to search for some expensive hotel, we were picked up by some friendly French people who loved smoking and Bob Marley & the Wailers who drove us all the way back. They were so nice they wouldn't even accept any payment for the ride.

Lessons learned:
- Always trust in the generosity of others.
- Hitch-hiking is cheaper than taking the train, and a lot more fun.
- Timeliness is its own reward.

Another highlight of Bordeaux was seeing The Snoc (a 'punk' band). They had a cute lead singer, an alligator playing guitar, and a drummer lost in happy drumland.

I'm now in Paris trying to get in contact with Sanaee to see some Gypsy jazz tonight with Jeanne.

Dan.