Roll with it

An offer appeared on my radar that was just too good to pass up.  Sometimes you just have to roll with whatever comes your way.  That's a life lesson, not just a travel one. I mean, in case you're keeping score.

When a cheap flight was discovered, I jumped on it.  And thus, I find myself in Ottawa, Canada for a week. [Sidenote to Greg, Sara, and anyone else who knows what's going on in my life - yeah, that's a part of it too, but it's also nice to visit home.  Especially spontaniously.].  

I likely wouldn't have done it, except that people were moaning that they were missing me, I was sick as hell (still), and the way it worked out I'd only be missing Sevilla and Granada. I can do those later.  Like in October, since this trip home has forced me to stay in Europe an extra 2 weeks.  I want to be on the road for 6 straight months, so my new arrival date in Ottawa will be December 13 2006.  

It was a 36 hour trip home.  Yeah, you heard me.  I hopped on the train at 5:00pm in Lagos.  I transferred in Tunes, and carried on to Lisbon.  In Lisbon I had just enough time to transfer onto the Madrid-bound train.  I climbed on, the doors closed, and the train started to pull out of the station.  Perfect, I thought.  I plopped down in the one available chair, and heard "Dana!".  Hey cool.  The two girls from Edmonton who I met at my hostel.  "You're so lucky you got on this train," they told me.  I asked why.  "Well, we came yesterday but the train was sold out.  How did you manage to get a ticket?" I told them I had a Eurrail pass.  The one girl's eyes got really big. "Nooo!  You need a reservation ticket."

Cool.  I'm on a train with no ticket, somewhere between Portugal and Spain.  The ticket checker said the train was full and he was going to kick me off at the next stop.  At least that's what I think he said.  It was all in Portugese.  I started to get nervous - I'd already booked a cheap (final sale) flight and getting put off a train in a town so small that there's no hostel/hotel/way out of town was a bit unnerving.  Mostly, though, I just wanted to catch the flight.  

The girls in my train car started brainstorming - bus company names, names of hotels in nearby cities, phone numbers of cab companies.  One girl even started making me a care package from her food stash so at least I'd have some bananas and a sandwitch or two.  The train started to slow down and the dude came in to our car.  I started grabbing my bags, contemplating making a run for it.  There are a lot of sleeper cars, maybe I could bribe someone to let me hide for a couple hours.  Instead he said something to the effect of "you can stay".  The whole group of girls burst into applause.  Turns out some guy from Toronto missed his train, and there was an empty seat.  I gave his buddies some money to buy him some beer when they finally met up with him.  I owe him.  Huge.

Wound up in Madrid just after 8 am and found my way to the airport.  That's when the real trouble began.  I'll keep it brief, but in essence I was marked as a terrorist.  I was inspected, questioned, patted up and down (rubber gloves and all) and almost held off the flight.  Why? Because apparently the concept of 2 passports is a cause for alarm.  Apparently people with 2 passports are trouble.  Or something.  And reading The History of The Third Reich didn't help.  Anyway, after the dude went through my hair he finally let me on the flight.  It all happened again in Philly, when I transferred flights. This time they even read my journal and asked questions.  Yeesh.  I should have just given them this blog address.

Whew.  Finally landed in Montreal, and went to wait for my Greyhound to Ottawa,  After being reassured that they took credit cards, I got on the bus.  Yeah, that was a lie.  They only take cash.  I said I'd pay in Ottawa.  The bus driver said fine.  Except when I got to Ottawa my cash card didn't work.  

The end.