Train travel made uneasy

While my last morning in Fumel was coming up roses…

More had spread their wings overnight…the sheets washed, the sky overcast (so promising a cooler travelling day), bag packed and weighed…me a little heavier (yay) and the bag a lot lighter coming in under the 20kg Ryanair limit!

Kev and I took out the “little” car…

For a food shop…to fill in the morning and get some snacks for my trip…

A mere 6 litre bottle of Red…one would have trouble pouring? Not needed in the travel case!

Roland arrived home before us from his mornings work, I enjoyed a relaxed coffee, before the Boys dropped me to my first little train from Monsempron to Agen…on time leaving, which was good as I only had a 10 minute changeover to board the Agen to Toulouse train, which is not usually a problem…however today it was!

As we left the station in Fumel a very smelly homeless person was wandering through the train…asking all the passengers for something…which I indicated I didn’t understand – but he wanted money and smokes. He disappeared for a few minutes and I hoped that was the end of it, but no…he appeared back and sat in the seat in front of me, making me gag! Oh well, I thought, I can cope with the 40 minute ride!

However, this little train stops several times on the way to Agen to pick up the odd passenger…first stop, we did appear to be waiting a bit long…the smelly man taking the opportunity to career past me and outside to smoke an old butt he had found! Next minute the station controller and the train drivers and the conductor….were in and out of the train in deep conversation.

Minutes ticked by…and every minute was precious, due to my short changeover time…after 10 minutes, I knew I would be missing my connection…meanwhile the smelly man kept coming to his seat, rummaging around and taking the delay as a welcome opportunity to smoke another old butt or two! Not at this point realising he was the reason for the hold up!

THEN…. Four policemen arrived…and removed him and his smelly bag of junk from his seat (in front of me) ….more delay, by now over half an hour sitting patiently, while they proceeded to get him to unload everything from his backpack just outside my window. It was a sad affair…and not sure what the big issue was… other than he didn’t pay for a ticket.

So finally – they all left the platform with another traveller and we chugged out 35 minutes behind schedule.

Phew…time for a bathroom break, the bathrooms in the trains are usually great…but I opened the door and it was a swimming pool of urine and other bodily fluids…for the first time in a long time the urge to pee just totally went away….bathroom rating -10! If that is the worst ever! The conductor told me I’d be best to wait until Agen…like that decision hadn’t already been made.

I am now waiting at Agen station for the next train connection in an hour or so…still overcast and not too hot, aside from the train trauma (some things you just cannot unsee!) I will still have time to catch the bus to the airport in time for my flight to Malta!