You can see pictures from this day here.
Dijon turned out to be a really cool town. I originally picked it because it was near a famous wine region, it was along the main train route to Italy, and because I wanted to check out a French town that wasn’t as big as Paris but still with plenty to do.
Dijon worked out nicely. We started off with showers in the morning, and we had some really strange old towels to use. I think they were just old, but I couldn’t quite explain the texture – call it a weird experience. They were clean, though, and that’s what mattered.
After checking out of our hotel and leaving our backpacks with the main desk we set out to explore Dijon. The town was bustling with tourism, but not quite like Paris was. There were plenty of shops to look at. We started by going into a small bakery and buying an assortment of breads. We didn’t know how to pronounce the breads that we wanted, so Kuniko came up with an ingenious idea – she wrote down the names of the breads from the price tags in the case, and then we just handed over the paper with a smile. The clerk laughed and laughed – she thought it was the funniest thing ever. But, we got the bread that we wanted, and then we went to a small square to eat them and do some sightseeing.
Dijon had a morning farmer’s market going, and so we walked around looking at merchandise. There was a big emphasis on fruits and vegetables, but there was also plenty of mustard, meat, cheese, wine, and chocolate.
It was a good day – we shopped without really buying much. We skipped lunch because we were full of bread and instead drank espressos and later wine at cafes and bars. I found a shoe store that had a nice pair of hiking boots in my size, so I picked those up, and left my old shoes in the garbage can in a park – hopefully a homeless guy can get some use out of them.
In the early evening it started sprinkling, and we discovered that the cheap-o umbrella (dubbed Troy Jr. by Kuniko) that we had bought for five Euros was defective. We opened it and it fell right off the stem. We were forced to buy another umbrella (Troy the Third) and that kept us dry until we could sneak into a restaurant for dinner at seven p.m.
The dinner that night was our last in France, so we had searched the guidebook until we found one that looked suitable for a farewell meal. It turned out to be a great restaurant – it was underground under a vaulted ceiling, and we had a waitress that spoke English who could explain things to us. We had two set meals that had five courses each. That combined with a bottle of local Pinot Noir and we were in heaven. The dinner was the nicest one I think we had the whole trip. Kuniko got to eat Foie Gras, I had duck, and there was enough cheese to tide us over until we come back to France or shop at Carrefour back home.
After dinner we hauled our stuffed bellies to the train station, and waited there for an overnight train to take us to Venice by way of Florence. The train was due in around 9:30, so we made it there with about 20 minutes to spare. They had a nice diagram on the wall to show us where to stand to get on the correct coach – a touch that was very Japanese. We sat there waiting for the train, not knowing what to expect. This was our first time sleeping on a train overnight.
When the train arrived none of the numbers matched with the diagram. Maybe not so Japanese after all. We were standing far from where we were supposed to be. We didn’t know how long they were stopping, so it was a frantic run to the correct car. We jumped on board and found the right room. We were the last of six people to arrive in the tiny car, and our bunks were on the very top. We were sharing the room with a couple of French college students, and a husband and wife that looked Indian or Pakistani.
Where do I begin? It was awful. First, here we are on our honeymoon and we’re trapped in a room the size of our bedroom back home with four strangers. A long time ago I booked a private room, but due to some kind of error with Eurail’s website I had no choice left but to switch to this set-up. I remember the Eurail person on the phone telling me reassuringly, “It’s like a hostel on a train!” It was exactly like that, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
We threw our luggage up onto the top rack, climbed a ladder to get to our separate bunks, and then were given a blanket and a pillow by the French lady sleeping below. Then, the conductor came by to check our tickets. He asked to see our passports, and then left with them. Kuniko and I looked at each other and panicked – first rule of travel, don’t give up your passport. How did we even know that guy was really the conductor? Kuniko went down the hall and the guy assured her that he’d give it back before we arrived. I did some research in the Eurail handbook, and found a small paragraph in the back that said that occasionally this situation might occur, and it was perfectly normal. In short, it was not the romantic night I was hoping for when I booked the trip months ago, and we sat isolated from each other surrounded by strangers while the train rocked and rolled through the night.
It was tough to sleep at first. Everyone in the other cabins seemed to be loud and wanting to party. There was at least one poker game going, and people kept telling stories of their travels over and over again. The bathroom was a mess already, and so finally I just decided to try to sleep. It was tough to sleep, though. It was hard to get used to the noise of the train, and being on the top bunk was a little scary, too. It was a long way down. The French couple whispered to each other in French below us, the Pakistani couple whispered to each other in Pakistani, and Kuniko and I spoke in Japanese – everybody was having a private conversation at least.
Finally, the lights went out, we were bathed in a blue glow from the night light, and we had nothing left to do but try to sleep through it. For me it was the worst night of the trip, by far. I could only curse the Eurail website and remember that no matter how slow it was going, there was a finite amount of time until we arrived in Venice.
