Day 2 began bleary and early. To the train station Ross and I headed with our bags and our excitement for the next week. With exams the Monday after our week of travel, I made doubly sure to pack notes and flashcards as well as my mp3 player. Deluding myself, I imagined I'd be able to tear my attention away from cuddling Ross on the trains in order to study. One walk to Compans Caff, then a very short metro ride later, Ross and I found our way onto our first train for Valence. We were fortunate enough to have seats next to each other and spend the ride engaged in all the normal travel distractions: mad libs, crosswords, talking, dozing, watching the scenery flash by....
At Valence we found sandwich lunches from a stand inside the tiny train station, watched people stroll/run by in all assortments of garb and appearance, then made our way to the next train headed to Chambery. On our first train we had had reserved seats. This leg of the trip was not the same. The train an hour earlier to Chambery had encountered some issue and so all the passengers had been advised to find room on the next train, incidentally the train Ross and I were about to get onto. Once the doors opened the waiting crowd turned into a frenzied mob with people shoving, complaining, and rushing trying to secure the few seats available. For the rest of us the trip would be spent sitting on bags in the aisle or standing mushed up against someone in between cars like sardines in a tiny tin can. Ross and I thankfully got an aisle position which allowed us a little more standing room and the option, if we could manage it, of putting our bags on the overhead shelf. We were positive about the situation, holding hands and talking of little things while the train sped past little tiny french villages. I was just happy we weren't in between cars where people had to shift and find even more room that didn't seem to exist since each stop between Valence and Chambery revealed more and more people crushing themselves into the train in order to get to Chambery.
Chambery had an even smaller train station than Valence, a veritable corridor between the street and the awaiting trains and maybe enough sitting for a couple dozen people. Cold in the station, and desperately needing to use the restroom, I convinced Ross that this was the perfect time to spend our hour long layover at a cafe getting drinks.
Directly across from the train station sat a cafe with neon green lights and a dated interior and two customers inside. While not the best looking place it seemed okay enough so we entered with our luggage and sat down at a booth facing the counter/bar. Cokes and fries were ordered, drank, and devoured while Ross and I fiddled away our hour. At last we climbed back aboard a train headed for Turin (this time with plenty of open seating and room for luggage). Just as Ross and I were starting our 5th game of gin while two french kids ran up and down the aisle stopping every so often to watch our card play we pulled into a snow covered little train station. Everyone gathered their things and began to leave the train while Ross and I looked around confusedly. We weren't in Chambery yet....
I asked three different people who all told me that the train was broken and so we were being bussed to Turin. Okay, fair enough Ross and I thought, trying to remain positive despite our tiredness and the realization that a bus trip was going to take considerably longer than a train ride. Directed to one bus we dragged our bags and our feet only to be told to try the next bus. Ross stowed our bags and we began to climb aboard the second bus, but we were told to go back to the first bus. Ross went to get our luggage while I stood waiting by the first bus. Onto the first bus we climbed, finding that it was overfull and we'd probably spend the next few hours standing. Right about this time Ross and I began to complain to each other. The bus driver complained of not being able to drive on the highway with standing passengers while some other transport official rushed around trying to get a proper headcount and ordering taxis to take some of the passengers to the next closest town. The other buses to Turin pulled out of the station. Ross and I complained more as we watched a half hour tick by. Finally, the bus was unloaded enough by those headed to the next town over (going by taxi) that Ross and I were able to nab seats. A few hours later we were in Turin Italy, dropped outside the train station in the cold, past time for restaurants to be open, and very late for hotel check-in.
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