Backtracking...

What an amazing few days it has been! We´re a little behind on our posting. After we left Barcelona, a whirlwind of activity occurred and we haven't had a whole lot of time to update.

So let's back up for a moment.....

We left Barcelona in a blaze of glory....on an overnight hotel train. What is a hotel train, you ask? Well, as the name suggests, it is a hotel. On a train. But for two weary backpackers whose train travels until this point consisted of sleeping next to random strangers and being jarred awake by screaming children, the hotel train was, quite simply, awesomeness on wheels.

Ending up on a hotel train was pretty much an accident. We bought our tickets from a very disgruntled ticket man in Barcelona. After denying Jennifer's credit card and accusing her of thievery, he handed over our tickets to Switzerland. Imagine our shock when we realized that we had just paid him well over the price he had quoted us (we kind of think he had his 1's and his 2's mixed up - a minor communication gap). Suddenly, we were the disgruntled ones, cursing him silently and narrowing our eyes at him from behind the plate glass ticket window. We had been hosed by Evil Ticket Man.

"Oh well," we thought, the wind seeping from our sails, "This better be one hell of a train."

We approached our train nervously, fully recognizing that this could either be really good or really, really bad. If Evil Ticket Man was capable of overcharging us just because we were tourists, he certainly had the potential to make our lives miserable in other ways. We had visions of waking up on the train the next morning to signs reading, "Welcome to Baghdad!" while Evil Ticket Man cackled to himself in his Evil Little Ticket Booth back in Barcelona.

But no! A hotel train was waiting for us! We'd only heard of such a thing! And now, we'd actually get to ride one! Sweet!

So maybe Evil Ticket Man wasn't so evil after all. Maybe he looked at us and realized that we needed, nay deserved, a night of luxury on the 10 hour journey to Switzerland. Maybe he was taking matters into his own hands because he knew we'd never spend that kind of money on purpose. Maybe, just maybe.

Either way, it didn't take us long to forgive him. We had our own room (no hamstink!) with a closet, sink and seats that flipped over into surprisingly plush bunk beds. They gave us towels and toiletry kits, complete with earplugs (that we didn't even need!!), toothbrush, comb, sewing kit and little wipies (love the little wipies!). We were just beside ourselves with excitement and if we had had our iPods, we would have thrown a dance party right then and there. There was even a friendly attendant who turned down our beds and made sure that we were, in fact, headed for Switzerland and not Baghdad.

All was wonderful!!! Until....

Instead of being jarred awake by screaming children, we were jolted from a dead sleep by a very aggressive knock at the door and a very aggresive man yelling, "Police!"

My thoughts ran wild....

Had Evil Ticket Man sent the authorities after us? But it's NOT a stolen credit card! Jennifer's NAME is on the card! The same NAME that is on her PASSPORT which also happens to have her PICTURE on it! It all fits together very nicely!! Oh my God, I don't want to go to JAIL!!!!

Turns out, it was no big deal. There was only an evil-doer on the loose who just happened to look a lot like Jennifer and they needed to check things out. At midnight. After studying her passport intently (and only glancing at mine), they allowed us to return to our slumber. Kind of scary, but also very 24-esque.

Apparently, there is something about Jennifer that makes people think "common criminal" when they see her. I guess I can kind of see where they're coming from.

Aside from that little episode, we slept soundly in our room with smiles on our faces all night long. And for this we say...Thank you Evil Ticket Man. It's been our favorite mistake yet.

xoxoxoxoxox