16 hours by train

I’m in Santa Lucia train station in Seville. All around, a bustle of travelers, police and officials. From time to time there is a group of tourists, who find it difficult to make their way through the crowd.

To get to Lisbon, I have to change trains twice. I will have to wait no less than 4 hours at the train station in Caceres. It will certainly be a long and difficult journey, but I think it is worth it. Tomorrow I will enjoy the Atlantic.

The route from Seville to Merida is fantastic. You feel “like in the middle of nowhere”, surrounded by mountains, valleys and little rivers. Every 40-50 minutes, the train stops in one local station. Nobody goes up, nobody goes down. It’s a very strange feeling. It’s like you’re abandoned by the world. It’s just you, the train, the mountains and the huge fields where you see a bunch of animals grazing quietly.

Merida. It’s already past 8 and I still don’t feel tired. An inner energy seems to give me the strength to move on.

Between Merida and Caceres I paid the 4EUR extra charge, but nobody checked my ticket.

Caceres, 9:55 PM. The next train to Lisbon leaves at 1:53 AM. It will arrive at the destination in the morning around 8. It will be a long night.

There is a silence in the train station that scares you. At the bar, a woman who seems to very bored is waiting for customers. She is over 30, has red dyed hair and wears a white robe. He glances at me and continues to wash some glasses. Some footsteps can be heard in the distance. I look to the right, an old station clerk is walking slowly and slowly towards the bar. He orders a beer and drinks it slowly, probably waiting for sun to shine again and return to his family.

No train has passed in 40 minutes. It’s 11:24 pm and I’m thinking of sleeping 2 hours, but yesterday’s experience in the park makes me think. Maybe I’ll wake up without a backpack. Maybe I’ll be missing the train. Yeah, al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like sleep is not an option.

A security guy is rushing towards me. He checks my ticket and tells me that the station will close. So I won’t have access to the exit towards the city. I tell him it’s okay. I’ll wait for my train inside the station. I’m not going to visit the city at this time.

As soon as I got on the train I fell asleep. The seats were more than comfortable. I was so sleepy that I couldn’t even tell the difference between the train seats and the hostel bed. It’s 7:35 and theoretically I should have arrived in Lisbon by now. I look out the window: field. A state of panic grips me. I’m waiting. After more than 1 hour, the train arrives at the first station in Lisbon. I look at the station clock: 7:30. Shit! I forgot to check the local time to Portugal. It’s a different time zone here.

I have been gone for almost 2 weeks, thousands of kilometers away from Romania and I still don’t miss it.