Eurorail passes can eat my poo

So, just to put this out there, Eurorail passes can eat my poo! Seriously, these things are a rip-off a scam, a veritable snake oil. There is no reason to buy one...ever. Seriously, I shelled out 400 bones on this thing and as of yet have not had reason or opportunity to use it! At first I was like Eurorail? Sure! I'll use it all the time! I am travelling throughout Europe and what could be better. Well, here is the thing. First off, I was assured by my STA advisor (Adam...thanks) that of course we could use the pass for the 19 hour boat ride across the mediteranian. It's part of the Eurorail network. Well, not so true. It turns out there is a light discount but no free ticket. "Ok fine!" we thought. "We can simply eat this one last fair, and then once in Barcelona we can use it to it's full advantage!" Excitement abounds.

Oops. France is on strike again. I assure, it is not a normal month in France if they are not protesting something but usually it affects no one important but this time its ME. I'm pretty damn important in my book and this is just putting peanut butter in my Archimedes screw! And yes I admit that this is not the fault of the Eurorail network but as it turns out there is some real REAL fine print on the ticket that disallows certain train usage unless you want to pay a premium. It's just not that useful...at least not in my book. I'd say go ahead and either pay as you go or research Ryan Air options. This is a great way to travel and you don't have to sweat your body weight while carrying a pack to an un air-conditioned train.

There is of course the problem of getting to small towns like what we are encountering right now trying to get to Collioure France for the next leg of our trip, when they obviously have no air strip but a regional ticket is a nothing charge. And if you are going from Madrid to Barcelona, Rome to Paris or anything like that flying is definately the best bet. This is the modern era people and while we all find a certain amount of romanticism by training it across Europe and being all granola the fact remains that while we maintain a certain image of Europe, it did grow up with the rest of the world.

Imagine taking an Amtrack from NY to Miami. Not fun.

So that's my rant

Happy birthday Mom!
Happy Birthday Ryan!
Happy Flag Day All!