The Great Train Debacle

So I forgot to share a story that happened to Sarah and I a couple weeks ago in the train station here in Valladolid. We decided it would be best to go and buy all of the train tickets we would need for our weekend trips all at one time. Seems smart right? We were planning in advance and not procrastinating! We’d previously purchased train tickets for Madrid with our whole group in the train station before so we figured this would be pan comido (piece of cake). We were SO wrong!

We entered the train station and immediately walked up to the counter we had used the previous time, not noticing the line. Before saying anything, he pointed to the line behind us so we walked away and waited our turn. After that, we walked up to him again saying that we needed train tickets to Madrid and the specific days we needed. He looked at us like we’re dumb and pointed to the left muttering something fast in Spanish. We figured he was pointing to the train ticket machines scattered around the building. Okay, easy. As soon as we tried to pick the date and time we wanted it didn’t show that option. We’d already researched the times and knew they were available! Of course, it turned out to be the wrong machine: the one that works for the other line of trains. Perfect. We walked back over to the counters and noticed that each counter had a sign above it. The one we had originally tried to use was for trains leaving within 24 hours. We saw the area for pre-purchase tickets so we waited for a counter to open. After explaining what we wanted he asked for our number. Our number? We were very confused until he picked up a paper ticket with a number on it. Oh! We had to pull a number from a machine. Apparently that’s what the first man had told us and we just didn’t understand. We pulled our number and then realized that the annoying bell sound was telling the people waiting around that another number was called. Above each counter was a number and we’d apparently missed the memo that you had to have a number.

Eventually, our number was called and we were able to purchase all of our tickets easily. I guess the first time we went to the train station the man at the counter was so overwhelmed by the fact that 12 college students were talking to him that he just let us continue to purchase tickets even though he was only supposed to tell tickets for that current day. This led to our immense confusion in the train station. It was definitely a comical experience for everyone in the lobby. They watched as we went from the counter to the machine back to a counter to a different machine until we were finally correct. We’ve definitely learned that the purchase of train tickets is more complicated than we thought!