{"id":281,"date":"2015-07-27T18:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T18:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.wordpress.com\/?p=281"},"modified":"2015-07-27T18:04:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T18:04:00","slug":"renfe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.org\/everythingelse\/2015\/07\/27\/renfe\/","title":{"rendered":"Renfe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"all<\/a>
People seemed rather lost oarding the Intercity train to Valenca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nI love travelling by train. You get on, find your seat or cabin, and wait. You can get up, walk around, go to the dining car if there is one… \u00a0Eventually you get where you’re going, and you can’t do much to speed up the trip. It’s out of your hands. (For the most part. I’ve had to jump out of broken down trains and walk across the tracks to jump on another going the same way. I’ve had to change routes altogether because of flooded tracks. Generally, though, you’re stuck until the train you’re on gets where it’s going).
\nThe time I travelled to Spain (and my first solo trip out of the country), I came as a YFU<\/a> exchange student. \u00a0We spent several days in Madrid in orientation, and then they loaded us onto trains bound for the provinces, with instructions regarding where we were supposed to get off. \u00a0I had several other exchange students on my train. \u00a0One was bound for Valladolid<\/a>, two stops before Palencia<\/a> (where I was headed). \u00a0Venta de Ba\u00f1os<\/a>\u00a0was the last stop before Palencia, although I suppose most of today’s trains don’t stop there. \u00a0<\/strong>Venta de Ba\u00f1os used to be the primary railway junction for the northeast and northwest provinces of Spain. \u00a0I have a vague memory of another YFU exchange student having to change trains for Santander at\u00a0Venta de Ba\u00f1os, but that may be my imagination, or it may have been another trip. \u00a0In any case, the boy who was supposed to get off in Valladolid didn’t, and he was told–lots of arm-waving and running after the train–to get off with me in Palencia. \u00a0We were very ready to get off there!.
\nBy the time I finished that first year in Spain, I was quite comfortable with RENFE<\/a>, the Spanish train system. \u00a0I’d travelled on the Talgo (then the fastest trains in Spain, but far outpaced by the AVE<\/a>, and even today’s intercity trains) and on the milk runs.
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\"AVE\"<\/a>
The AVE (alta velocidad espa\u00f1ola) is Spain’s high-speed train. It’s expensive, and only a few minutes faster than the Intercity, so I did not travel in it this time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nIt was quite cheap then. \u00a0Not so much now. \u00a0The first AVE went only to Sevilla (and stops on the way), but they’ve been expanding the high speed tracks all over Spain. \u00a0It’s meant some confusion for me, because the stations have changed. \u00a0When I took the AVE to Valencia four years ago, I assumed it stopped at the Estaci\u00f3 del Nord.. so did the people who were picking me up. \u00a0But ever since the AVE reached Valencia, the long distance trains stop at Joaquin Sorolla, just down the tracks, but rather complicated to\u00a0drive<\/em> to in a car.
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\"joaquin<\/a>
Joaquin Sorolla train station in Valencia, Spain, is the stop for long distance runs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThere is little difference between intercity and AVE trains to Valencia, except in the price. Either way, the trip is air-conditioned, comfortable, and fast (around two hours to Madrid, vs. up to six in a car if you get traffic. \u00a0I’ve got bad memories of slow<\/em> returns after holidays).
\nNew to me were the handicapped bathrooms on the Intercity–huge, and\u00a0air conditioned.<\/em> \u00a0Note that the regular WCs are\u00a0not<\/em> air-conditioned and are decidedly stuffy and a bit stinky.
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\"The<\/a>
The handicapped bathrooms are large and airconditioned \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nDuring my Junior Year Abroad, I travelled all over Europe by train. Georgetown encouraged its students to study abroad, so many of my friends were in Europe. I studied in Madrid, at the Universidad Complutense<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em>I had friends in Vienna, Lyons, Strasbourg… I met people on the train and in stations, and stayed in Paris with a Spanish\/French girl from Malaga. \u00a0Sometimes I just headed out of Madrid and changed trains according to which had a couchette available. \u00a0I’d spend the hours reading or writing in my journal.. no portable technology then. \u00a0I did not take many pictures, certainly not of bathrooms or the countryside. \u00a0Of course, I did not have the advantage of digital cameras nor the luxury of taking hundreds of pictures, to keep only the few good ones.
\nThis time I slept and took pictures:
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