The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

[Emily_Babbelhund]

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Andale! We are on the train to Munich where I will have an hour wee break before we board the train to Bologna . I know Bolonia in Spain but not the one in Italy. I do not think this Bologna will have a beach and zombie ghost ships.

There was another few inches of snow and -3 this morning, but 14C today in Florence. Que raro, how weird!

 

[M.F.]

Happy travels! I do love train travel. It gives you the opportunity to transport yourself into a new place at an easy pace.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Brrr!

 

[Loraseal]

Enjoy the trip Emily and Carbon.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

ML here: we are now stuck on the train outside Munich . There is a block both in front and behind us. Despite leaving 1.5 hours to transfer in Munich, we will now miss our train.

 

[Stacia]

Oh NOOOO

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

We’re on a train now, but it will only get us to Verona. Then we’ll have to figure something else out. So frustrating as to be safe, I left on a train from Regensburg hours earlier than the itinerary on my ticket. So much for leaving a safety cushion!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

And now I’ve been told I will be tossed off the train at the next stop because Carbon has no ticket. I’ve never had a ticket for my dogs.

oh my god, I miss my car so much. ‍

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

I was not tossed off the train because I showed both the initial tosser (pun intended) and the supervisor tosser the page on the DB (German train) site that assistance dogs do not need a ticket or muzzle.

“Well how do you expect us to know that? We work 40 hours a week!”

No apology, but we’re still on the train and that’s something.

by the way, no offer during the whole thing of me simply buying aticket for him, which I would think would be the interim option before throwing me off the train.

I had an alternate plan if they questioned my service dog owning eligibility : do a strip tease to show all my burn scars. Would have been chilly, but the resulting visual trauma on the part of the tossers would have been worth it.

As for the other, I’ve now rebooked my tickets on Trenitalia from Verona straight to Florence. I’m losing money, but rolling into Florence before 10pm is worth it. Thank goodness for my Tesco Mobile service which is performing like a champ.

now let’s hope all of today’s excitement is over!

 

[M.F.]

So sorry for all the glitches. But looking at that weather outside, I think it’s safer on the train rather than in the car.

 

[Jacqui-S]

Oh goodness Emily, you don't end up doing things the easy way.....
But you WILL get there!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

So sorry for all the glitches. But looking at that weather outside, I think it’s safer on the train rather than in the car.

Oh yes, I wouldn’t have done this trip by car in any case. Snow and the TARDIS don’t mix, plus I wanted to be in the city center and not worry about parking.

On the bright side, the other train personnel are being quite nice to Carbon and me after the ‘incident’. I suspect that Tosser #1 is a bit of a bully and not limitedto the passengers.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Oh goodness Emily, you don't end up doing things the easy way.....
But you WILL get there!

Oh definitely we’ll get there eventually , it’s all part of the public transport experience !

 

[Stacia]

What a difficult day you have had, you are amazing in how you sort every problem out, but it must be horrid for you.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

What a difficult day you have had, you are amazing in how you sort every problem out, but it must be horrid for you.

That's kind of you to say, but it's not horrid, just inconvenient. I'm still wiped out from the house refurb in California and trying to keep up with work, then there's jet lag. It all kind of got to me. At the end of the day, it was my choice to come and it will be lovely once I've settled in. I have to admit that if I had an apartment in Regensburg, I would have gladly gone to bed for a week and then had a quiet and calm Christmas and New Year's without moving one single kilometre. Barring that, I'm regretting not simply camping out somewhere in France until the house in St Merryn was free at the beginning of the year. I felt I had to be adventurous and do this backpacking thing, but maybe I've had one too many personal challenges this year and I could have let this one go.

It's been a sensory overload day the likes of which I've not had for a while as a usually-car-driving human, and tomorrow is another day.

I've arrived at the apartment by the way. It's just as run down as I thought, but cleaner than I expected. I wish I'd just rented it for a couple days instead of NINE but once I'm able to visit my wonderful Italian teacher (Monday), hit up the Lucca antiques market (Sunday), and do some visits to Siena and Rome, I'll be singing another tune.

Besides, 4 months on an air mattress on top of the 45 year old sofa bed at my father's has primed me for low standards when it comes to bedding and general decor.

 

[Stacia]

Glad you have arrived at the apartment, sorry it is run down, is it bearable? It sounds as if you are going to have an interesting time in the next few days which will help and you will finally be able to relax!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Glad you have arrived at the apartment, sorry it is run down, is it bearable?

Oh yes, it's liveable. I've had much worse. The one in Cannes with cockroaches and drug dealers in the next apartment rented to me by someone who looked suspiciously like a member of the Russian mafia will always mean that everything else looks rosy in comparison.

I knew what this would be when I rented it. There are two types of Airbnb: (1) I bought this place and fixed it up with IKEA stuff, or (2) my grandmother passed away and we didn't know what to do with her stuff or her place so we just turned it into a rental without changing anything. I vastly prefer #1, but sometimes you get stuck with #2. I could have had #1, but it would have been twice the price. I'm cheap at heart, so I went with grandma this time around. It will be character-building.

Carbon at least likes the bed, he's been passed out in there for over an hour already. And even though I covered the bedspread with our own sheet, no need to worry as no dog hair will show ever on that print. Kind of reminds me of the patterned carpets people in the UK used to have in their houses in the early 1990s. Ah, good times.

Alright, I promise to hand this back over to our Señor tomorrow!

 

[Emily]

There are two types of Airbnb: (1) I bought this place and fixed it up with IKEA stuff, or (2) my grandmother passed away and we didn't know what to do with her stuff or her place so we just turned it into a rental without changing anything.

OMG this is so true!!

We once went to a #2 that was so awful we didn't stay! Firstly it was completely full of grandma's stuff, even all of her old photo frames . Then there was the very suspicious large dark brown stain by the side of the master bed. I couldn't shake the thought that a part of grandma was still in the house . But the final nail in the coffin was that we discovered that they'd put open boxes of rat bait throughout the house and Ella had moved one, possibly by racing past it, possibly much worse. So it was vet rush followed by loooooong drive home

Now we always look out for the Ikea furniture in the photos

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

we discovered that they'd put open boxes of rat bait throughout the house

Holy Moses, that's horrible!

As I'm rat poison and suspicious-dark-brown-stain-free, I'm going to call this place a win. However, it is a reminder to me of something I already knew: if you can't name at least two pieces of furniture out of an IKEA catalog in the online rental photos , WALK AWAY. I'm not sure why I keep having to relearn that except my die-hard cheapitude.

Especially after having just redone my own rental house, I keep looking at things in this place like I'm Gordon Ramsey in Hotel Hell and someone would value my critiques. I need to regain my hard-earned superhuman ability to ignore even the most egregious home furnishing sins.