‘Hallo! Sure you my buddy! Would you like some medicine?’ mentioned a cheery teenage narcotics salesman.
‘No!’ I mentioned, standing within the sunshine outdoors Marseille St Charles railway station considering the town rooftops whereas ready for a practice.
Tucked inside my jacket pocket was a 30-day (steady) Eurail move. Using the rails throughout Europe for a month, alighting and disembarking on a whim, was a long-cherished dream.
Andalucian power: Jeremy toured Europe on a 30-day Eurail move, with stops together with Seville
In one other pocket was a 30-day provide of antidepressants. Capsules and a month on rails throughout Europe, I hoped, would see off a current contact of the blues. It was my sixtieth birthday.
I climbed aboard the following practice to Barcelona, slung my bag up on to the baggage rack and settled in to a sunny window seat. A whistle blew and we had been transferring, carving a easy, curving passage by means of low-rise suburbs.
If efficiency is three-quarters of character, the aged French practice conductor had made it his total life’s mission. I confirmed him my Eurail move in its blue case and he bowed on the waist. ‘Et bon voyage, Monsieur!’ he mentioned.
The TGV (France’s high-speed rail service) was a flying monster, hugging the French Mediterranean coast. For half an hour, we sped alongside a slim, invisible causeway, the ocean on our left, an enormous freshwater lake on the best.
The French frontier was a blur as we shot throughout at 200mph. I stepped down from the practice an hour later at Barcelona Sants railway station.
Twenty minutes after that I used to be urgent the bell of the youth hostel I’d chosen at random on the Hostelworld app.
Vibe: Jeremy described Barcelona as being ‘youthful, self-confident and socially liberal’
The Peruvian supervisor checked me in and commenced psychoanalysing me. He had noticed my downside the second he noticed me, he mentioned. How previous was I?
‘Sixty at the moment,’ I mentioned.
‘Effectively, at 60 years previous,’ he mentioned, ‘isn’t it about time you stopped pretending to be anyone you’re not?’
Barcelona’s youthful, self-confident, socially liberal vibe jogged my memory of Amsterdam, solely the tempo was brisker, the skies cleaner, the structure funkier.
It crossed my thoughts that I may tear up my rail move and dwell there. However on the third morning, stricken with my third hangover, I climbed aboard an early morning commuter practice to Alicante.
I thought of the Peruvian sage’s phrases of knowledge all the best way there.
The resort of Alicante is a showcase of each hideous, low-rise architectural vogue for the reason that Seventies. I cherished it. A glass of beer prices €1 and the individuals couldn’t be nicer. You could be your self there.
I slept two nights at a youth hostel, the place I shared a bunk with a well mannered younger South Korean man who wore monogrammed pyjamas to mattress. Did he assume I used to be attempting to be somebody I used to be not, I requested him? He regarded me warily and mentioned I appeared OK.
Excessive velocity: Jeremy snaked alongside the French Mediterranean coast aboard the TGV
A bus trip was obligatory to finish the journey down the east coast of Spain.
The south-eastern metropolis of Almeria is the driest and hottest in Europe. From there, the practice snaked throughout the snow-capped Alpujarra mountains to Granada, and from Granada throughout a flat plain to Seville.
On the hostel in Seville, I slept in a room with 4 completely hungry, fractious black ladies from Detroit.
‘You’re from England, proper?’ mentioned one. I admitted it.
‘Is everybody in England as nuts as you?’ she mentioned.
Within the morning we had been woken by the sonorous bells, proper subsequent door, of the most important gothic cathedral on the earth.
My field of antidepressants was unopened and I felt extra solidly cheerful than I did after I left
‘Holy s***!’ mentioned the one mendacity on the mattress above me.
After Seville, by now feeling fairly the wandering nomad, I went to Madrid, Zaragoza and again to Barcelona.
I returned to the identical hostel, the place the Peruvian novice psychologist mentioned he accredited of how chilled and genuine I had change into. As a reward, he took me to a reggae night time in a packed dance corridor.
The subsequent day, I went to Milan. I had thought Barcelona was subtle, however Milan made it seem to be Truro.
I ordered an Aperol Spritz and it got here in a glass as massive as my head.
The waiter who delivered it groaned on the weight of the glass as he positioned it on the desk earlier than me. I assumed it was a joke, however no, he’d simply had a large exercise, he defined, and his arms had been aching.
After Milan, I went to Como, then again to Milan, then I took a direct quick practice to Marseille, the place I known as it a day with one other week nonetheless to run on my rail move.
My field of antidepressants was unopened and I felt extra solidly cheerful than I did after I left.
