eurail sucks

ok, i just spent two weeks in continental europe training around, thanks to a handy-dandy eurail pass. in case you don't know what it is, it's a pass available to non-EU residents that's a giant train ticket.

for example, mine is a 15 day flexi-pass, which means i can use it over any 15 days in a two months period for a cost of 650 dollars, which is supposedly a discounted price on train tickets. it works in 18 EU countries (england not included, jackasses. but who's really surprised?) and works on local/regional trains, international trains, and high-speed trains.

so what's wrong?

well, they send you a time table, which is a train schedule, and is supposed to be spot-on. unwittingly, we trusted this timetable and planned our travels around the train times provided. and that was the downfall of our vacation. little did we know that not only the departure times were wrong, but the durations and layovers listed were also completely wrong. we spent almost half our vacation in train stations queuing to get new timetables, missing some trains that weren't listed, and wasting an additional 50 euro to reserve seats ON TOP of the afore-mentioned eurail ticket price. not to mention that some countries (FRANCE) are just SLOW ASSHOLES and caused us to miss our train to marseilles and be stuck in Nice overnight. sounds great, i know.... but smelles like piss, and that was the best part of it. france is dirty.

now, i have 8 days left to use, but the downside to that is that i have to use it. my frustration with the system is huge, and you can't return the thing (duh) or get a refund.

so my advice to you is this: spend the extra $300 (yes, almost $1000) to get a first class ticket so you can use the high-speed trains and get to places in 2 hours instead of 5 with a million stops in between. better yet, don't use eurail at all. just fly. ryanair is my friend.