Backpacking through Europe in 1994

Day 82 • November 27, 1994
My night in an abandoned boat in Port Bou, spain

Well, it happened again! I missed my train and had no place to spend the night.

At least this time I was in Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where the temperature was probably 50 degrees warmer than Stockholm. And in my defense, I didn’t miss my train - there was a misprint in the train table I was using and there was no actual train when I was expecting there to be one. My plan this whole trip had been to sleep as much as possible on overnight trains between cities. This was the case that night thirty years ago - I wasn’t planning on being stuck at 9:00 pm in a tiny Spanish town on the border with France, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

My credit cards were maxed out, I had no Spanish or French money, so my adventure continued as I found an abandoned boat to spend the night in.

This is another story I’ve told hundreds of times, and no matter how I’ve described the situation I was in, the scene of the small village, the boat itself, nothing is as good as seeing the pictures.

I am so grateful I have these two pictures of the boat, because every time I see them, all the memories and feelings I had that night come rushing back to me!

I spent a night in this abandoned boat along the south-eastern coast of Spain after discovering the train-table had a misprint and the train I was planing to take during the night didn’t exist.

My Photographs from today traveling to Portbou, Spain

DAY 82 / 11-27-94
traveling towards Rota Spain and getting stuck in portbou

It’s actually day 83 now, but I had another interesting night last night. I slept almost the whole way to Nice [France], & everything was going just fine, until I found out the train I was planning to take to Barcelona no longer existed. After some quick thinking I realized I could still make it by going to Avingon, France. Not that big of a deal, but I’m starting to get real sick of these last-minute changes.

Along the way there, these two very nice elderly ladies fed me. They were French, spoke no English, but I was able to get my situation across to them. They gave me two ham sandwiches, an orange & some seltzer water, which was very generous considering the way I looked & possibly smelled. (Which, then again, may be the reason they fed me).

Well, things were about to go from bad to worse. The train I was going to take to Barcelona [I think I meant Avignon] didn’t exist anymore either. I had to take a train to a place called Port Bou, which wasn’t even on any of my maps.

MOTHERFUCKER, I thought to myself, here I go again, another Stockholm. SHIT! I knew things were going too good for me.

I arrived in Port Bou at 8:00 [pm]. It was this TINY border station, on the Spanish side of the border. The guy at the info desk spoke no English, but French, so I was able to ask for the next train to Barcelona. It left at 9:30 [pm] but put me in too late to make the overnight train to Sevilla [Spain]. So then on a hunch asked for the next train to Madrid, hoping for a night one. No such luck. Next one was at 8 in the morning.

Things weren’t looking too good for our hero, me being the hero, of course.

I took a deep breath & examined the possibilities at hand. #1. Go on to Barcelona, find a place at 11:00 at night to crash, & take the day train to Sevilla. Or #2. Stay the night somewhere here in Port Bou, take the 8:00 [am] to Madrid, which got in at 3 [pm]; and then catch the next train to Sevilla, which run every hour & are fast, and end up in Sevilla roughly the same time as plan #1.

Since I had an hour & a half to make up my mind, I decided to walk around outside and survey the place. If nothing looked promising, I’d go on to Barcelona.

First I called Jeff, or tried. I couldn’t get through to the barracks, so I tried his work. He wasn’t in, but I left a message, & hope he got it.

I hoped to find a place here, it felt like a safe place, pretty empty & it was warm outside. Kind of like I’d rather stay near a bus stop in Minden [Nebraska, next town to Kearney, population 3,000] than near the bus stop in Kansas City [Missouri, population 500,000].

I figured I was due for a little luck, & I got it. Across from the station was a vacant lot with some abandoned boats in it. It was well lit & very deserted. I walked over to inspect the boats, & one was perfect. It was completely stripped; it was just a hull. It was still attached to a rusting boat trailer. It looked like no one had touched it for years.

I was able to lock up my pack to the trailer – the weeds were tall enough that you couldn’t even see it – and there was plenty of room for me to unroll my sleeping bag inside the boat. (First I had to brush away some cobwebs).

The sides of the boat were high enough to protect me from both the wind and more importantly from anyone’s view.

I’ve learned to trust my gut instinct, and it hasn’t let me down yet. And my gut was practically yelling to my brain that this was as good as it was going to get, better than I could ever expect, actually, to stay here & have the whole day tomorrow to get across the country.

So I snuggled into my bag – and I do mean snuggled. Despite it’s bulk & weight, this night, if no other (but there have been plenty) I was so glad I had chosen this bag. I was able to zip it all the way up, over my head with just room enough for my mouth to breathe, completely hidden in the hull of this boat, and I was warm & toasty.

I dozed off & on throughout the night, which was probably better than going into a deep slumber & oversleeping again. At 5:15 [am] I could hear activity in the station, so I decided to get up & go…[continues on day 83]

Note from Todd in 2024:

I am a state of amazed shock as I write this because, while I have told this story hundreds of times, this is the first time I have researched Port Bou and seen pictures of it in the daylight! God Bless the Internet!

This is where I spent the night???

Holy smokes, I should have stuck around and spent the next day there!!!

THIS PLACE IS GORGEOUS!!! I had no idea!!!

However, back then, on the night of November 27, 1994, it was dark and I was extremely frustrated and angry.

I do remember very distinctly though, one thing I wasn’t feeling was scared. I just had a feeling that night that I was going to be okay.

Clearly, now I can see why!

What a quaint, picturesque, peaceful town this appears to be!

I am so excited to be able to see the train station and all of the tracks leading into the town.

Yep, this is where I spent the night in the abandoned boat after learning the night train I hoped to take didn’t actually exist - it was a misprint in the train table.

Wow! I really hope to go back here and visit again someday - with the emphasis on DAY!