Clowning around in Bordeaux

Today, I rounded off my Iberian travels with a flight back from Porto and an afternoon in Bordeaux. I got up with time to spare before heading to the airport. Unfortunately I made it in such good time that I had time to waste. I sat around for half an hour before I could even check-in. I sat down next to a burly German bloke with sleaked back blonde hair and a small puppy on a leash. I got chatting a soon learned that he had stayed in the airport overnight. He had had his bag stolen the day before, with all his travel documents, passport, credit card, camera, video camera ipod and wallet. He had put his bag on the ground to catch his puppy when it ran off. Unfortunately some tosser thought it would be a good idea to knick it.

The German guy, whose name I didn't catch, had spent hours and hours calling innumerous German embassies and information lines, but to no avail. He had merely been told that the documents could be processed and delivered by Wednesday. How could he wait that long? He had no money. Nothing.

I went to check-in. I came back to the bench to find that he was bleary eyed, wiping his eyes with his checkered sleeve. The little dog was looking up from the floor with his ears perked up. I think he was as bewildered as me, I've never seen such a large man cry. He looked up and asked, with extreme difficulty if there was anything he could sell me from his suitcase in order to get enough money for a train to Lisbon to pick up the documents in person. I realised how hard it was for him just to ask. Tears kept welling up in his eyes, and he kept apologizing. "I'm not asking for a gift" he stammered "I have perfume in my bag, or something". I asked him how much he needed. He said that 21 euros would cover the metro and train to Lisbon. I thought we were talking 50 euro + here. I rushed off to the ATM and gave him 25 euros and my e-mail address so he could arrange to send a cheque in the near future.

Bordeaux wasn't so gloomy thought. It was Carnival! There were hundreds of people out on the street dressed in a myriad of different colours. I met two English assistants from the Tours region who had to catch a train at a similar. I got chatting and ended up joining them for lunch at a really nice café where we all ate soup with cheese and meat and bread! Yum! Back to work tomorrow though. I'll back blip when I get the time and stop being lazy.