24 hours of hell

Where do I begin...
We couldnt get on the night train we wanted bc the Spanish rail workers went on strike for the day which prevented us from being able to reserve our seats all the way through from Barcelona to Bayonne. So, I found that if we took the night train to this city called Zaragoza in the middle of nowehere and we sle`t at the station a few hours, then we could get on a train to a small town called Caltayude and then from there to Bayonne - no problem. Only problem was, the rail website and the people at the ticket counter told us we didnt need reservations with our rail passes from Zaragoza to Calatayude and then to Bayonne, and they were wrong. First we had to pay 12 euro to travel the 20 minutes to Calatayude (after having to pay 30 for the stupid night train already - so much for rail passes in Spain). Once we got to Calatayude which is the sleepiest little town Ive ever seen in my life and we had to rely completely on our Spanish, we were told that the train to Bayonne is full and we had to have reservations...awesome. We asked what we could do and the guy told us we could go back to Zaragoza at 4 in the afternoon and then take a train the next day (it was 7:30 am and we hardly slept on the 5 hour night train to Zaragoza). So we were screwed. We walked into town and founf there was a bus we could take at noon to Madrid for 10 euros. We figured that was our best shot and even considered renting a car in Madrid if the trains from there failed (we desperately wnated to get to Bayonne bc we hadnt slept and we have a hotel there tonight that they will charge us for even if we had cancelled bc it is within 24 hours). SO we bought tickets for that bus and then decided to walk back to the train station to see if the guy could go ahead and book us from Madrid to somewhere remotely close to Bayonne off of the damn high speed rail lines that we have to pay a fortune and reserve bc for some reason Spain doesnt like to acknowledge our 1000 dollar rail passes that are perfectly fine in every other European country.
Once we got back to the train station and tried talking to the ticket guy in our Spanglish, we figured out that he could go and book us to Pamplona back through Zaragoza and then we can get on a train to Hendaye 40 kilometers from Bayonne on the French-Spanish border. He couldnt get us a ticket from Hendaye to Bayonne bc the Spanish rail system is retarded and based on 1957 Soviet technology and service procedures.
So now we are in Pamplona where we are going to come back to tomorrow, waiting in an internet cafe until our train to Hendaye leaves at 6:46 pm (its 4 pm and weve been here for 3 hours). Once we get to Hendaye we have an hour until the last train to Bayonne which will get us in about 11 pm except we have to reserve the seat for that and pay even more so we´re just praying that we can somehow get on that train and its not full. If it is, I´m seriosuly considering just having a taxi drive us the 40 kilometers and pay him the fortune it will cost.
So, all in all, from Bayonne to Barcelona has cost us about 60 euros each so far and we arent even there yet. Best case scenario it will have taken about 25.5 hours to get from Barcelona to Bayonne which is probably about a 4-5 hour drive. Bottom line, I felt like I was in a more orderly, civilized country when I was in Istanbul Turkey than in the western European nation of Spain. I would vote to kick this ¨country¨out of the EU and adopt the Islamic state of Turkey in its place.
I´m really just looking to heading back to ireland in a few days and then getting on with our trip in Portugal for a few days and the back to civilization in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, then the UK.
This whole Running of the Bulls thing better be worth it. So far, I don´t get it though. It starts tomorrow and Pamplona is an absolute ghost town with a tiny rail station about 2 miles away from the actual center. Ive seen about 10 people in this entire city, so I really dont understand the whole logistics of this party that is supposed to be one of the biggest and best in the entire world.
Hopefully, I can write my next blog from Bayonne or back here in Pamplona tomorrow after Ive had a night´s sleep in Bayonne.
God bless the USA.