Where's this "Group Lunch" Again?

Oh how things get lost in translation!

Today, Danny & I booked our reservation on a train from Barcelona to Madrid, Spain and had one of the funniest experiences of our trip thus far. I hope I can do it justice in the relation, but as I'm not so good at telling jokes, I doubt I will. Here it goes, anyway.

We stepped up to the ticket counter after waiting for an hour in line (one thing I hate about Spain is the lines!) and were greeted by a middle aged man who informed us that he "speak only little English" which is just fine with us (a little is much more than many people speak!). We request a reservation on the 13:30 train to Madrid and are informed that is full.

"Fine," we say, "we'll just take the later one." He asks if our Eurail pass is 2nd class, and we inform him that, no, it is 1st class. "Oh, then you can take train at 13:30, 1st class have room." Fablous! Then he goes on to inform us, "Snack served on train, and group lunch around the corner."

"Group lunch?" We ask, surprised. We'd never been in a train station where they gave us a group lunch, but then again, we'd never gotten a snack on the train before either. We ask him to clarify, "Where is this group lunch?" "Group LUNCH," with a great emphasis that I chalk up to his personality and points around the corner. We shrug, thank him, and take our tickets.

As we walk, we look at each other and figure that we might as well try the group lunch, if it is included. Anything to save a few bucks, right?

We walk around the corner and see a huge McDonalds, a few stores, but no signs for a "Group Lunch" anywhere. We wander about a bit, asking each other where a group lunch would be found. Finally we decide to give up, and spotting the Salsa Lounge for 1st Class passengers we figured we might as well go in there to inquire about the group lunch and have a seat.

Walking in, we head straight to the counter and ask the lady there about the group lunch. She looks at us, very confused and says that her English isn't very good... We show her our ticket and explain that the man at the ticket counter told us we could find a group lunch near by.

She points out that there is a snack on the train, but she is not aware of any group lunches. She graciously tells us we're welcome to the complimentary drinks and snacks that the lounge has to offer the 1st class passengers, and after a bit of a strange look at us, we leave.

We decide to sit down, have a drink, and decide what to do about our missing group lunch. Dan leaves me to watch the bags and goes out to look for the group lunch, or scout out other lunch possiblites.

While he is gone I mull over the situation, and suddenly it dawns on me what happened. Dan walks in to find me in fit of giggles at our sillyness. "Danny," I say laughing, "He said, Group LOUNGE not Group LUNCH." Dan looks at me, and starts cracking up. We both can't stop laughing at our miss hearing. We had spent 20 minutes or so looking for our phantom group lunch, while in the very lounge the man was referring to.

Dan & I kept coming up with more scenarios where we would have looked even more like stupid Americans, insisting on a group lunch where there was none, but now that I'm writing it down, it seems more like a "you had to be there" type of thing. Oh well.