Tag Archives: Train Ride

Jul21

The train from Krakow to Prague

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Tuesday, 25-June-2024


Poland lies behind me, and Prague stands before me. The train rattles and powers ahead, and I’m somehow surrounded by people from the United States. It’s… nice.

I don’t quite know how it happened, but the guy sitting across from me is about my age, from California, but moved to… somewhere in Europe… a few years ago. He’s heading to Prague for a week or so to party with friends. The guy sitting next to me, and his friend sitting across from him, are both fresh out of college, doing a two-week tour of Europe. They’re only staying in Prague for a day, but are energetic and excited.

I’d forgotten how fun it can be to just talk with native English speakers, and learn little tidbits about them. With no offence to non-native speakers, it’s just a bit simpler… especially when they’re basically from the same place as I am.


Yeah, it was a nice little interlude on a nice little train ride. Even had a nice meal, and a slightly hauntingly beautiful statue at the end!



Jun17

The train from Oslo to Stockholm

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Sunday, 26-May-2024


Ohh my lord, trains make me nauseous.

I was not aware of this fact, prior to the train departing from Oslo toward Stockholm. I’d taken an electric scooter to the central terminal, arrived a bit early, and relaxed while reading my book for a lovely and quiet hour… Not thinking that I’d be desperately staring at the horizon and willing my head to remain attached to my shoulders in a short hour or two.

I have Dramamine, of course, in preparation for some upcoming ferry rides… but I hadn’t expected to need it on this beautiful Sunday and so it was packed down somewhere in my luggage.


Stepping back.

I got to the train station about two hours ahead of time… a bit above the hour and a half that the information person had recommended to me the day before when I scouted out the route from my apartment to the station. I’d had some light breakfast; a cup of coffee and a pastry, if I recall, and was feeling good.

The train arrived, I boarded, and then we were off about 15min later. As the train left, I realized (belatedly) that my seat was facing backwards… not ideal, but I didn’t think too much of it for the first minute or so… after which, I quickly realized just how closely the rocking of the train resembled the rocking of a ship at sea.

My ears couldn’t tell the difference. I quickly moved to an open front-facing seat, but by that point the damage was done and there was no going back. I focused on the horizon out of the window, and set my mind to keeping breakfast where it was. Once it was sufficiently tamed, and my hunger was starting to pique, I made my way to the food car in search of ginger ale and food… I found pepsi and spaghetti, which… sort of worked? The pepsi was cold, at least, and holding it to my head and neck did some good for my sanity.

I survived, though the ride wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as I’d hoped and the amount of blog / photo work I got done was basically nonexistent, occurring in quick snips while the train was stopped at a station. I survived, though, and was able to take some pictures out the window as we rushed part the staggeringly beautiful Norwegian / Swedish countryside at nearly 200km/hr.

Jun10

Spring Break 2014 – TGV Ride to Paris

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Saturday, 24-May-2014

Location: Cassis and  Aix En Provence – traveling to Paris

 

I honestly did not expect Daniel to be this excited about trains when he first brought up the idea of taking the TGV from Cassis to Paris.

To me, it was just another facet of our trip; the most efficient way to get from one area of France to another.  In hindsight, I must have missed a glint in his eye… maybe a subtle grin and shiver of excitement.

Because Daniel?  He loves trains, I learned.

And after riding the TGV, I have to agree.

It wasn’t like any train I’ve ridden in the States – it was fast, quiet, and didn’t stop constantly to let people on and off.  The ride was smooth, and the seats were comfortable.  What was this devilry?   But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  We couldn’t just waltz onto the train carrying our tiny little BMW crossover.  First, we had to return the car.

There’s not really much story to returning the car, actually.  We sort of just returned it.  The drive was unique, I guess, since a BMW Crossover cannot in fact hold five people and their gear comfortably… instead, we sort of packed ourselves below the gear… it was super-safe though, since there was nowhere for us to move, and we were protected by bags in every direction.

But so we returned the car, then walked over to the station and sat down to rest and wait for the train.  I even bought myself a quiche.  Speaking purely in French, no less.

Then, the docents called us all forward, we showed our tickets, and waited at the platform as the train slowly cruised into the station.

 

Packing our bags onto the car was interesting, though not particularly difficult… we had noticeably more luggage than most, but that just meant that it was easier to find room to put it.  And once it was done we sat ourselves into a pair of “facing each other” style seats and locked ourselves down for the journey… Daniel and I did get up to explore the food car for a bit (aww yeah cappuccino and twix bars), but for the most part we chilled, read, and chatted.  And I may have stolen subtle glances at the super-cute French girl sitting next to us.  But since she was playing cards with her parents… I wisely kept my nose shoved into my book.