At the end of the train ride was Mallaig – one of the more remote towns in Scotland, and definitely a lovely little break for a stretch and a spot of exploration.
Andrea and I didn’t have any major goals for Mallaig – we knew a few famous spots, but we were staying low-key and unhurried as best we could, enjoying the process and appreciating the salt air. We walked around, popped into pubs and shops as the desire found us, and petted every dog we could get our own greedy little paws on.
A nice hilltop above town gave us a lovely view, and a neat “witchcraft” store granted us a few entertaining laughs between us.
Just a lovely town, with lovely views and lovely sea breezes.
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!
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.
