train

Trains are peculiar places.

I made it in good time. No need to run. No need to rush. I had in fact sat down in my seat and opened up my laptop by the time the train started moving. I was going to have four and a half hours of efficient study time ahead of me.

Next to me on the window seat there was an older, English gentleman. He looked at my little mac in earnest and asked why he had seen so many people, at my age, walking around with this particular model. He himself was a mac person too but had never had one of their laptops.

The conversation moved to the reason for travel. He was going to pay a thank you visit to his godson. Apparently the need to thank the boy was so great that the formality could not be done by email. When he heard the reason for why I was occupying the seat next to him he nodded and stated that we were both just little good doers and turned to admire the passing scenery, which in fact was especially lovely.

I was puzzled. Good doer? Surely my plan to go and see a friend springs from purely selfish need to have someone to talk to and a lovely break from Paris, work and stress for few days. Obviously we both want to see each other but that surely doesn’t make me a particularly good person.

Anyways, time to work. I started tapping. Tapped. Tapped. Tapped. Three and a half hours later I had pretty much finished everything I had planned to do during the trip and decided to close my eyes for few minutes – for a well-deserved nap. I turned of my computer and rested my head on the back of the chair.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and was offered a newspaper. My English gentleman had finished reading and decided that it was my turn to educate myself in the current affairs. No rest for the wicked.

He got off in the city before my destination. I decided to move closer to the window to get a glimpse of the journey I had before only done by night. I got up for few minutes to go to the toilet at the other end of the wagon and when I came back my seat was taken. All my things had been nicely piled on the seat that was originally mine and the window seat was occupied.

I said nothing, sat down, opened my laptop and continued working.

I like travelling by train. It is practical. It is easy. It is often time well spent. It is much more comfortable than travelling by car or by plane. And before the journey, you never know who will be sitting next to you.