another tale, because i should be studying.
Foolish charity
Not all who need will welcome
Your kind advances
- Broken Saints
I woke up uncertain and anxious, highly excited and eager to see. I wriggled forward quietly on my bunk bed, peaked underneath it, and saw that I was mostly alone, so I went ahead and opened the shades some, only to realize that it was still dark. For a fraction of a second I was crestfallen. But then I saw that the sun would begin rising soon.
I lay on my bed in silence for a while, watching the world race by outside. The train swayed gently, making soothing wheel-on-track sounds. I allowed myself to savor that feeling for a moment, but then I launched tiredly/excitedly into Must-Get-Off-the-Train-Soon mode.
Traditionally, getting off trains had been a bit of a situation for me. It was an exercise in careful guessing, a heightened awareness born of uncertainty. You could never quite know when you would come to your station, nor could you know if your train was on time. You also knew you'd only have to minutes to respond or the doors would shut and you'd be trapped on your train.
Compound this situation with the need to lift a heavy-ass backpack down from a high over-head shelf. This shelf was inevitably suspended over helpless old men who would surely perish if you dropped your backpack, or mean old ladies with who narrowed their eyes and waited for you to make a mistake. It was also always turbulent, too, meaning that you had to grab onto seats to avoid falling over as the train shook and swayed.
Fortunately on this particular train I did not have any of these problems. I had my compartment to myself and so I calmly got myself ready for the day. I then opened my door and randomly spoke to the people who were standing just outside of it -- my next-door neighbors, an older Canadian couple who had helped me build my train-bed the night before. We talked about how well we had slept, the apparent gray weather, what we were doing in Switzerland that day. Then the conductor came by with FREE BREAKFAST (can you believe that this happened?) and so I returned to my cabin to munch little pastries like Gollum hoarding his ring.
Half-way through eating my croissants my Canadian neighbors began gathering their stuff in the hallway. It was evident that they would leave soon and so I called out a goodbye. The man abruptly came in with deli packs of cheese, ham, and the remainder of a loaf of bread, telling me that he had known college kids before and figured it was likely that I was still hungry. He then proceeded to give me all this food, saying that he would have had to throw it away anyway. It was amazing. For the second time that day, I ate a delicious free breakfast.
Then the offer of a third breakfast came, but I recoiled it from it and grabbed my backpack. A different train conductor had popped in and out to talk with me about my destination, and this time he came in to sit across with me and point out things on my Eurail map. He was an old man, too, Italian with very tanned skin and a balding head.
Apparently I'd missed a stop I could have connected at in order to save me an hour. He attempted to explain this to me and I quickly understood him, but figured I would keep my original plans. I told him this and he told me that my original plans were incorrect... I needed to get off in Bern instead. Bern? All my maps said it was an extra two hours in the wrong direction.
Then he said, "Come to Bern with me and I will let you ride in my private cabin. Come to my car and I will give you breakfast. You can have breakfast with me, we have two more hours."
I noticed that the door was shut; there was no one outside; we were alone in the compartment together. Our knees were nearly touching. I recoiled slightly and slipped my arms into my backpack straps. I then informed the old man with an uncomfortable smile that I'd already had TWO breakfasts already, and that not ONLY did I not want more food, but I also did not want to spend more hours on the train.
He smiled at me and changed his tactic.
"You are going to Interlaken? I have car there. We can go together and I drive you around."
"No thanks. I have reservations at a hostel. And then I have a friend there who I am staying with. He has a car and could drive me around."
"I drive you around, it will be much better. Stay on train to Bern, two more hours with me."
"No thank you. Actually, I think I need to get off here!"
Just as he put his hand on my knee I stood up and walked stiffly out of the compartment, forcing myself into the middle of a small crowd of people who were waiting on the far end of the train. I asked them what stop they were waiting to get off at and somebody named one that sounded familiar, so I figured I would get off there and just transfer. After all, could I even be sure that the man had not been lying about how far we were from Interlaken anyway?
The old man left my car and stood in the hallway just as the train was slowing to a halt, and then he called "Ciao, bella..." as I bounded down the stairs of the train.
Lone female travelers seem to bring out the best in some people and the worst in others: on this train I saw a little of both. I stood for a long time in the darkness, feeling dirty and blessed at the exact same time.