
I avoid flying in Europe. I travel mostly by train. During the last year I’ve travelled once to Italy and twice to Germany, realising once again how long way it is from Finland to Central Europe. During the next six months I’m going to Sweden, Austria, Italy, and twice to Germany. Some trips I can link together. The majority is related to my work with Oblivia. Oblivia is a fair employer; my travel budget is clear. This far it has been enough.
I returned from a two-week trip last night. The last leg started from Bremen the morning before yesterday, and included seven trains, if I count the broken one too, a ferry, tram, and metro. Plus some five kilometres of walking.
Traveling by train is expensive, takes time, and asks for will, patience and effort. The last is needed especially when planning the trip and buying the tickets. Patience and good nerves are needed especially when it starts to look more and more probable that the planned connection won’t work, usually because of a delay. I’m repeating the mantra: stay calm, you can’t do anything about it. Last night, when the train stopped at Kupittaa station, I kept my cool. It must have been because of that I could see the end of the road already, I was out of the ferry, and didn’t have any further connection to catch. And the conductor kept telling us what happened. (The trip’s first broken train happened somewhere between Hamburg and Düsseldorf. Because of that I didn’t have time for shower but could still chat with an old acquaintance, in the theatre’s lobby bar, with a glass of wine in my hand, before Oblivia’s premiere.) One can help oneself in staying calm by planning the route loose enough. It asks time. Time is luxury I currently have. I’m grateful for that.
Trips by land tend to be long and meandering. They offer a great chance to see – both according to a plan and without – old friends. And meet new people.
In Hamburg, I missed my train to Copenhagen. The next left in two hours. There was a change in Fredericia. I sat at the same table with a 40-year old fellow, with a Vastavirta-Klubi bag. He was Daniel, who had orientated into train travel since child and was now returning home from a two-month-long interrail. I got many valuable tips about train routes from Stockholm to south, especially to Germany and Italy.
Yesterday morning, walking towards the Viking terminal in Stockholm, in frosty sludge, I came across with Annette who was dragging a small bag with wheels that didn’t want to work. Annette said, ”An artist’s life.” We laughed, chatted a bit, and went on.
PS. While dragging a large bag, in the beginning of January, on my trip to Gothenburg, in frosty sludge, rain, stairs and narrow corridors, I caught myself thinking that it wouldn’t be easy if I was sitting in a wheel chair. Hmm.