Eyjafjallawhat?

I haven’t updated my blog in a long time but my travels were mostly short and restricted to shuttling between London and Berlin. Like last week really. The only difference this time - and the reason why I felt I should update this blog - is called Eyjafjallajökull, better known as “that volcano in Iceland”.

I was supposed to fly from London to Berlin on Saturday, but of course the infamous ash cloud stopped those plans. I called the airline and got a new flight for Monday, believing that the skies would surely be cleared up by then. Yeah, right. Monday came and went, but planes to and from Heathrow certainly did not. I called the airline and they couldn’t tell me when they’d be allowed to fly again, so I decided to go back by train. Traditional travel, what fun.

I finally managed to get train tickets for today (Wednesday), so off I went at a ridiculous time this morning to start my long trip back. It’s a good thing I actually like traveling by train.

The Eurostar terminal at St. Pancras was packed to the gills - I’ve never seen a train station this crowded. And that was despite the fact that (of course) European airspace was opened again today. Hey, who knew, eh?

I got on the train and settled into my seat at one of those tables, and then took a look at my travel companions. Across the aisle: two businessmen who started discussing business as soon as they had sat down. At my table: a brother and sister plus their friend. They started bickering the minute they entered the train and hadn’t stopped by the time we reached Brussels. It was like traveling with a bunch of 7-year-olds. Did I mention that all three of them were at least 75? When one of them got up for some reason or another, the other two started telling me how stupid that person was. At one point, both the brother and the friend were gone and the sister told me in great detail just how stupid and mean she thought her brother was. Delightful, really. You should have been there.

We made it to Brussels exactly on time, and everyone got busy trying to get to their luggage. Some people were traveling with three or four suitcases, others just had a little carry-on case, but it was definitely fun to sit back and watch the mayhem. I knew I had about an hour, so I decided to stay put (with The Bickering Trio) and watch until everyone else had left. Mostly fun, but at one point I got a look at something that I really didn’t need to see. One of the businessmen from across the aisle had gotten up and was busy righting his clothes and, quite literally, getting his private parts sorted. He stood there right next to me with his fly open, hand stuck inside and rummaging around. Now there’s something you don’t see every day. He didn’t even try to be subtle about it ...

After I finally had gotten off the train and bid The Bickering Trio goodbye, I stood on the platform for a moment as I replied to a text. Bad idea - not moving means you’re approachable, and so about 30 seconds later this tiny elderly lady walked up to me and asked me if I knew my way around here. She showed me her ticket and I saw that she was on her way to Germany and was taking the same train as me. When I mentioned that, she said “Oh, good, then I’ll just follow you.” Great, now I had a German grandma with pink suitcases walking a step behind me at all times. She wanted to get to the platform. All I wanted was some coffee. That was until I remembered that Bruxelles-Midi station is sadly devoid of Starbucks or other halfway decent coffee places. Ah well. I took a short walk round the station and then joined the granny with the bright pink suitcases on the platform.

The platform was getting crowded by now as the train we were all supposed to get on was heavily overbooked. Luckily, I had a seat booked and found it fast because it was impossible to move about the train. Every bit of space was covered in either luggage or people or both.

It’s about two hours from Brussels to Cologne but we somehow managed to be 45 minutes late getting into Cologne, which means that a) I missed my train to Berlin and b) that there were quite a few people left completely confused. This young Belgian guy asked if I had the time to come with him to help him find out when and where his train to Hamburg left. Of course I had the time - the next train to Berlin wasn’t for another hour, after all, so I pointed him to the right platform before finding something to eat.

I finally got on a train to Berlin and I was lucky enough to actually get a seat, for part of the journey at least (had to sit on the floor for about 2 hours). The train was a lot less crowded than the one before. I made it to Berlin around 8.30pm (having set out from Wimbledon at 6.30am).

All in all, it’s been an interesting day. I have to say that people were generally very friendly; I think the shared sense of disastrous travel arrangements made for a nice common ground. There were lots of friendly chats and the trains were filled with people from all over the world. Unusual, but quite enjoyable.

And there’s nothing like being met at the station by a friendly face and a bag of groceries for the very empty fridge. :)