And Outside The Rain Fell...

As things were meant to be, we are finally on our first leg of Eurotrip. Yeah, say it with me, “Yippee”. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Paying some 35 Euros for the super fast (300 km/hr) Thalys from Paris to Cologne (in Germany), it was a smooth journey, with little to report from the countryside except for towering church spires, many flat bladed wind turbines and endless meadows (especially on the German side). A brief stopover at Brussels later, we reach Cologne, site of my “favourite-st” building on Planet Earth. Being the bit of the brat that I am, I refused to get inside the Cathedral in the one hour transit period that we had, and instead, all we did was admire the imposing Gothic facade. Beautiful, but I’d describe it on a later date because this is not what this trip was intended to be about.

Boarding another train, the Regio DB from Cologne to Hamburg, we were surprised when an ancient carriage lugged into the station, with almost no markings signifying which coach is which. Armed with reserved tickets (that cost us 3 Euros each), we were determined to get our seats. Shocked, and to our dismay, we found out that the train was infact completely unreserved. We were ripped off our 12 Euros. Sigh.

Some clever thinking later, we all got seats in different corners of the same coach, comfortable coaches, but now few things compare to the Thalys. When the ticket checker finally did come around, I convinced her to cancel our reservations (instead of demanding seats) and got ourselves a refund of the money we paid! Cologne to Hamburg, for free!

Drowsy and rather bored, I drifted off to sleep soon. I woke up to the sound of a few kids quarrelling about, and the seat opposite me was now occupied by a Mom and her 3 kids. A pair of twins with clear blue eyes, and a cute elder sister, they were playing about, talking in German, occasionally casting curious glances at the non-German me, and passing off shy smiles. By the end, one kid and I started to make faces at each other. Try imagine me doing that for a moment with a six year old kid and you’ll understand why the mom burst out laughing loudly!

Switching trains at Hamburg, we got into the ICE 2112 (InterCity Express). Seldom does one travel on trains that are more sophisticated than airplanes, but this one was, complete with an audio entertainment system, revolving bedroom sized washrooms and automatic doors. Little did we realize that this would become the norm soon. The journey, comfortably paced at around 5 hours, was scheduled to reach Copenhagen at around 10 p.m.

A 3 hour ride later, while I was on a call, the train lugged into what looked like a station that was completely walled. I saw a hurried rush of passengers getting out of the train, including PritS and Tards. Confused, I followed out, expecting it to be safety drill.
Imagine my surprise when I climbed what appeared to be a station to find myself on the deck of a ship! My train was in the belly of a ship, whole and complete!

Take a deep breath and read that again. The possibility of an entire train fitting into a ship, and suddenly setting sail on a luxurious cruise liner was unbelievable. This short journey from Mainland to Denmark was on a ship, and our train journey was to continue from there on. And all this for just a 3 Euro ticket. I loved it. Absolutely.

Armed with a thin tee and a muffler, for in the delirious state that I was in, I had left my winter coat in the train. We climbed on to the deck to face an icy cold wind shooting through our spine. We were on board the Scandiline, a huge, 5 star ferry. Watching the sunset from the starboard, and extremely cute couple from our train coach took a photograph for us. Scandinavians so far have been extremely polite.

It is difficult to explain the scene I was witnessing. Frigid seas, a gigantic ocean liner, shops selling luxurious designer brands in the ship’s promenade, my train in the belly of a ship, a shimmering orange sunset, cold wispy air and very thinly clad for the weather, all I could let out was a fumbled “wow”. It was beautiful, to see those wind turbines on the coast, frothy water on all sides and the feeling of being on a ship – completely unexpected.

We love the half ride completely.

At Copenhagen, we had precious few minutes to decide what we were to do next. Head to Malmo, spend the night at the station here and proceed to Stockholm next morning. Or spend the night in Copenhagen and go to Stockholm next morning. Unable to find the tourist office, we rushed to the DBS train counters to enquire about tickets. It was hilarious, in retrospect :
PritS: Sir, do you speak English?
Gentleman in Grey: (fluently) Yes, I do speak English.
PritS: We wanted to go to Stockholm.
GiG: When?
PritS: Today or Tomorrow.
GiG: Your train leaves in 2 minutes from Station 4.
PritS: (Something about tomorrow morning’s train)
GiG: Your train leaves in a minute and a half from Station 4.
PritS: (Something about Eurail passes)
GiG: (Completely unfazed, almost bored) One minute if you want to go to Stockholm.

The rest of us almost dragged PritS to Station 4, to see the train from Malmo lugging in. Ticketless, for we were refused reservation, we got in with the “Jo hoga, baad main dekha jayega” – Dad’s philosophy.
A superb train again, we were curious if we would be fined and thrown out for being ticketless. An awesomely sweet ticket checker quickly checked our Eurail passes, and deciding that this journey indeed was free, dished out valuable information on our connecting train to Stockholm from Malmo (which would be at a 5 minute gap). Thank her profusely, and blessing the Scandinavians for being so polite and going out of their way to help people, we got out at Malmo.

Here, another dilemma we faced was if we could board a sleeper night train without reservation. When you are new to a country, an entire continent infact, and have done little research, everything worries you.

Dad’s philosophy again, we boarded the train, sitting in the last coach, a chair car. Finding ourselves an unoccupied cabin, and with a what-the-heck attitude, we sat there, dumping our heavy backpacks.

Before I continue, let me retrace a bit to explain that by this time, our throats were burnt dry due to lack of water (too expensive everywhere, and too little time to find public drinking water booth, what with all that running around).
Continuing, once aboard, we sat in this cabin, the only one in the entire coach, drawing curtains, waiting for the train to start moving. Once it did begin, PritS and I decided we needed water, and quick! Finding a ticket checker in the adjacent sleeper coach, we asked him for water and the polite man said, with a thick Nordic accent, “But in Sweden, you must carry your own water!”.

Explaining a little about us having been travelling since morning, traversing several thousands of miles from Paris and switching trains in record time, we said bye bye returning to our cabins.

A few moments later, this chap comes, asks for our tickets, entering in an almost hilarious hop-skip-jump movement, saying “Hungry and thirsty, can I have your tickets please?”.

Approving the passes we were carrying, he walked away, safely drawing curtains and shutting the cabin on his way out. He somehow brought a smile on our tired faces.

Resigned to our thirst, we decided we had no option but to got sleep thirsty and miserable. Patwaji handed out candys (Ravalgaon) to help sooth our thirsts, and we decided the best we could do was to sleep.

Imagine our surprise when the same gentleman returned with four cartons of water for us, offering a broad smile and leaving without saying another word, as if embarrassed with his own generosity. I loved these guys, and the feeling was unanimous.

Our thirsts quenched, I sit here under this reading lamp, scribbling away on a borrowed notepad, my memory still fresh. For tomorrow is another day, another adventure. 5 countries covered in a single day, and tired, I drift away to sleep.