The countryside whips by, villages passing in the blink of an eye, their stations so small I can’t even work out the name before they disappear. Fields of bright yellow flowers, fields of deep brown dirt. Fields of cows and sheep and horses. Prosperous towns. Depressed and shut down looking towns. Warehouses. Factories. Power plants.
This is why I love travelling by train. As the world rolls by outside your window, you can imagine a hundred other lives for yourself. Other places you would have lived, other jobs you might have had.
Train Travel also gives you time to mentally adjust from one reality to another. You can see you are physically moving from one place to another and your have time to prepare for arriving in your destination.
On today’s trip I have had time to get over my sick stomach from not enough sleep. I have looked at some pretty scenery and let work stresses slip away. I have been thinking about what it will be like to be back in a city I used to live in, a city I loved, a city where I consider I spent the last years of my youth (everything after that has been grown up life). Will it be friendly and welcoming or unfamiliar and strange?
I have had time to think about the friends I’ll be seeing, how everyone is, what we’ll talk about, whether we will have good weather.
I have played Sudoku, I have written in my journal, I have messaged my husband some things to do while I am away. I have listened to my train travel soundtrack (the soundtrack must always start with Tears for Fears Elemental. That’s how it has always been since I first got here all those years ago with only a handful of cassettes.)
I have done all this and I am ready for the new adventure.
Tales from Tobhamhor 