Traveling by train is one of the greatest pleasures I could enjoy throughout my travels. Is, more than a means to reach a certain place, an end in itself, something enough left over to me and enjoy, With the mere advance between landscapes and varied cities, With the simple sound that the train produces by advancing through the rails, With the unpredictable ecosystem that almost always houses inside his cars. I am excited as simple as waiting to see from a platform the lights of the train that has to transport me to my next destination or listen to the megafonía the announcement of this or that train that is prepared to enter or make the exit of the station in the I find myself.
To such an extent my passion for trains arrives, that there has come a time when it has become a tradition -and almost an obligation- The visit of the train stations of the cities that we visit, Even if we are not going to take any train, as if the most beautiful and ornate monument were treated. In effect, See the informative panels that announce all the places to which there are trains from the station in question, visit the waiting room or, Where is possible, Take the platform, They have become small pleasures that fill us as much as my voyage companions are surprised.
Visit the waiting room or, Where is possible, Take the platform, They have become small pleasures that fill us
I have visited several of the train stations of Moscow (Russia), where each one is called the main city that is the destination of the trains that start from it. From the station from which the Transiberian leaves to the stations that give way to the trains that take the traveler to cities as remote as Astana or Tashkent, In Central Asia the fan is broad.
And Amman (Jordan), from where only trains go to Damascus once a week, The station was closed on our arrival. But, Someone warned our presence from within the station, and intrigued for the curiosity of seeing two foreigners fucking around, He went out to ask what we wanted. After briefly exposing our passion for trains and stations, And more with the intention of leaving than anything else, We were kindly invited to enter, To see the platforms closely, The roads, and even a small museum that housed some curious locomotives relic, of diverse nationalities, among other, Belgian and German.
En amman, Our passion for trains opened the doors of the station, Although it was closed
And Senegal, It was not easy to make our guide understand the interest in knowing the, Probably more decrepit and ruinous station of how many I have visited. I also had the opportunity to see, On one of our trips around the country, The desolate Tamacunda train station, Through which merchandise trains are directed to Mali and Burkina Faso.
Already in a less tourist role and more user of local railway services, I accumulate another series of curious experiences in train stations, as experienced in Cairo (Egypt), From where we wanted to take a train to Alexandria, not taking time to verify that, just get buying tickets in chaotica Ramses II Station -at the time, works- It was going to be a real odyssey. Finally, more with the help of a policeman -who undoubtedly extended his hand to see his help to the western tourist rewarded- that of the posters and indications (that only appeared in Arabic), We could achieve our goal.
Being a foresee, In Ukraine I decided to transcribe our city of destination to the cirilic before buying the tickets
And Ukraine I also had to get the best out of my ingenuity to buy train tickets, taking into account, again, The different of the local language -which is expressed in an alphabet as different from ours as the Cyrillic-. Being a foresee, and anticipating the difficulties in understanding me with the people of the sales office, I decided to transcribe the city that we wanted as destination to the cirlohyl alphabet (Chernihiv). Where my forecast did not arrive, went to indicate to the seller that, since we were two people -my travel companion did not separate from my side at any time-, We needed two tickets, And there is plenty of where my forecast did not arrive, Nor did your deduction capacity. How also to say that, Once the tickets are printed, It was not possible for someone who totally ignores the Cyrillic alphabet as was our case, Understand anything that could have let us know that we had acquired ticket for a person instead of two.
From the aforementioned setback we realized the next day, When at the time of accessing the train, The reviewer was strange that we both got on the car (Thinking how he should think that the one came to accompany the other or vice versa). Once the misunderstanding, I had to greatly thank my very hard habit of reaching the train stations with considerable time in advance, which allowed me to return to the wallet and acquire that second ticket that had resisted so much the day before.
The Athens station had no more than information brochures in Greek
In Greece, We were able to verify the level of development of the rail system is surprisingly low. The station of Athens, more typical of a population of fifteen thousand inhabitants than of a European capital, Not to mention the cradle of Western civilization, I had no more than information brochures in Greek -with the aggravating, again, of the difference of alphabets-. Another sample of the poor rail system that surprised us so much, is that our arrival at the Kalambaka station, We would wait about half an hour, Until the train that had transported us left, To be able to get out of the station, since given the absence of a tunnel or a high step, It was not possible to save the endless convoy in addition to any.
And Lao Cai (Vietnam), where we arrived previously a reserve of tickets to Hanoi having only to pick them up at the station, We had to spend some moments of uncertainty until we could achieve that goal. The person in the counter in question, He told us that he couldn't give us tickets yet, although it was not too explicit when exposing us the reason. How it urged us to return some time later, We returned from time to time to see if what had happened had happened to be able to get the blissful papers, But the result was the same once after another.
En Lao Cai, The box office manager refused to sell us the tickets, A whole enigma
As time passed and the train start time approached, There came a time when one of my travel companions appeared again at the counter, This time indicating that until we were given the tickets we were not going to move from the first row of the counter, without allowing any person to approach or consult anything. Faced with such a pressure measure, The employee of the railway company finally decided to give us the tickets, demonstrating that there was no reason not to have done it before. Why did he remain forever as one of those always common enigmas on trips.
Sometimes the difficulties or news in the stations do not bring them the language or people, but the organization system, since for example in India, It is important that tourists know that they must verify that their names appear in endless listings that are made available to travelers on the platform, as a prerequisite to shipping in the convoy.
They are a series of experiences and anecdotes that give a good sample of how different, In different parts of the world.
