It turns out there was a lot more going on inside the train for the most than outside it as least for the moment. While it was nice to look out at the views. It was hard to not notice all the things going on in the train.

Next you had the people behind us. They were gone for most of the day. Around dinner time they showed up. That is when we started to get the tray and footrests slammed into the back of our chairs over and over and over again.

Like someone was pissed off at us despite the fact we mostly kept to our self not wanting to mix in with many of these “train people.” To be fair I have no idea what is normal when someone pulls out and puts away the seat tray. For all I know they were trying to be nice about it but I have a feeling it was not.

For a while, I was just going with the benefit of the doubt that getting the tray out of the seat rocked the person's seat it was connected to. Some of them also seemed to be hard to get put back in so I could understand someone using a bit more force than needed. It just seemed to happen a lot.

It was also strange at one point people kept sitting with the person behind us. They would then very loudly proclaim “I’m sorry for being racist I had no idea.” One guy kept coming back and over and over again to proclaim he was sorry about being racist. I Have NO FUCKING idea what that was about.

To make matters even more strange. The “I’m sorry guy” is who Lady A got off the train early with. I have no idea if these people ended up in some kind of love triangle over the lady or what. It was just some strange vibes.

To make matters even more odd at one point I finally had to ask the people behind us if we could move our seats back. It was time to sleep. We did not want any further issues after all the tray slamming and other stuff going back.

I asked a few times. No reply back. Yet the guy was talking with the person next to him. A few hours later I tried again and the dude was rather pissed but allowed me to put down one of the chairs. I was hoping the person next to me now with a slightly reclined chair might get some sleep (they did not).

I then had a lady tell me I did not need to ask to put the chairs back. Just fucking go for it. They could tell I tried to be considerate a few times. After a while, I finally wanted to try and get some sleep and put my chair back. It pissed the fuck off the person behind me. FUCK ME. It also did not help me get any sleep.

It's Getting Dark Outside

You might be thinking holy moly this is turning into quite a crazy train ride. Strange but we are not even to the crazy parts yet. You might also tell not all of this is in chronological order. As these individual stories are a bit easier to tell all at once.

At one point I decided it’s been quite a long time since I’ve yet to try using the bathroom on a train. Oh boy, I had no idea how that was going to go down. I also had not walked much on the train as I was mostly just sitting in my seat hoping to not get stabbed.

So I tried to get up. Smashed the daylights of my brain on the overhead. The guy in front of me was thrilled he was not the only one who had done that. We both kind of laughed it off and we both for the remainder of the train kept hitting our heads on the overhead. I liked the guy in the seat in front of us. He was easy going and neither of us had any issues. We would joke a little bit and sometimes talk.

I started to try and walk towards the bathroom. My head is throbbing from smashing it a good one. The train is rocking back and forth to the point I feel like I might just fall over into someone’s seat.

I’m trying to be as respectful as I can with how bumpy the train now decided it wanted to be once I got up. I only was going to touch someone’s seat if it was clear I was going fall over. Otherwise, I’d try and use the bag racks if I could.

I’m walking and then the train takes this massive bump. I almost fall into this poor lady's seat. I thankfully did not. At the same time, she grabbed her purse like she was going to beast the fuck out of me if I fell into her lap.

My life flashed before me. I know you ladies have some heavy purses and you can and will murder a tall fat guy like me in an instant with the bricks you keep in them.

I walk past this lady's seat just glad I was not beaten to death by a purse. Naturally, there is a line to go to the bathroom so I waited.

Finally, it was my turn. The floor looked a little wet in the bathroom. I prayed it was just water. The water in the toilet bowl was swirling and moving all around. I closed the door shut and spent a short while trying to work out how to lock it so the “occupied” light would trigger.

I then sat down and tried to ride the toilet seat as it attempted to buck me off into the bathroom wall like a bull. Thank goodness I did not try to go while standing up that would have been a total disaster and I’m quite sure many before me had failed.

As this bathroom stunk of piss. It became quite apparent to me it was not water on the floor. I finish my business and went to flush. Well, the toilet paper I used stuck to the bowl and did not flush down. So I grabbed even more toilet paper and attempted to push it down enough so it would flush.

I then lathered up my hands with soap as if I was going into surgery. At this time the soap dispenser had yet to be stolen from the toilets. I assure you later that night someone took the top half of the soap dispenser and they never found them for the rest of the trip. Not having soap in the bathrooms would be the least of our troubles.

Next, I work out how to unlock the bathroom door. I went to take a step out and at that very moment, I guess the train decided to gun it full speed into a nasty bump. I almost went flying into the next bathroom as the train continued to keep picking up speed.

At one point I’m standing in the bathroom doorway like there is an earthquake going on or something. Just trying to stabilize me and hoping I don’t fall over into the toilet or the nasty water that is flowing back and forth on the bathroom floor.

Somehow I make it back to my seat without further incident and sit down. That is when I realized the bathroom smell had followed me back. Thankfully it was gone like two minutes later. I would have tossed my shoes in the trash if needed.

That was just one of the many bathroom trips needed on an over 18-hour train ride. That was also the cleanliest I would find that bathroom to be. It only went downhill from there. The staff I swear gave up trying to clean it.

I also now understood why some people rushed for the bathroom and waited for the train to fully stop at a station. They are not trying to get off the train to use the restroom. Most times the stops would not let a single person off unless you were not getting back on. Even on longer stops they tell people to not leave the platform area as they will get left behind. So trying to go to any station bathroom was always out of the question.

Shortly after that, it was time for another stop. The crazy thing is we were maybe at the time of this photo only on the train for 4 or 5 hours. We still had a very long way to go. Meanwhile, all the crazy things I’ve talked about so far were just slowly starting to unravel throughout this journey.

At least this part of the trip it was still daylight outside. I would later discover once it got dark that the train stopped being fun whatsoever. Once I could no longer look out the window if it was only to see the same tree for the 500th time that I kind of was over the “this is fun.”

Final Thoughts

It also did not help that trains blast their whistle at the time. Like you think you have an idea. Till you have ridden a train you have no idea. They also did not just blast the whistle once either. It was always in groups of three. At one point it felt like the person was just letting the whistle go for an hour with only 30 secs of breaks between the set of three whistles. We were in quite a dense area with a lot of cross-stops.

Other Content

• Switching Worlds | My First Train Ride Part 2: Trouble Brewing
• Switching Worlds | My First Train Ride Part 1: This Could Have Been Nice

Information

Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.