Trains

[sartorias]

I love long train rides with a desperate love, but I haven't been on one since 2004, so I've been feeling deprived. So I ride trains on the Net.

Thanks to 365postcards there is this realtime snip of the countryside between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Watching that, I get as mesmerized as I do on trainrides, with my face pressed to the window

Comments

[paragraphs]

I had to go to Europe to ride my first train. Will be taking the one from London to Cardiff Wales, next week! Not that that will be that exciting...

[paragraphs]

from pilgrimsoul

I think you are mistaken and will see sights both fascinating and beautiful from the train.

[paragraphs]

LOL I'll more likely be staring at my partner who I haven't been with since July. :)

[bookaddict88]

Those are awesome. I've ridden a couple of trains in the US, but this semester in Europe, I've already ridden more than I have in the rest of my life combined. I've seen some amazing scenery, but unfortunately, train rides (like car rides and bus rides) tend to rock me to sleep! So it's fun to be able to sit on solid ground and watch these.

[grimreaperkitty]

Really cool! Thanks for sharing.

[negothick]

Thank you for the train pix. In return, here's your soulmate Edna St. Vincent Millay:
TRAVEL

The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing,
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,
No matter where it's going.

[sartorias]

Oh, lovely--thanks!

[anonymous]

from pilgrimsoul

Trains! The best way to travel--because one is at ground level more or less and going slow enough to see things, and also traveling through the human-inhabited lands largely with enough nature for relish--and best of all one can just WATCH without having to worry about steering or controlling the vehicle. Some buses are like this too, but roads aren't as interesting as trackways.

[anonymous]

I've actually been on the Berlin - Moscow train twenty years ago, though we only went as far as Riga in Latvia. The trip still took three days, though, with a lengthy stop at the Polish/then-Soviet border, because Poland and the Soviet Union used different train track gauges, and another lengthy stop, reason unknown, at Minsk central station

[sartorias]

Stupid teacher. Kids are there to learn, including how the etiquette of a place works.

How I envy you these journeys!

[anonymous]

At the time (early to mid 1980s), plane travel was still expensive and fairly uncommon in Germany, while train travel has always been a lot more widespread than in the US. So a kid who knew how plane travel works, but not how train travel works was unusual and likely from a wealthy family and therefore vaguely suspicious. My family wasn't actually rich, my Dad just had a job that required a lot of travel and he took my Mom and me along whenever possible, so I had seen a lot more of the world at a young age than most of my rural classmates and teachers. For some reason, the wish to talk about my experiences was viewed as bragging and I got tagged as a "rich kid", which was completely silly, come to think of it, because I never had brand-name clothing or the latest entertainment equipment or other adolescent status markers. Still, in time I learned to keep my mouth shut

[sartorias]

Oh, I would watch that.