Train Travel Chaos

Organising anything for a big group of people is a mess. When people are on their own, a part of their brain kicks in, they think independently and observe everything so that they can rely on themselves. In a group however, that part turns off, and people defer everything to the “leader”. This isn’t a character flaw particular to any one person, we’ve all been there and done that. When I travel alone I’ll read the street signs, check the map, get my bearings and know where I’m going, but if I’m in a group, I follow the back that’s in front of me.

I meet everyone at the Gare Centrale in Brussels, our train isn’t for another 15 minutes so Mads and Rickard and I head to the grocery shop to buy some snacks for dinner. It takes a little longer than planned, and we hussle back to the group to find they aren’t there, so they must be at the platform. We see the train schedule, our train is cancelled! Rickard goes to inquire while I call the other interns, we meet together to figure out what to do. Apparently someone was told that we could catch the train from Gare du Nord, so we run, all 14 of us.

The train should have left already but its running late, we arrive at Gare du Nord and head to the big train timetable. Our train is still cancelled. We ask the info lady, she suggests we take a train to Antwerp, its due to leave in a few minutes, so we run, all 14 of us.

The train to Antwerp arrives and our car smells from someone having gotten sick on the floor. Christina and I move further down and sit opposite two interesting Belgian characters for the ride. At Antwerp the train exits onto a crowded platform. It seems everyone, like us, is going to Rotterdam. Rickard runs up the many stairs to head to the info desk and we all follow. There isn’t one, but we ask someone on the platform who suggests we take the local train to Rosendal. The train is on the platform so we run, apparently only 12 of us.

Rosendal is in the Netherlands so at least now we’re crossing the border, and might connect to another train heading to our ultimate destination, Leiden. The train is packed so we all break up, I sit alone in a car. Katerina rings my cell so I pick-up,

“Hey where are you on the train”
“What train….?”

At that precise moment our train lurches forward, I tell Katerina to call me from Leiden and that I’ll guide her from there. I sit opposite a Dutch man and his son, maybe about 9 years old, I offer the kid some of my pretzels and his Dad and I share small talk, he did his PhD in Seattle and like most Dutch people speaks perfect English. At Rosendal we look for a train going to Rotterdam, its already on the platform and ready to leave, so we run, all 12 of us.

Sweating and exhausted we sit on another local train and a young woman next to us asks where we are going. We say Leiden, she suggests that the best way to save time is to skip Rotterdam and to get off at Dorderecht, and then take a train straight to Leiden. We thank her and hop off the train. We look across the tracks wondering which train is ours. We see one waiting to go and joke “well that must be it right?” We all laugh, meanwhile Rickard squints his eyes and reads its sign “Its ours!! And he darts off”. So we run after him, all 12 of us.

We finally arrive at Leiden and head for the bus stop. The bus drops us at the Nordwijk lighthouse, we can feel the brisk air coming off the North Sea. We find our way to the hostel and after a very difficult check-in (the idiot wanted to charge me for an extra bed I had cancelled, even for the following night despite the fact I told him there was nobody else coming). We calm our nerves with some pints and some laughs. Katerina and Monica arrive about 20 minutes after us, having avoided most of the nightmare by simply waiting at Antwerp for the next fast-train to Rotterdam.