Sometimes having incomplete information makes me willing to do what I might not do, had I known what I would get myself into. Due to the Icelandic volcano eruption, European skies, especially the northern and western parts, were no-fly zones for many days. I needed to find another way to travel as University of Vasaa was waiting for me to give lectures. I did get a plane ticket which would get me to Finland about the same time as my land-and-sea travel but I just wanted to be sure that I got there so I took the risk.
On the first two days, I took a two-hour train from Brussels to Cologne (Germany), waiting for 4 hours in Cologne. Dom (the main cathedral) looked ever imposing, serene, and magnificent. Kind of neat to see it at night, out of the window at Starbucks cafe at the train station. Though I had been in there just last year, I went in again anyway. Being in large cathedrals is like being in a fortress to me. Perhaps, that's what people in the old days must have thought too as no other man-made structures would be as secure...
I took an overnight coach train from Cologne to Copenhagen (Denmark). Three bunk beds were stacked up, and each cabin has two rows of these stacks. I couldn't sit upright when I was on my bed. I always think that European beds and some of their toilets, not only ones on trains, are too small for their body sizes. I really liked the morning views when the train went over two really long bridges that connect western Europe with Scandinavia. I'd seen the photos from the bird's eyes view but never been on to one. After a bridge, we went through a tunnel that was the longest one I ever witnessed. I wonder, what an engineering feat this must be to construct these projects. And what efforts they put in connecting themselves with the rest of Europe...
I couldn't sleep much on the train but I managed. To me, the trick was not trying to force myself to sleep, but instead, trying NOT to sleep, like doing something else entirely. I was taught the breathing meditation technique where I observed my abdomen rising and falling. And that was what I did. I was like, well, it'd nice if I didn't get to sleep, so I got to practice meditation for the whole night (I heard this idea from one of the dhamma's talks. Oh, probably by Luangpor Pramote). Of course, I did fell asleep though I woke up from time to time. It helped that I had earplugs and an eye mask on.
I woke up in Copenhagen. By the way, Europeans sometimes spell the city names differently from the English versions. So, one has to be aware. For example, Cologne is Koln (with two dots on "o"), and Copenhagen is Kobenhavn (with a backslash on "o"). Copenhagen's Central station is shown on your left.
Now the excitement began as I couldn't print my bloody train ticket from the machine. I bought it over the phone (their computer server went down so I couldn't do it on the web) and I was given this booking number. I started to freak out a bit as I wasn't sure if it was because of my spelling mistakes. The waiting lines in the ticket office were long. The ticket staff told me to try the machine again; I did, to no avail. I went back to her and she told me to ask the train conductor what to do. She told me to bring the booking number with me on board. Thank goodness, there was only one coach for the 1st class (the 2nd class tickets were sold out), so I knew which one to get on. (Some European trains can be very long, and dragging your luggage through all the coaches wasn't fun.). I felt like a cheater as I was asked to move out of another guy's seat that I was sitting on, while waiting for a train conductor to tell me my seat number. And as I caught myself feeling shameful, I was like, I didn't do anything wrong, so no need to be sorry... By the way, this x9000 train from Copenhagen to Stockholm took 5 hours, and it was a really nice, new, hi-speed train.
At Stockholm, I acted like a player in the "Survivors" show again as I was trying to find a way to board a ferry. I mistakenly believed that it should be close, but no!, I couldn't find a sign anywhere. No information counter either. The lines at the ticket offices were, again, very long. I asked the first ticket staff, she told me to go to the upper floor, which was correct, but I went to the wrong one. I went out to take a taxi. The driver didn't know where "Stadsgarden" (I found it on the ticket I received) was. I ran back to the same office asking another staff. This time, I went to the right place. Turned out that I had to go to a bus terminal that was connected to the train station via an underground walkway. I needed to take a bus to the ferry pier! It was only 10-minute ride, but still.
The ferry ride was the most killing part of my trip. I couldn't get a cabin as they were all full. So I got a "deck seat" which I thought was like an upright seat on the train. But no, there were only 20 of such seats which were all taken. This ferry has restaurants, a tax-free shop, a casino, saunas, bars. I guess many people spent all night entertaining themselves without sleeping.
I needed to find a place to sit. Initially, I thought if I couldn't find a place to sleep, I'd try meditate all night as I'd heard some monks do it on moon days (เนสัชชิก), and I never gave it a try. Finally, I saw some people sleeping on the floor in the waiting area. Many of them are young girls so I slept next to them. It was my first time sleeping on the floor with nothing between my clothes and the public floor! I do sleep on a mat at home but not like this.
I took a slight pity on myself, but then I thought, hey!, if other people could do it, and so could I. (I realized for the first time the value of camaraderie.) To me, this journey was like a game, an endurance exercise, to see if I would make it. And it had a lot to do with improving my endurance and patience, which is the quality I lack and yet I sorely need if I want to get anywhere spiritually.
Sleeping on the floor wasn't the problem but coldness was. As the night went on, it got colder and colder. I had a yoga mat and a blanket in my luggage but it was in a locked storage room. I woke up from time to time because of the noise but mostly because it was cold. I didn't really feel depressed as I knew that many monks I admired underwent much more severe hardships than this. So, if I woke up, then I meditated (lying there and observing my breath) and thus sometimes falling back to sleep. As I'm recalling it now, I realized that the meditation part helped me not being so tired on the day after...
I supposed it helped too to see that other people were in a worse position. Next to me was a 60-year-old guy, traveling with his son who was sleeping on a bench. He himself was doing the same thing but couldn't fall asleep because of the noise (his index fingers were stuck in his ears). Sometimes I woke up, I still saw him sitting and being awake. When I don't understand the language, people's conversations were just random noise to me, like dogs' bark or bird singing. The left was the view from the ferry.
The last chunk of the trip was a 6-hour train ride from Turku-Tampere-Seinäjoki-Vasaa. I wasn't so hyper any more as I was sure that I had made it. It was nice to see Finnish landscape though this part wasn't that different from Sweden's.
Another thing that helped calming my nerve while going through countless waits was knitting and simultaneously listening to dhamma talks on my iPhone. I love both activities thus I forget that I was waiting.
Another thing I like about traveling alone was that I needed to be careful about what I do, e.g., where I put things, what banknotes I paid with, looking out for myself and my stuff. (Generally, I can be too fast for my own good) Though I probably don't want to travel for quite a while, but I think this was a really good endurance exercise. Not that I need to be more confident, yet I am more sure of myself than ever that I could embrace whatever life presents to me.
I took an overnight coach train from Cologne to Copenhagen (Denmark). Three bunk beds were stacked up, and each cabin has two rows of these stacks. I couldn't sit upright when I was on my bed. I always think that European beds and some of their toilets, not only ones on trains, are too small for their body sizes. I really liked the morning views when the train went over two really long bridges that connect western Europe with Scandinavia. I'd seen the photos from the bird's eyes view but never been on to one. After a bridge, we went through a tunnel that was the longest one I ever witnessed. I wonder, what an engineering feat this must be to construct these projects. And what efforts they put in connecting themselves with the rest of Europe...
Now the excitement began as I couldn't print my bloody train ticket from the machine. I bought it over the phone (their computer server went down so I couldn't do it on the web) and I was given this booking number. I started to freak out a bit as I wasn't sure if it was because of my spelling mistakes. The waiting lines in the ticket office were long. The ticket staff told me to try the machine again; I did, to no avail. I went back to her and she told me to ask the train conductor what to do. She told me to bring the booking number with me on board. Thank goodness, there was only one coach for the 1st class (the 2nd class tickets were sold out), so I knew which one to get on. (Some European trains can be very long, and dragging your luggage through all the coaches wasn't fun.). I felt like a cheater as I was asked to move out of another guy's seat that I was sitting on, while waiting for a train conductor to tell me my seat number. And as I caught myself feeling shameful, I was like, I didn't do anything wrong, so no need to be sorry... By the way, this x9000 train from Copenhagen to Stockholm took 5 hours, and it was a really nice, new, hi-speed train.
At Stockholm, I acted like a player in the "Survivors" show again as I was trying to find a way to board a ferry. I mistakenly believed that it should be close, but no!, I couldn't find a sign anywhere. No information counter either. The lines at the ticket offices were, again, very long. I asked the first ticket staff, she told me to go to the upper floor, which was correct, but I went to the wrong one. I went out to take a taxi. The driver didn't know where "Stadsgarden" (I found it on the ticket I received) was. I ran back to the same office asking another staff. This time, I went to the right place. Turned out that I had to go to a bus terminal that was connected to the train station via an underground walkway. I needed to take a bus to the ferry pier! It was only 10-minute ride, but still.
The ferry ride was the most killing part of my trip. I couldn't get a cabin as they were all full. So I got a "deck seat" which I thought was like an upright seat on the train. But no, there were only 20 of such seats which were all taken. This ferry has restaurants, a tax-free shop, a casino, saunas, bars. I guess many people spent all night entertaining themselves without sleeping.
I took a slight pity on myself, but then I thought, hey!, if other people could do it, and so could I. (I realized for the first time the value of camaraderie.) To me, this journey was like a game, an endurance exercise, to see if I would make it. And it had a lot to do with improving my endurance and patience, which is the quality I lack and yet I sorely need if I want to get anywhere spiritually.
Sleeping on the floor wasn't the problem but coldness was. As the night went on, it got colder and colder. I had a yoga mat and a blanket in my luggage but it was in a locked storage room. I woke up from time to time because of the noise but mostly because it was cold. I didn't really feel depressed as I knew that many monks I admired underwent much more severe hardships than this. So, if I woke up, then I meditated (lying there and observing my breath) and thus sometimes falling back to sleep. As I'm recalling it now, I realized that the meditation part helped me not being so tired on the day after...
The last chunk of the trip was a 6-hour train ride from Turku-Tampere-Seinäjoki-Vasaa. I wasn't so hyper any more as I was sure that I had made it. It was nice to see Finnish landscape though this part wasn't that different from Sweden's.
Another thing that helped calming my nerve while going through countless waits was knitting and simultaneously listening to dhamma talks on my iPhone. I love both activities thus I forget that I was waiting.
Another thing I like about traveling alone was that I needed to be careful about what I do, e.g., where I put things, what banknotes I paid with, looking out for myself and my stuff. (Generally, I can be too fast for my own good) Though I probably don't want to travel for quite a while, but I think this was a really good endurance exercise. Not that I need to be more confident, yet I am more sure of myself than ever that I could embrace whatever life presents to me.
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