The cliché is true. The devil is in the details. And it turns out one very important detail when traveling by train to an airport is that you take a train to the RIGHT airport. The wrong one, as it turns out, will not allow you to get on a plane.
Alas, Nikki and I made valiant attempts to catch our flight back to Shannon, Ireland, but after two trains, a bus and a very funny exchange about how there should be a kiosk in every European train station and airport flashing "Panicked Americans: All questions Answered Here" complete with a big button that simply stops every mode of transport until things have been figured out (this went along with our constant jokes about America being all about freedom -- always said in the GW accent). We were unsucessful and spent an unexpected night in Brussels...Charelroi, actually, where nothing exists but the tiny airport.
Anyhow, I now know to be very specific abotu my train needs! In fact, I somehow (of great surprise to me) was able to travel from Brussels to Lausanne Switzerland, changing trains four times with only minutes between them, and arrive at my hostel (another bus and tram ride away from the station) with only moments of panic.
One other note about trains that makes me think that American image of walking on train tracks as the sun sets as way less romantic than one would think, is that when you pee or do any other such activities on a train, it just goes right out onto the tracks as you zoom along. This will come as no surprise to most of the world, but I admit I had a moment of shock.
Lastly, since leaving Nikki at the Brussels airport, I met not one, but two slightly insane people who wanted nothing more than to speak to me at length. One in the train station who kept repeating how much she did not like America, but loved the United States (?). The other who told me that he was an artist, an expert on renewable energy (and showed me his CV to prove it), a dzslexic and a stained glass apprentice from Ireland. The sheer amount of proof he continued to offer while I tried to read my book was proof enough for me. The fact that he thought a letter acted as a train ticket just solidified the fact.
Until next time!
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