First impression - the train

Hello everybody!

Today I want to tell you a funny story, which is the story of the first time I catched a train. This could sound a bit weird, but I'm not joking: I swear it is all true.

Due to the fact that the elementary and the middle school aren't so far from my house, from the age of 5 to the age of 14 my mum used to bring me there by car. Then, when I attended High School, even if the school was a bit far, I used to go there in the same way.

So it ended up I catched the train only when I was...16 years-old!

On that time, we had to go to a conference - or something like that - at the university of Pavia and if we had caught the bus, we would have spent much money, considering also the fact that the place wasn't too far (30 minutes by car) and that the university was in the city centre. So we opted in favour of the train.

I didn't know what to expect, because the only train I'd ever seen was the one shown in the Polar Express film.

So, when, finally, I arrived at the station, I felt a great delusion. To summarise my reaction, I could write this:

EXPECTATION

 



REALITY

 

 

But I've learnt that this is not the uncomfortable type of seats.

 

Moreover, you have to be grateful if, on the way to your destination:

- the train doesn't stop in the middle of nowhere and it remains there for an undefined number of minutes;

- in summer there is the air conditioning or, at least, the possibility to open the windows;

- in winter, the heat doesn't recreate the typical climate of the tropics;

- the train is ON TIME;

- you don't have to stand near the doors with the noise from the outside.

 

I catch the train almost everyday to go to university now, so, if I want to plan a holiday and I have to buy the train ticket, (if I can) I choose a confy seat, as one in the first class of a high-speed train (I catched the train Italo to go to Bologna and Firenze): at least once a year, I would like to feel relaxed.

 

Anyway, I felt the atmosphere of the Polar Express one day in Milan, when I got on a tram like this one:

 

A historical tram in Milan

It was like travelling back on time, a magic evening in a warm autumn.

 

 

See you soon

 

 

Yours, Silvia