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An eight hour train ride between two cities changes the view, the attitude, the temperature and the feelings.
I was traveling between Oslo and Bergen last week. I woke up early to catch the early train to Bergen. The route took me from the capital of Norway on the east coast, across the mountains and over to the west coast of Norway.
The scenery changed almost at once. There were almost no snow left in Oslo, but not too fare out of Oslo, the snow increased right away. It turned into winter wonderland and people with and on skis, was to be seen all over the place. No matter how far I was traveling in Norway, this was definitely The Country Up North….
And for some reason, the minute we left Oslo, the attitude changed. It felt like people were much kinder, patient, helpful and cheerful. Well, this might just be me, looking forward to a train ride. And it might just be me being a little nicer than usual. As I was sitting on the train with my breakfast (homemade sandwich and coffee) I started surfing on internet, reading the newspaper, and all of a sudden (3 hours later….) the scenery was totally different… I had totally forgotten to look out the window….
The snow was piling up everywhere. The windows was clogged with ice. A tourist from England told me that with one inch of snow, the trains would not move in England…. Well, that’s not the story in Norway. The train was plowing through feats of snow, higher and higher through the mountains, and at Finse (1222 meter above sea level) we it a blizzard. But the train was not delayed at all. Just LOVE a norwegian train ride.
As I tried to focus to look out the window (the white snow was blinding me and forcing me to not look out….) I realized that it is ok to let yourself go, sometimes….. Leave the “inner-city-face” behind, just smile, chat, help and chill. Sometimes a train ride somewhere is all it takes.
Do we need to EAT, PRAY&LOVE?
Yes, we do.
But we do not have to go to Italy, India or Bali to do just that.
This can be done right where you are.
And I just like to travel by trains.
