Interesting conversations on trains

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A post by @xFiacre started a conversation with @MALUSE about trains, and meeting people on them. I don’t know why, but trains seem to foster interesting conversations with fellow passengers, far more than other forms of transport. I never seem to have connected to anyone on a plane and can only really remember one occasion when I had a friendly chat on a bus, and that was with an Aboriginal woman in Australia. I remember she told me that on a previous occasion, an Australian woman had asked her where she was from, and when she said ‘Australia’ the woman replied ‘Oh I didn’t know there were any black people in Australia!’ (They have only lived there for about 50,000 years). But I digress. In contrast to other methods of transport, I have had several friendly incidents on trains. On one long journey I met a woman from the Hebrides. She was in her 80s and told me she had already survived two heart attacks and several strokes, but she seemed quite lively for all that. We exchanged addresses and promised to write, but I think I only managed it once (I’m terrible at getting around to writing). I remember she told me her name was Catherine - but it wasn’t her original name; because she had a Gaelic given name her teachers had not allowed it and had given her a more Anglicised name instead. They spoke Gaelic at home but that wasn’t allowed in school either. This was very similar to the way Welsh children were treated when my grandparents were young - punished for speaking Welsh at school. Thankfully now things have changed. On another long journey I met a young man who was quite good company, although he had a rather disconcerting habit of checking things off against a sort of mental ‘checklist’. So if it transpired that we liked similar music, for example, he would exclaim over it and sort of tick off another point in my favour. Although he was pleasant enough it was a bit difficult to shake him off when we reached our destination because I obviously ticked a few of his mental boxes! As a student I went ‘Inter-railing’ in Europe, and met a few friendly fellow travellers from Italy, Germany, Croatia, Cameroon, Sweden and France. I also met another British girl, Karen, in Norway, and we are still in contact all these years later. Apart from Karen though, the most long-lasting relationship was with a young man I met on the way home from a university interview. It was just before Christmas and he was on his way home from a different university for the holidays. We were sitting opposite one another over one of those tables and just started chatting. Then we had to change trains, and were both getting the same one, so we sat together and chatted some more. Then another change and again we were on the same one - turned out he lived about 30 miles from me. When we got to my stop he kissed me goodbye and I was afraid the train would pull out before I got off! I think my parents were a bit surprised when I arrived home and told them I was going out the next night with someone I met on the train! That relationship lasted about a year, although we didn’t see each other all that often since I was still in my last year at school and he in his final year of university. It was also doomed from the start since he proudly told me he was a male chauvinist! But we had some pleasant times, and stayed in touch for years afterwards as well. This is making me think I should go on another train journey! The last time was a trip to Paris on the Eurostar in February last year, just before lockdown. Hopefully we’ll be allowed more freedom for adventures soon! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2021.