Just got back from an overnight trip to Sydney. For various reasons, this time I took the train….and I loved it.

I have not travelled on a train since waaay BC (before COVID), and whilst this method of transportation is not everyone’s cup of tea, I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed it.

The reasons train travel is ALWAYS and option (for me):

1. Train routes are almost always more interesting than travel by road. Tracks follow more topographically scenic terrain and often pass through the more engaging (ie off the main street) parts of towns.
2. The movement of the train is snoozy. I don’t know, something about the swaying of the carriages and the clack-clack of the wheels on the tracks. The warm sun streaming in the window.
   Um, I think I’ll just shut my eyes for a few seconds.
3. The trip is relatively smooth. At least smoother than a car or a bus. There are no lane-changes or traffic snarls, or potholes, or sudden decelerations. You can get stuff done if you want. Plenty of travellers bring a lap top or some other work and do just that.
4. You can get up and stretch your legs. Walk down to the buffet car. Grab a coffee and some snacks. Go to the toilet…..hang on, ewwww…ye gods, I hope nobody was hurt in here.
5. Despite the modernisation of the rail system, there remains something romantic and adventurous about train travel.
   I may only be travelling up to Sydney, but I could be on some sort of trans-Siberian, Orient Express, Caledonian Sleeper, Trans Alpine, Hogwarts Express odyssey….a fantasy only shattered by the young man across the isle enthusiastically playing Mr Beast videos on his iPad.

There you have it. I took my Kindle with me to get some reading done during the roughly 4-hour trip. It sat on my lap the entire journey. Instead, I sat in a semi-hypnogogic state, staring out the window as the country rolled by.

Thinking to myself: I might just Orient Express the Mr Beast dude.