I’ve now travelled to over 10 different countries with the same group of girls for four years running. Our debut into the world as cultured travellers started with the eye-opening week in Magaluf and progressed onto more adventurous excursions that have taken us to Indonesia, where we back-packed around Bali.
One of the best trips was the time we travelled around Europe. We used an Interrail pass to get from Amsterdam to Bratislava in three weeks, visiting five other cities along the way. As fun as our Interrailing trip may have been, it wasn’t always a smooth ride. One particular train journey still stands out to me as being especially memorable, if not a little turbulent.
It was an overnight train from Krakow to Prague. We were all rather apprehensive as to what the night was going to entail. As we boarded our carriage, we were welcomed on board by a kind but assertive Polish guard. The woman, who probably saw five young, giddy girls oozing naivety, decided to impart some advice onto us all about the possible dangers of a sleeper train. Although she was well-meaning, we think the language barrier resulted in a slightly less nuanced version of a warning. In hindsight, it shouldn’t have sounded so severe. What came across was that this was a ‘very dangerous overnight train’ with ‘pick-pockets and thieves’ who ‘open doors and try to steal phones and bags from under pillows while you sleep’.
She followed this with a dramatic demonstration in the cabin. The guard faked a robbery, sticking her hand through the small opening the latched door allowed and feeling around aggressively for somebody’s personal belongings. How common this actual occurrence was, wasn’t clear to us. Nevertheless, she’d succeeded in making sure we were all on edge for the rest of the evening. We wouldn’t be drifting off into a peaceful sleep anytime soon.
Before the guard left the cabin, we asked her if the sixth bed was due to be taken up by somebody else that night. She assured us it wasn’t and so we spread ourselves out, trying and failing to get comfortable before locking the door to protect us from the supposed thieves of the night roaming the corridors.
Just as we started to drift off, we suddenly became aware of a man-shaped shadow standing outside our cabin door. We exchanged a few frantic whispers. However, we were reassured when the man disappeared and made his way down the carriage and away from us. With the guard’s clear warning still ringing in my ears, I couldn’t help but see this figure as anything but a thieving opportunist. He was, no doubt, looking for unassuming British 19-year olds to steal from.
I tried to convince myself otherwise and was ready to let it go when I heard the gasp of my friend Lois, who had valiantlytaken the bottom bunk nearest the door. There was a hand trying to get in through the gap that the latch allowed. Lois swiftly slammed the door shut, just catching his fingers. We hoped we had given whoever this was a clear message that we were all awake and not afraid to injure his hand more if he dared try and poke it through again.
This was obviously an ineffective deterrent. His hand reappeared in what looked like a second attempt to find something worth taking. Only, this time, it was followed by a plea for us to let him into the cabin. We were all stunned into silence and nobody dared respond. However, we didn’t hold back from whispering loudly to one another, discussing what we should do next. Thus, we stupidly made him aware that we were five scared teenage girls, who were very unsure how to handle the situation.
The mystery man was seemingly relentless, asking again if he could come in. I responded to this with a timid ‘no?’. In response, he told us that his ticket led was for our cabin. Something wasn’t adding up. The train hadn’t stopped at all, and it had been several hours since we got on. It appeared odd, therefore, that he was only just trying to find his bed. My friends, on the other hand, were clearly more trusting than me and decided that he could enter.
Our mysterious thief in the dark was actually a lovely Kiwi
After some re-shuffling of our things, and a few exasperated ‘what ifs’ from me, we let him in. I made it clear that I was not happy with the situation. Through a series of fraught hand gestures and exaggerated mouthing of words to my friend sleeping opposite, I conveyed my displeasure. For all we knew, he could be a murderer and we had invited him into an ideal scenario. Needless to say, I didn’t have a restful night’s sleep. I was too preoccupied with keeping one hand on my bum-bag and one eye open in the event of an attempted robbery or kidnapping.
Shockingly, we all made it through the night. I woke up in the Czech Republic feeling grateful to be alive. I was, however, cautious not to jinx anything until we’d disembarked from the train. As my other friends casually engaged in some morning chit-chat with the stranger, I remained quiet in my bed. From there I learned his name and that he was from New Zealand. Like us, he was travelling around Europe. As their conversation flowed and he became annoyingly friendlier by the minute I started to entertain the idea that I had over-reacted the night before. I, therefore, interrupted the conversation to began an interrogation regarding his late arrival to the cabin. The response was in fact very simple. Unknown to us, the train had stopped in Warsaw. He had boarded there and attempted to find his seat.
Our mysterious thief in the dark was actually a lovely Kiwi. We then proceeded to bump into him on numerous occasions during our time in Prague. Each time we made awkward conversation with him, painfully aware that only twenty-four hours prior we had violently trapped his fingers in a door and declined him access to his own bed.
From this experience, I learnt that you have to be willing to trust people when you’re travelling. It is important to give them the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, you’re not going to allow yourself (or them) to get very far.
For advice on interrailing, check out this link out.
For more Redbrick articles on travelling in Europe, check out the links below!
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