National Railway - A door to the past

by Kristiyana Georgieva (Bulgaria)

I didn't expect to find Bulgaria

There is a charm to all means of transport but so far trains have been the most adventurous for me. A train embodies the bridge between eras allowing everybody to sense both elite and poverty. On the Balkans there's an interesting phenomenon - you actually get to travel back in time. The most safe and cheap means to get to the nearest big airport is by train, ok? It's also the slowest but my only option to travel by night and sleep in a horizontal position soundly. Today I needed to fly to Berlin for a concert - the type you only get to have once in a few years - no pressure here. So I bought my ticket - last minute, of course, and got on the train. For some reason I wasn't hyped for the whole thing but I ignored my foreboding - something a dedicated traveler should never do. So as I am sleeping the train stops, the lights go of and people start leaving their sleeping cabins panicking and shouting (mainly swearing and overdramatizing). In a nutshell - because of the first serious (normal) winter day (and the wind) a tree fell on one of the cabins (no victims) tearing apart the electricity cables. For the next 7 hours we were without lights, electricity, toilets, heating, network coverage, information what is happening and basic supplies such as water, food, napkins etc. Going through the definition of the situation above I believe you will also feel what I mean - I'm not in 2020 any more. The scent of still air, the freezing feet, the darknes and the crying babies all around me. This definitely isn't the kind of trip I have ever imagined. People all around me missed exams, funreals, flights, dates and so on. Nevertheless I chose to turn all of it into jokes and laughs - it was not going to get better soon anyway. All bad is for a reason they say and whoever they are, they are right. If you keep your mindset positive you will always get something useful out of the situation. I decided I will not get angry and pity myself for the trip I knew I'm missing but instead I enjoyed the mesmerizing view. While doing so guess what happened. I met two frinds of mine I hadn't seen in a long time. They didn't know each other but that changed for good. We managed to catch up and organise a future gathering altogether in the countries they're living in. We were having so much fun playng games and chatting that we even didn't realise when all those 15 hours left from the accident passed. All this wouldn't have happeden if I'd decided to stay in my cabin and pity my situation. Keep that in mind and always remembor to improvise. It's more real and authentic that way. For me traveling feels a lot like jazz. You have the main moments that are needed for the whole construction but if things change its for the better. At the end of the day all that matters is what you learnt and how do you decide to use that knowledge - to ignor it or to learn from it. Sometimes you don't need to reach the final destination in order to learn the lesson from the trip.