Her Royal Highness's Match Luggage

The train to Amsterdam was odd. Part of the way I traveled with a young women (about my age) from the Netherlands. We had good, but very brief and sporadic conversations. Most of the time she read and I planned out my next two days. It was nice! So, this was a Night Train and instead of forking over the 20 Euro for a sleeper car (which isn't a bad deal since you aren't booking a hotel or hostel night stay) I decided to go with the least expensive option which is a 4 Euro reserved seat. With the reserved seat you run the risk of being stuck in a small cabin all night with 6 people who are all trying to sleep in the upright position.....like a overnight airplane ride, but you are facing three other people. So, like a overnight flight on Southwest. Anyway! I went the cheap route since I'd like to use my money for beer, food, and other stuff......or at least more beer and food. The girl who was in the car with me asked the ticket guy if we'd be the only two in the car for the night. The ticket taker said, "No, at 10:30pm you will be joined by one more." So, her and I took this 4-hour advantage to put our feet up, lay across either side of the seat, and wonder what type of person would be joining us. I'm glad she asked because my last night train I was up all the time because you are always wondering at every stop if someone will join you. You wait, sweat, and listen to the foot steps as the people board the train. Hoping that they don't have a seat reserved in your cabin. Not that I don't enjoy the people, it's just so nice to have room to lay down on an overnight ride. Now that we knew someone would join us at 10:30, we were free not to worry.

I'm sure that this girl from the Netherlands dreamed of a tall, dark massage therapist from Finland who would be our 10:30 guest. I, on the other hand, was rooting on the sexy model from Spain. Well, at 10:30pm one of us would be pretty close. As the train pulled into this station in the middle of nowhere (I mean nowhere! I didn't even see a waiting platform), there she was.....short, tan, clear skinned, well dressed, and, for lack of a better word "Dead-Sexy". She looked Spanish and sure as hell could have been a model, but she spoke German and very very little English. Needless to say, I was very welcoming of our new guest, but not of her smell of mothballs, her Royal Highness's Match Luggage, and her 3-year old daughter who was sick.

I swear! It took her three trips just to get all of her luggage into the cabin. It was so bad that the ticket taker came over and was giving her a hard time for having her luggage on the seat (which, I gratefully lifted onto the seat....nearly breaking my back). They were speaking German, but what I was able to pull from the conversation was that he wanted her to pay for reserving another seat, just for her gigantic bag. So, the little girl was cute too but she kept coughing and crying......at first but when she fell asleep she was out cold the rest of the way. The mother/model decided to talk on the phone until after midnight while watching/listening to Middle Eastern music videos (without the aid of earphones). I got as comfortable as I could, popped two Benadryl, put in my ear plugs, and pulled my beanie over my ears and eyes. I actually slept quite well. At about 7am we arrived at the mom-model's stop. She took out her loads of her Royal Highness's Match Luggage while her daughter stayed in the cabin we were in and cried for her mommy. Once she was gone and the train was moving the girl from the Netherlands yells, "Finally!" She gets up, moves her bags to the other side of the cabin, and lays down and goes back to sleep. I also took the opportunity to stretch out and I slept for another 2-hours.

When I arrived in Amsterdam and the train doors opened....that aroma that "stings the nostrils" was very much aparent.