Eighteen and a half hours on a train. Nineteen? Long enough. Too long.
Once again I am super thankful for my air mattress.
Before each train ride, we make a swing by the grocery store for provisions as there are limited ones on the train; occasionally a cart will come by, and there's boiling water in each car. So we stock up on snacks. We have eaten many strange things including mango chips (potato chips that taste like "mango"), cucumber chips (that was a bad decision), Texas BBQ chips, all of the flavours of Pocky, so many flavours of Oreos, and every possible flavour of noodles.
In case you thought we were staying in luxury digs, I present to you the bunks. Yes, that backpack is all I took.
The train company provides a nice, clean, warm comforter and a way too soft pillow.
Team Canada and half of Team UK.
There is no entertainment on the trains unless you bring it. I have my tablet so I have books and games. I also have my charger.
Team Germany has stopped by Innisfree and purchased many beauty products including eye thingies and several masks. Team Australia is all over this.
I will say the trains are a lot quieter than I expected. They sell about as good as I expected. You're not allowed to smoke in the cars, but you can smoke between them - and there is no physical barrier between cars. So all night long it smells like smoke. Others noticed bugs and stuff but with my sleep mask and air mattress I was out like a light.
Nineteen hours on a train is a very long time. We were looking up flights before we left the hotel and Team Canada was within minutes of booking them. They were fairly inexpensive. We opted not to because we didn't want to be the only white people in Barn In A Chinese Field Airport. This will stand as a regret.
For a portion of the trip, we are asleep. This is a great portion. This was probably the best part. The rest? Wide awake. Daylight. No sleep. And this was a long ass time, probably half the trip. We did not anticipate this so when we disembarked, we were all a bit punchy.
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