#train-thoughts

It was a typical monday morning: slightly oversleeping and my mom having to wake me up (so much for being an adult, I know), traffic on our way to Utrecht, having a coffee at my mom’s office, taking the train back to Maastricht, getting annoyed by all of the things I always get annoyed by and ending up at uni finishing assignments. 

The lists of things which annoy me are ever-growing (something with millennials and never being happy with what they have), and being a frequent traveller with the beloved cough cough Dutch train company NS, this list is one of the fastest growing of them all. Because a TRAIN-thought serie wouldn’t be complete without some complaining about the NS, I hereby present you:

Things about travelling by train which annoy me (under construction)

Second class, and the lack of space, storage, electricity sockets and tidiness. No, you can’t sit on the seat where all of my bags are because if I put them on the floor all of my legspace is automatically gone and unless you want me to use your personal space as my feetrest, this seat is mine.

Children, and the silence carriage. For the love of god, think about the headaches you’re inflicting when travelling with children in general. Don’t, and I mean DON’T sit with your 4 sugar induced hyper-active bouncy balls inspired mini versions of yourself. Thanks in advance.

Smells, during rush-hour. And no I don’t mean people’s personal hygiene, or lack thereof, or well maybe I do. But the most annoying thing is the smell of fresh baked fries or the sweet smell of a Starbucks coffee in a busy carriage on a Friday evening rush-hour when I’m just trying to get home and eat my mom’s food.

Red signals, and the chaos is causes at Utrecht Central Station. I study in the south and my parents live in Amersfoort just above Utrecht. It already takes me 2,5 hours to get home, but if there’s a red signal which won’t turn green anymore, I’m in for it. Utrecht Central Station is one of the busiest stations in the country. One thing goes wrong and the entirety of the train station erupts into chaos.    

Time-management, and the NS. For some unexplained reason the NS finds it extremely difficult to just stick to its schedule. When there’s no delay, the train will leave 2 minutes early. It baffles me every time.

And last but most certainly not least: the WiFi-connection. I get it’s hard to provide a large train with WiFi, but there’s not a single spot in the train where the WiFi is truly optimal. How, NS? HOW?

A week ago me and a girl who is both in my tutorial group and student association decided to travel home together. We sat down in a four-seater facing each other, got settled with our laptops and discussing some things about the tutorial we just had. 2 minutes to departure, while my laptop was connecting to the train’s wifi network, a group of 3 teenage boys loudly entered the train. They sat behind us, much to our annoyance. 

While they were loudly discussing if they still had time to poop (really, I shit you not (yes pun intended)) the webpage for a housing agency was loading. Right as the webpage was displayed on my screen, I heard two squeaky voices behind me: “MAASTRICHT HOUSING? WHAT IS THAT? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS?” “NO BRO I HAVE NO CLUE”. Wow, you’re 14 years old, such a surprise you don’t know what Maastricht Housing is when you still enjoy the comfort of your mom her cleaning and cooking skills. 

Quite annoyed with the fact they were reading off my laptop without my permission I listened to their little conversation, while exchanging annoyed glances and eyebrow lifts with my friend. When I had absolutely had it with them talking about wat was displayed on my laptop, I turned around: “It’s a housing agency, could I please be left alone while minding my own business, thank you.”

The looks on their faces were worth a whole lot to me. “Oh, we’re so sorry miss. Have a nice day.”. Miss, at least their moms have tought them some manners.

The small white apple is staring at me. I hope my golden asus logo is staring back at the girl in front of me in the train. While our laptops are fighting a silent battle on which is better (because let’s face it, a macbook is ultimately the coolest but my laptop is gold so take that), we are both absorbed in our own little technology-bubble: laptops on our laps, phone within reach, earphones in blasting some corny top-40 song. No differences between us whats however. We even study in the same city, which I just heard her say to her friend on the other side of the phonecall, spoken through the small bar attached to the wire of her earphones.

The woman seated on the other side of the aisle seems to be my mum’s age. She’s reading a book I have never heard the title of. There’s no laptop, no phone, no earphones. When a man who I guessed around 50 steps into the carriage I start timing until he reaches for his phone. 25 minutes and a dying phonebattery later I give up on my little experiment. And while this 1 person is obviously no ground to draw conclusions from, it becomes really clear how different we experience technology. Nevermind, it’s nothing we didn’t know already.

Love,