Our journey to Varanasi began at 11:30 pm when we were supposed to board the overnight “sleeper” train which would take us there. Of course, like most things in India, it whistled into the train station at about 3 am (only 3 and a half hours behind schedule)! We all climbed aboard and were shocked with what we saw! I’m not sure if it was just me or if everyone was picturing something that would look like the train that would take us on a exciting fun-filled ride to Hogwarts, but that illusion was immediately shattered! It looked more like the the knight bus from the third Harry Potter, minus the shrunken taking heads…mind you I didn’t look that closely! We were all scattered in different bunks – packed in like human sardines – 8 people in a section, 3 stacked on top on one another on each side of the walls and 2 bunks across the aisle from the 6 pairs of opposing feet. Poor Jess, one of the tallest, was on the middle bunk with her feet being grabbed by strangers passing by or climbing in and out of the beds around her. Needless to say, I don’t think this was what any of us expected. With all the sounds, smells and snoring passengers all around us, we figured we were in for a very bleak next 14 hours. However, once we were settled sleep came for all of us. It may have been a few hours of broken sleep at a time, but for the most part we dozed until mid-morning. We passed most of the time by either playing cards, reading, or watching “Shutter Island” on Fredrick’s laptop. As Jess and Em read, Angie, Adam and I taught Fred how to play 4-handed euchre. We played for hours (boys vs. girls) and I would like to say the girls cleaned up solely because we are awesome, but it being Fred’s first time at euchre maayyy have played a part in the outcome. After we took a break to watch the movie, Sabrina and Emily joined our game and we duked it out in 6 handed euchre for the remainder of the train ride, while Jess…SPOILER ALERT….try to conceal tears from the Indian family across from her as she finished reading the last book in the “Divergent” trilogy. All in all, what we thought was going to be a dreadfully long experience went by pretty fast. Having each other to laugh about the experience with and to chat and play games with made the time fly, and though I may not have admitted it at the time….I have very fond memories of our ride to Varanasi aboard the night train!!
Trip(le) Trotters 