Riding the Eurostar! Pt. 1
19. Oktober 2023
Over the course of my still-short life, Great Britain has acquired a somewhat mythical reputation in my mind. I was socialized as a club football fan when I was 7 years old and I had all the FIFA Football editions from 1998 on. My first international football experience had been the EURO 1996 – when football was "coming home." – I grew up with notions like "The Theater of Dreams," "The Kop," "The Special One." With the 1999 Manchester triple triumph – with Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, and so on.
From Giggs and Scholes to Films and Novels
Add numerous novels and films – covering the time from teenage on, when my attractions changed – and you might understand why it felt like such a tragedy to have never physically been to the island myself.
At Amsterdam Centraal we board the Eurostar.
This year, I finally crammed a vacation into my calendar, bought an Interrail Global Pass, and found myself stringing together numerous cities/stops for my first personal British experience. Thus, for the last two weeks of October I find myself travelling from Berlin to London, up to Scotland and all the way back.
Connecting Berlin and London via Train
My journey starts with a connection from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Amsterdam Centraal. I'm up as early as 6 AM – and still find myself running to catch the U5 to "S+U Hauptbahnhof." It's the Middle of October and I'm prepared for a vacation marked by horizontal Atlantic rain as much as for heavy food and lots of walking.
Today's trip will cover four countries and a significant connection in Amsterdam, where I'm supposed to board the Eurostar: to me, a wondrous connection that crosses the English Channel from Lille to London. If everything goes to plan, I'll be there before 8 PM British time.
Sam and the IMSAI 8080s
Buying an Interrail "Global Pass" is somewhat pointless without the human interaction on the train. The rides usually provide me with hard-earned-but-very-much-appreciated-after-the-fact human experiences – so, I'm willing to leave my usual loner's comfort zone.
Sitting down on my seat to Amsterdam I happen upon Sam, an Australian in his highish fifties. Struck by his "second" midlife-crisis¹, he is now travelling Europe – hopping from one retro tech conference to another. Building a network, in fact, that might ensure he could earn a living building replica IMSAI 8080 machines². The current events are too pressing to ignore geopolitics – and suddenly I find myself deep into economic reflections on Germany's future and the stability of the self-described Western world.
Before the Eurostar, there is a good 6-hour-trip to Amsterdam.
Sam is quite talkative, obviously making the most of his European experience. I'm up for many hours at this point, there's still a long day ahead – and at some stage I find myself longing for Amsterdam Centraal. Where I can finally spend some time with my assigned travel literature: Lea Ypi³ – Free.
I think of Myself as an Improper Traveler
Straight up: I don'’t believe I'm a particularly good traveler. The pure act provides me with a certain sense of displacement, which I can never shake completely. And when you're not 100 percent committed to any idea of what you're doing, you basically keep on second-guessing yourself and the resulting actions.
Truth is: I like home. Not just my particular area in Berlin, where I live and know a bunch of people, basically. It's more than that: I quickly miss the very real comfort of *home* – the assured steps and the known, ever-expanding roads of my every day life.
On the train, time and places and people are rushing by.
Then again, these words wouldn't have been written exactly this way, if I hadn't decided early this year that I would finally fulfill a childhood dream – and take a Eurostar train through the English Channel and onto the British island.
Thus, it might be just as much about discovering a different (in my mind somewhat *mythical*) place, as it is about passively appreciating that there is an actual space I call home for some time now.
We Are Riding the Eurostar!
Yes. Non-German trains can be delayed, too. The almighty Eurostar picks up a 15 mins delay along the way. To be fair – apart from the actual *how’s* – the whole travel day is an itinerary success. I arrive in London – after a whole day on rail tracks – more or less when I was supposed to arrive.
On the Eurostar it's getting dark outside shortly before we reach Lille, France. Only a little while ago, I got to take a look at Brussels in plain afternoon daylight. Now, leaving Lille, going for the Channel, we're completely in the dark. According to the omnipresent screens we're travelling mostly at 300 km/h, which the train handles remarkably smoothly. My curt toilet outing is far from a logistical or physical challenge.
The Eurostar travels with 300 km/h and outside the world is barely comprehensible.
The cold is challenging, though. However, I'm prepared. A couple of visits to the US and many rides on highspeed trains here in Europe helped me handle the effects of overly airconditioned spaces.
So, for the rest of the journey from France through the Channel onto the British main island we'll all be terribly cold. – It's cold and dark, most of us are sleeping – and I'm on rails for 10 hours at this stage. Whether there's a tunnel somewhere or not – whether we're under, over or floating the sea… I couldn't tell. I'm occupied with packing myself in increasing layers of clothing.
Two power outlet system side-by-side. A symbol for the British-European partnership?
Through the ears I'm preparing myself intellectually for the first London experience of my life. Zadie Smith is talking about her then-new short story collection – and I'm already fully taken by what she calls her "posh Cambridge accent." After I'm finished with Zadie's⁴ ruminations on storytelling and – well – life as a teenager in the digital era, I'm off for a cup hot peppermint tea.
There, at the counter I'm of the ludicrous assumption that the French guy behind the counter would be interested in any smalltalk over "the cold down there in wagon 13." – "I’m not cold," is his quick reply. Here, recognizing my mistake, I'm ready to throw in the towel and wait quietly for my hot water cup – but in an unexpected move he picks up his walkie-talkie and "passes the message on" to his colleagues. I thank him.
Down the Escalator at St Pancras
The rest of our lightning journey through utter obscurity goes by – and I reach London St Pancras wearing a T-Shirt, two sweaters (BE: jumpers!), a thick leather jacket, scarf and cap. The cool London breeze I mistake for a hot gush of air as I make my way through the hall and down the escalator. – Where the industrial "tube" ventilation brings me back to life.
¹ I guess, he must have found that his lifespan had actually extended, so that his initial midlife-crisis wasn't really "mid life" anymore – thus, repeating the experience. ↑
² You can find his work on Thehighnibble.com. His IMSAI replica is either fully assembled or delivered as a kit – so you can do the work yourself. ↑
³ Ypi, Lea. Free: Coming of Age at the End of History. 2021. Penguin. ↑
⁴ City Arts & Lectures: Zadie Smith. 08.10.2019. ↑
² You can find his work on Thehighnibble.com. His IMSAI replica is either fully assembled or delivered as a kit – so you can do the work yourself. ↑
³ Ypi, Lea. Free: Coming of Age at the End of History. 2021. Penguin. ↑
⁴ City Arts & Lectures: Zadie Smith. 08.10.2019. ↑
For this journey I bought an Interrail Global Pass, which cost me 352 €. It's valid for a month and includes 7 travel days.
Additional seat reservations for the Eurostar cost me 69 € - roundtrip.