Memories and slow trains

The other day when I was taking a train from Zagreb to Rijeka
and back, my mp3 was out of battery (don't know how that
happened when I had charged it all night, me and technology
again!?), the only book that I had with me was the Bible and the
journey was endless.  And to all who don't know, I have a very vivid
imagination and I am very nostalgic as well.  All the way I was
recalling my childhood memories. There is a book that I have wanted
to read since high school, Proust - Combray.  I started it and I loved
it, but then I had other things to do and I never got back to it.
Anyway, there is a famous passage when he, as an adult, has a cup of
tea and when he dunks that French cake called a Madeleine into the tea,
the taste of the cake melting under his tongue takes him back to his
childhood and the next few pages are all about that.  Don't know why
many people find that boring?! :)  I love it because I can identify with
that,I understand how he must have been feeling then.  Numerous times
in my life smells, tastes, shapes, things, gestures... make me feel the
same.

Even though trains in Croatia are very slow and very rarely on time, I
prefer to travel that way; not just because they are much cheaper than
buses but also because of the intimacy of the compartment.  Chatting with
random people is something that takes me back to my past. And as is
well known, the past is always the best, maybe because we have already
gone through it or, in this particular case, because it brings back my
happiest memories of times that I spent with my family. In the village
where we lived there are just 500 inhabitants now and things there never
change.  If you didn't have a car there the only way you could come and go
was by train.

So all you in the western world where the infrastructure was developed
many years ago and who now travel in a fast underground or a train crammed
with people, but still travel alone trying to avoid any possible eye contact
with a stranger, I think you are missing out on something.

I am not a modest person and I have many wishes in life and one of my
wishes related to this subject is to take a journey on the Trans-Siberian
Railway. 15 days in an old style train, sharing a compartment with all kinds
of people, seeing such different places from what I am used to, and all
the wonders of nature there.
Ooh!!