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by jumping out of the train as quickly as possible and disappearing in the crowd. - Something comparable hasn't happened to me, but I've definitely done a lot for my conversational skills on Italian trains!

How do I pass my time in German trains? The Germans are related to the Brits when it comes to communicating with strangers. Germaine Greer: "Even crushed against his brother in the Tube the average Englishman pretends desperately that he is alone." Exceptions prove the rule, but lively conversations with German fellow travellers are indeed so rare that I remember the few I've had even years later.

I know what the German landscapes look like from North to South and East to West, so I don't have to press my nose against the window and look out. I eat. I belong to the tribe of eaters-on-trains who begin eating at once, no matter if the train's already moving or still standing in the station. Everything tastes better on a train! Is there anyone out there who can understand me?

I watch people and think "God's kingdom has indeed many inhabitants, how on earth can anyone look voluntarily like that?" Or: "What would my life be like if I were so good-looking?" I listen to other people's conversation pretending not to, I try to find out which foreign language my neighbours speak if I can't understand it, oh, there're many ways to while away the time.

Or I read, nothing serious, I'd never study on a train (I had enough of that as a schoolgirl), but nothing too silly, either, not a book I would leave behind me on the seat when getting out.

With a little bit of thinking you can create a situation for yourself which is just perfect, (like reading Death in Venice' in Venice). You have a wide choice and reading matter for hours on end, I'm sure my selection can last you at least up to the border of Mongolia on t
he Transsib.

Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train
Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express
Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar
Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster
Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery
Andrew Matthews, The Great Gold Train Robbery

And don't forget to put the old jazz piece Take The A Train' in your portable CD-player!

Do I have to state explicitly that I love travelling by train, no matter what, come hell or high water, or has it come across? I'd like to express my deep-felt sympathy with the poor Brits who live on an island with a tiny railway system where they can't even travel for a whole day in one direction without falling into the sea (London - Edinburgh, 3.50 hours in a tilt train, dear me!), my heart goes out to you. And Americans who hardly travel at all because their country is too vast!

See you on the European continent one day.

Learn more about this author, Marie-Luise Stromer.
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