Destination, Würzburg hbf. Departure, immediately. Next train, 0135. Huh? Price, 70 euros with reservation fees. Excuse me?! She almost exclaims out loud, but instinctively covers her mouth. There is a man in lederhosen hugging the wall not so far away. She gracefully allows him keep the title of being the loudest person in the nearly deserted train station.
She is returning home from her spontaneous weekend trip to Milan, Italy. Her flight landed half past nine and now she is at the Stuttgart hauptbahnhof a couple minutes shy of ten in the evening. The night trains, which have a discounted ticket price of 19 euros, was what she was planning on riding. Obviously she missed the last train of the day. She brainstorms a couple of options: extend her pass into a leave? What a waste. Ask somebody to come pick her up? What an inconvenience. Walk all the way back to schweinfurt? Seriously Liz? Buy the 70 euro train ticket? That's more than I spent on the flight tickets to and from Milan! Whatever, fine.
She taps the screen to select the exorbitantly expensive express train ticket. As the machine prompts her to make another decision, she realizes that she will be on an overnight train with bunk beds. This aspect, the bunk bed, certainly makes up for all the inconvenience of waiting more than three hours. The fact that she has to get off at three and get on another train at four in the morning seems to be an irrelevant detail at the moment. She makes up her mind to be happy about this mishap.
The overnight train is everything she hoped it to be and more. Her bunk bed is the top one of three beds. She likes climbing to high places. As soon as she gets under the covers, she curls up against herself into a fetal position. It takes a good half hour to get comfortable. The sheets, which she tucked underneath her in attempt to trap any and all heat, tug on her as the train comes to a halt at the next station. She smiles as she drifts away.
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