Strange train journey, got me thinking.

I have travelled on trains all over the world and talking to strangers is amazing. I have learned so much about other cultures and customs, collected recipes and shared food and been given details of places I need to visit (and some to avoid), learned a few words of other languages and generally been enthralled. I firmly believe that travel is a great educator. In out of the way places I have spoken to women anxious to understand the role of western women in society and we have each learned a lot about each others lives.

At home I use a bus pass most of the time, rarely bothering to use the car, and have met some lovely people and shared some hilarious conversations. Like others have said though, I have my coping mechanisms for coping with unwanted intrusions (which actually are rare) in the form of headphones. I do not actually use them as my music feeds straight to my hearing aids, but headphones do give a message. Belt and braces are the headphones plus a book.

As a lone world traveller, who has on occasion been in a pickle, I have found that the unwashed and often antisocial amongst us have been on the whole been the most helpful and practical. One of the most amazing , was a hooker. An illuminating comment by her was that people like me (i.e. Izabella) do not usually have anything to do with people like me. I mentioned that as a nurse I had been involved for a short time with a G U clinic in the past. She was an amazing woman.

I have to confess to doing something really bad on a train journey from York to Liverpool earlier this year. I was sat in my reserved seat by the window and this big, burly man in a smart business suit was sat beside me on the aisle seat.

Firstly he elbowed my arm off my arm rest, then spread his legs so wide that I was forced to sit sideways. That was ok at first but soon my hip started to ache. I forgot to mention it was a table seat. He spread his newspaper out on the table, well invading my space.

When the drinks trolley came round I asked for a coffee. I half drank it then ‘accidentally’ knocked it over his newspaper, but it also sloshed onto his lap....or where his lap would have been had he had his legs together. Oops. I apologised profusely but he wasn’t amused and muttered something about drying himself.

I presumed he went to the toilet but he never returned.

Classic ! They're not made like that any more.

? Love it!

naughty Anja, Santa will not be coming to you tonight.

oldbatty I've been laughing at Les Dawson . Thanks. Very funny. ?

Really funny, check out the doctors surgery one.

Did do oldbatty and it's just the way my mum and her sister used to do so that bro. and I wouldn't understand.Hilarious.

I am one of these people who talk to strangers on the train. I usually end up as their counsellor .... advising on marriage problems, children problems, financial problems ...... lol!
Passes the time and the way we learn apis from other people.

I wish trains had a special Grans carriage where we could all blether away and have nice cups of tea from the trolley (or something stronger!)

They could maybe have chatting and non chatting carriages?

I always find strangers chatting to me on the bus , or asking me to reach things in supermarkets , and I think its lovely .
It may be a North /South thing though as when we lived in Somerset for a while , my normal habit of saying good morning to strangers upset folks no end , and I found folks shuffling to the far end of bus shelters to avoid talking to the nutty northerner . It took four years but eventually I took the hint, and made some good friends .
It was lovely moving back to the North though , and being chatted to by total strangers , and I felt very welcomed.

So agree!
Human contact is what humans need in order to be mentally healthy. Ok it can be overdone but rather the real thing than endless inane emails, radio or tv ads or recorded phone options any day!!
If the lady on train that had noisy children travels by train; my suggestion is to avoid booking seat with table as families with young children I find tend to sit at the few tables in a train coach. But around peak dates like Christmastime it is difficult to avoid.

My goodness, stand-offish, keeping myself to myself and stiff upper lip come to mind! No wonder other cultures think so badly of the cold distant British.
Don’t travel if you can’t bear close contact with other people. Stay at home with the curtains closed and complain bitterly if anyone dares disturb your peace. Block your ears and turn away from babies who cry, dogs who behave like dogs and, worst offence of all, fellow humans who talk to you.

watermeadow, no actually I was ill, massively upset and wished to keep my head down. The other people were respectful of this. I was just musing on the over sharing thing and to be honest the screaming child for 3 hours wasn't great.

I was in Lidl the other week and got talking to another lady about gold medal wine and she commented that she lived in france for half the year and could buy it for a quarter of the price.
I said I knew exactly what she was talking about and that I had been on a course in Lyon a few years ago and ended up being over my luggage allowance, as my suitcase was full of gold medal wine.
She told me she wrote crime thrillers, based in the French town where she lived. Then she introduced me to her husband, who was also an author.
She was so stylish and chic, her clothes were obviously expensive, but I was a bit sceptical about her being an author, as I couldn't work out why she wanted to live in our dreary wee town for six months a year. Despite my reservations, it was a really interesting coversation.
When I went home I told DH about her, so he Googled her. She was indeed a a well known crime writer, who did write novels set in the town she lived. She had about a dozen books to her name.
I drive my husband mad when we go out, as I enter in to conversations with complete strangers in the supermarket.

Sounds like the journey from hell oldbatty and I experienced a similar thing a few years ago, on a four hour train journey when feeling ill ( turned out to be flu) which of course wasn’t anybody’s fault, but noisy fellow passengers eating icky dribbly food and others relaying intimate details of their sex lives on their phones to friends... !

Oh, Marydoll, I’m intrigued. What an interesting conversation!

I once eavesdropped on (well actually, couldn’t help overhearing) a loud, boastful monologue by a man sitting near us in an airport. Oh, what he owned, what he earned, how important he was. He eventually deigned to ask the man he was talking to what business he was in and the answer was “I write”. “Anything I’d have heard of?”, “Possibly”. I was dying to know what, but of course gob almighty couldn’t care less and was off again bragging about his life of unrelenting power and luxury. Then the first class passengers were called and it was the writer who stood up and excused himself. I’d love to know who he was!

Maggiemaybe , this lady was so interesting, I could have talked to her for hours. In fact, DH thought something had happened to me, I had been away such along time. He should have known better!
I was also dying to ask her where she bought her clothes. I was lusting after them. How shallow am I?

Not at all, Marydoll! I was lucky enough to win a trip to Stirling on GN earlier this year and afternoon tea with M C Beaton. She was just fabulous. So interesting and glamorous. There’d have been no point in asking where she bought her gorgeous colourful clothes though as they wouldn’t have suited my boring lifestyle.