Thanks to a friend that was too cheap to pay for first class, we had the nightmare train ride to Brussels, Belgium. Everything was going fine on our grand European vacation, till we reached Switzerland, where our money just seemed to vanish. Things were so expensive! So me and my friend began cutting back on our spending. As we were making plans to go to Brussels, we came to the conclusion,, that if we traveled on the overnight train, that was one less night we would have to pay a hotel.
Now...I wanted to travel first class, because this way we would have a private compartment, with two fold down beds, my friend said ---that , oh no--she did not want to pay the 20 extra dollars per person for this, that the second class compartment was way cheaper. I pointed out that this was a compartment for six people, with bunk beds, three on each side, and there was no guarantee what kind of persons these people would be. But after much arguing, I gave in (which I later regretted) and we booked the second class compartment.
I knew this was a mistake, a point which was proved to me, when the other four people showed up. They were the shadiest, untrustworthy-looking men that we have ever seen. They immediately understood that we were foreigners, and just gave us this creepy, smirk smile, and kept staring at us. We were not comfortable. They kept eying us and our carry-on luggage. We so distrusted them that we took turns going out of the compartment, not daring to leave our stuff alone with those men.
Now this was an overnight train which meant, that at some point we had to go to sleep. But that was not an easy thing to do when you had these men looking at you like a lion waiting for the prey to stumble. Needles to say we did not sleep a wink, as we did everything we could think of to keep ourselves awake.
By the time the train arrived in Brussels the next morning, we were a wreck, with huge, dark circles under our eyes. The train conductor asked us if everything was alright---sure we lied--everything is just peachy. After checking in to out hotel, we went to our room, sat on the bed and passed out for the rest of the day, not waking up until nearly nighttime.
