Sometimes a journey might seem to last an eternity, especially if you are riding a train from one country to another and your seatmates are not the best companions, or worse, put you in an uncomfortable situation that will last the whole train ride. In such a case, even if you are in an express train, time seems to stand still -- your suffering seems like it will never end.
This happened to me on a train ride from Paris to Venice. It started out promising enough, as me and my two friends boarded the second class section of this train. Now this train had seat arrangement where there were six seats: with three people on one side -- facing three people on the other side , so that we were facing each other. The seats were very close together so that those facing us had their feet practically on top of ours.
But that wasn't the worst of it. No the worst of it was that we were so close, that you could tell if somebody had brushed their teeth or had bathed. Meaning that if somebody was not clean---you could smell that fact. To my misfortune, the gentleman sitting across and directly in front of me -- had not either bathed or cleansed his body and mouth in the recent past -- and frankly his mouth and body -- stank! To make matters even more dire for me --- this guy had fallen asleep, with his mouth wide open--and it was like being in front of a rotting, smelly, manure-filled -- open sewer.
My neck hurt, from turning my heads sideways, trying to avoid the direct line of smell. My two friends, took no pity on me, and refused to -- even temporarily --- switch seats with me. They just were enjoying my misery. I had a bunch of mints that I tried to toss into his open mouth to see if at least that would neutralize the offensive odors, but the train kept moving and swaying -- and those just fell all around him.
Venice seemed like an eternity away, and there were only so many times you could get up and walk around on that train, without getting tired of standing. I could not even enjoy the nice scenery we traveled through. When we finally arrived in Venice, I felt like a person released from punishment. The one positive was that it made me view Venice like a welcome paradise.
