The One with the Thoughts of Frans

Observating people in the train

The new ferry has finally been introduced to the Den Helder – Texel line. The older ones already have a screen where you can follow all kinds of information about the trip (distance, speed, water temperature etcetera), which is also being recorded and used for sea research. But now there have also been installed bar-seats with touch-screen computers. I wasn’t really interested, but the kids were around it like bees around flowers.

One blonde little girl of aproximately 6 years old sat down at one of the “consoles”, with a big smile on her face. After studying the screen intensely for a while her face depressed. “Daddy, come here!!!” she exclaimed. A man in his thirties, apperently the father, stood up and walked to her. He took her on his knee and the next 10 minutes you could see her asking “What does this say?” and the dad “That is *mumble, mumble*”. You couldn’t hear them because similar situations were taking place for all the other 5 computers.

Later in the train. Two people, (a boy and a girl) presumably descending from Turkish immigrants, sit down next to me. So they start conversating. At first there’s some general chit-chat, I wasn’t paying attention. In the back of my head I was aware of the boy asking about the girl’s purse (if it was €30). She said “no, it was 34 damn it!”. He asked if it was real. “Of course it is, I went to Egypt to get it.” “Seriously?” And her answer turned my attention to their conversation: “No, it’s just a fake but don’t tell it to anyone.” It turned out the purse was actually her mothers.

“Do you know what’s sweet?” the guy asked later on. “Yes, me” she replied with the greatest confidence. He was probably surprised at her reaction, but in the end he said: “Well, perhaps on the outside, but are you also sweet on the inside?” “Of course I am as sweet on the inside! Actually much sweeter I’d say! Although… perhaps I’m actually less sweet on the inside, but don’t tell anybody about it!”

It may also be worth noting that I forgot to take my earphones with me, so I could neither listen to music, nor watch Lost. I decided to play Solitaire on my laptop however. An older man, presumably late 50’s, sat down in front of me, with a “the youth of today…” look on his face.

Then they continued talking about her hair and I lost all kinds of interest. However, then an interesting development came forth. The girl had a very strong accent, but according to her, nobody knew where it came from, as apperently it didn’t really sound like any kind of Turkish and/or Marrocan accent and her mother was Dutch! Then they left the train and went on to live their lives without my bored listening ears.

Then a dad with two kids sat down. The father basically put down a philosophical question for his youngest kid. “Are we driving away from the station or is the station moving away from us?”

The kids were starting to become a little annoying, but luckily I had to switch trains. Then I practically fell asleep because it was too warm and I was tired.

And before you know it you’re home again and for a couple of days you forget to post the thing you typed in the train. 😛

5 Comments

  1. sounds like you have a really interesting life…lol

    January 25, 2006 @ 20:52Permalink
    Tom

  2. I forgot my earphones and there didn’t happen to be anyone I knew, sadly.

    January 25, 2006 @ 21:59Permalink
    Frans

  3. It was warm so you feel asleep? I guess in Florida we do the opposite. It gets cold and we get sleepy. 😀

    I’ve never rode in a train so I do not know much about the atmosphere. It sounds like sitting in class though…

    January 25, 2006 @ 22:51Permalink
    Ethan Poole

  4. I don’t know, not really. Yeah you get tired and if in comfy seat it is quite easy to drift off I suppose. I wouldn’t take my laptop on the train though, yours must be safer or something…

    January 26, 2006 @ 0:12Permalink
    Tom

  5. @Ethan: it was around 21 degrees and outside aproximately -3 degrees and I was very tired.

    It’s quite similar to a bus. I would assume you have been on one of those. 😛

    January 26, 2006 @ 11:23Permalink
    Frans

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