Have you ever had an experience so bad that it is borderline funny? Well ladies and gentlemen, this EuroTrip story is one of those moments…
As we depart from Amsterdam to head to Brussels, we figure this be a fantastic chance to try out the “convenient” railway system in Europe. We reserve the Thalys First Class cabins since we wanted the trip to be as hassle-free as possible.
Or so we thought…
As we patiently wait for our train to arrive, we hear a distant random conductor yelling,
“Train CANCEL until further notice.”
Um…. say what?
“Sorry, train cancel until further announcement, for now, please go to customer service”
As we looked dazed, she aloofly hands out a coffee coupon to “compensate” for our inconvenience…
Minutes into the customer service building, another agent yells into our confused crowd,
“All passengers on Thalys train, go to Track 4! The train leaves in 5 minutes. All passengers going to Brussels, go to Track 4.”
We frantically perform a marathon run from Track 13 to Track 4. As we board, we breathe a sigh of relief.
Alas, en route to Brussels.
Or so we thought…
We soon find out that everyone (including us) just boarded a detour route. So instead of a direct train ride… we need to transfer not only once… but TWICE to successfully reach our destination.
A simple 2 hour train ride has just transformed into a 5+ hour journey (including transfer time)…
This pretty much sums up our internal emotions in one picture…
To give proper credit, there is a significant difference in privacy in the First Class cabin, which lessen the stress a little bit in this puzzling journey.
You can also place your luggage in their compartments. But for safety reasons, we felt better having it by our side…
Hip hip hooray?
A train change, a detour, & TWO transfers later, we finally arrived to Brussels, Belgium.
I’m sure this was just an one-off and we just got extremely unlucky in our first EuroTrain experience. Looking back though, I just wished they handled the whole situation more professionally.
I mean, yelling that a train is canceled, giving random coffee coupons, and shouting at the customer service crowds to run to another random track… to only find out that we boarded a train that takes two detours is NOT the best way to solve a delay.
But hey, no matter how hectic the journey is, as long as you smile & have the right company, any experience can be a tolerable one.
For what it is worth, we did successfully reach our destination…
Chai Bear World 