Europe Day 5: Berlin to Mannheim
Train Trust Levels
The view out the window was not green anymore. Due to my post-midday start out of Berlin (morning walk and virtual work presentation), the train ride was going into the late afternoon. With it, the landscape turned sepia. Bails of hay were on boomerang as we rolled through the agricultural fields. I felt quite enclosed in the space-train: the comfy seats, the gentle hum of its engine, the view out the large windows - as if watching an arty sci-fi at Cinema Nouveau (cross between Arrival and Interstellar).
The journey was a quiet one. My only two (independent-of-each-other) companions were serious laptop types (both dressed in black - coders? data scientists? digital scholars? podcasters?). They left no gap for a conversation to start. However, neither them had a problem leaving their laptops behind when they had to go the the toilet or buffet car. I had lots of time to look enviously upon a midnight 2022 edition MacBook Pro and Bose headphones just chilling on the fold out table to my left (I did not covet the Lenovo on my right as much). Teasing. Meanwhile, I had been doing spot checks of all my valuables (phone, passport, SA PR certificate, wallet, laptop) every 5 minutes since leaving Split (even if I had been sitting). I wondered what they thought about my trust levels seeing me take my backpack with me every-time I ventured to the rest of the train (probably gave away my alien status). But maybe they were just happy I did not try to start a conversation.