Soul Train

We are taking a lot of trains on this trip. In Croatia we took one that went fast and tilted like an airplane banking as it swept along curving tracks clinging to rocky mountain sides. This made me euphoric and Beth nauseous. We've had spacious private cabins and crowded old cars where you sit backwards and the headrest are black with the oil from a million heads. One of the oldest coaches we rode was beautifully fitted out with custom wood work and sleek art-deco chrome. Yesterday, we took the train from Zagreb to Budapest. Well we started out on a train. Just as we were beginning to settle in the train stopped and there was a confusion of passengers shuffling around and exiting the train. The conductor, a sweet-heart of a man who spoke no English, pointed our way to a bus which we boarded and drove off for about 30 minutes arriving at another train station where we boarded a second train. A bit later this train stopped and we were herded off to another bus and finally to another train. At this point in our trip Beth and I have become adept at taking things as they come. The trip has washed the New York out of us exposing our Bedoin core. On the final portion of the train ride yesterday the sun was setting as we rushed over the flat agricultural landscape of central Hungry. The cabin lights were on so that as I fixed my stare on the distant horizon the reflection of the trains interior was superimposed as was the mirrored view of the world rushing by in the opposite window. The swaying train and rhythmic clack of wheels on track put me into a deeply relaxed mood. I felt totally in the moment. For a second I was taking in everything, the distant steeple, the sheep, endless field and trees, endless sky, all at once, my mind open and giving no special attention to any one thing. A trance state that felt like nothing I could imagine more than an eagle wheeling from some rocky spire and off down into the valley on the edge of some November night.