Last time we arrived at Huangshan after a long almost sleepless night. Now the trip will continue. Huangshan by the way is a beautiful place, that I recommend everyone to go to!
After one week with my relatives I took the train from Jinan (济南) to Chongqing(重庆). It requires 26 hours of travel and I was only able to get a standing ticket. This was by far the most exhausting train trip.

First I almost got crushed when I tried to get in the train, because there were so many people with standing tickets and everyone wanted to at least get a good place to stand, because when you are too late the porter won’t let you in and you have to try at the next wagon. Inside the train it wasn’t much better. The connection space between two wagons was so packed with people. I never imagined it was possible that about 20 people could fit in there. I just followed some students and a mother with a child and placed myself between them. So there I stood in a wagon where about 120 people were sitting and an additional 50 people where standing. It was morning so I didn’t have sleeping difficulties yet.

I observed the people around me because there was nothing better to do. The girl sitting next to me had her head on the table and was sleeping or at least pretending to sleep. Every time someone passed I had to step aside and I’m afraid I almost squished her head every time. On the other side there were five men and a women sitting around a table. The child from before placed herself between them, sat down, and they let her sleep there with her head on the seat. Next to me there was couple, probably college students. The guy seemed very mean and the girl seemed to be angry because of him. She always hissed something to him, but he completely ignored her by turning his back to her and she almost burst into tears. Then she started casting me evil looks as though this was all my fault. After a while she decided that slapping him was a good way to let out her anger and to make him notice her presence. After this showed no effect she grabbed him and pulled him on the other side of her, so that now she was next to me and he was in safe distance of me. At least that’s what she thought. However having nothing better to do and being seriously bored I decided to move on one row, so that again I was standing next to her beloved boyfriend. I think she almost freaked out, while he seemed mildly amused. I put my backpack on the shelf, because it was getting heavier and heavier and I prayed that nobody would steal it. Then I observed my new environment.

Now I was away from the sleeping girl and the five older men, that seemed a bit creepy to me. Next to me there were 6 young people, probably students, sharing a table. One of them was very talkative, even though I wasn’t sure that the others were listening to him. The girl next to him certainly didn’t. She was sitting upright with closed eyes, and she didn’t move for a tiny little bit during the whole 26 hours. It was really inexplicable to me how someone could sit that still and sleep that long. Only at the end she got up, went to the toilet, came back, stood there, suddenly started laughing hysterically without visible reason, sat down and closed her eyes again. I was so freaked out!
Next to her at the window were two boys squeezed on one seat. Their sister was at the opposite window squeezed together on one seat with two other brothers. Next to her was her grandfather.

The time flew by faster than I expected. After two hours the fight between the couple had stopped and they peacefully sat together at the edge of a seat. I was happy for them.

Evening came and I took out my noddles, somehow managed to get to the hot water supplier and came back. To my relief one of the students let me sit down and eat. Otherwise my numb legs probably would have died. Immediately the talkative boy started a conversation with me.
“Where are you going?” - “To Chongqing”
[Silence, me eating, him staring at me]
“Did your hair always look like that?” - “Yes…” (wtf?)
Then he monologed a long time about hair care and styling products. I never got a lecture about that from a guy, so it was amusing.

The time flew by and I was confronted with the problem of how to sleep. I tried to lean on the seat, put my head down and sleep this way, but it was not very comfortable, because I almost kissed the head of the person sitting there. Someone started to play guitar. Then my aunt mailed me that I should either go into the canteen wagon or try to upgrade to a sleeper ticket. So I fought myself through to the canteen wagon, just to realize that it was even fuller than the normal wagons. Then I asked every ticket seller on train if I could change my ticket, but they all yelled at me that sleepers were sold out. After this trip through over 10 wagons and back I arrived at my old standing place, seriously exhausted. Somehow I managed to sleep for a while, but it was so freezing cold, that I woke up again.

I decided to go to the space between the wagons because there was no air conditioning. However there were many smokers, so that I almost chocked and every time we passed a tunnel there was a lot of wind. But I considered this more agreeable than freezing to death. At that time I was so tired (it was about 2 in the morning) that I sat down on my magazine and tried to sleep on an area of probably less than 50×50cm of space. Everyone else around me was sleeping so I fell asleep very easily and slept until next morning. Of course I woke up occasionally when someone passed and stepped on me or hit me, or when I couldn’t feel my bottom or my legs anymore. But altogether I slept surprisingly well and it was a very different experience.

In the morning I found out with great relief that my backpack was still there and I found out with even greater relief that the talkative boy with affection for my hair was getting ready to leave. To my great delight he allowed me and a cute boy to share his seat. So we sat down, feeling as if our lives have just been saved and soon fell asleep again. We passed the rest of the trip this way and after 26 hours we finally arrived at Chongqing!

In conclusion I’d say that the 26 hours passed really fast, because I had a lot of funny things to see and did not feel bored like on the train to Huangshan.

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