Crazy travel from Belgium to Berlin

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Back packers deserve more credit. I mean, they can fit their lives into one bag that then goes on their back. It has become easier to be a so-called backpacker in Europe, but it is still not nearly as easy as when I can have the luxury they call a suitcase.

This morning we woke up to pack up our zip lock bags with clothes and stuff them into our backpacks.
Every morning in Belgium, Carolyn has left out an amazing spread of food! I wonder if she does this everyday for the boys, because if she does, I think she is a saint. This morning we awoke to custard filled pastries, fresh rolls of bread, cheese, ham, coffee, espresso. You name it, it was probably on the table.
Not looking forward to our NINE hour train ride to Berlin, we said our good-byes and left our hostess/hosts with a bottle of wine we hope is nice.

Like the good mom she is, Carolyn walked us all the way to the train doors. The plan was to only have to switch trains once (well twice, if you cound the 5 minute train we had to take to Antwerp Central)…Well, once we arrived at Antwerp Central, the Info booth people told us that our train had been delayed and they had no more information.
Shocker.

They had no idea when our train would arrive; 10 minutes late, 10 hours late?! We were on a tight schedule and if we took the later train we would miss our one connection to Berlin!!!
Soooo, like we’ve had to do a million times before, we ended up going to our buddy at the International trains desk, and he laid out the route we needed to take.

With 5 different train switches, we would eventually end up in Berlin.

About half way through the trip, we were waiting for one of our smaller connecting trains to pull up. As it did, it was quite clear that the train was completely PACKED to the brim with people. There was an announcement in a different language, like Dutch or German or something, that I’m assuming said the train is full…

Knowing that if we couldn’t get on this train in Rotterdam, we would miss our next, long, 5 hour train to Berlin, we would do anything to get onto this train in Rotterdam.

The first car we tried to get on, Lauren somehow squeezed through the crowd, but she made some mad quite angry. She was fine (he kind of shoved her with his suitcase, though), but this man then turned to me and started yelling, yelling, yelling in my face—in another language. I had absolutely NO idea what in the world he was saying, but he was not happy. At this point he had blocked my way onto the train….Lauren was on, Mariel and I were off!

I ran away in fear of this man, and Lauren followed as she realized this guy was scary. The train whistle blew, and we just literally shoved our way onto one of the cars. We managed to make friends with many of the people around us, since we were all left standing up for the entire 40 minute ride…It was quite close quarters. Our bags all piled on one another, and we were standing in the footspace of this Californian family.

After this lovely ride, we still had 7 hours ahead of us before arriving in Berlin :/

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