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I only take flights over oceans, and have avoided short-haul flights for about 5 years now. It’s the combination of deep environmental guilt, but also tbh I just *really* enjoy train travel. I just took the train from London to Venice Italy which was incredible—sunset over the alps. European trains are so much further ahead than American trains, which is silly when you think about the whole railroad race / baron situation in the late 1800s. America could have had such a cool rail network. I took the train from LA to San Francisco last year and it took 15 hours. FIFTEEN! and the only food on board was soggy hot dogs. Nein danke. Pls send your rail execs to Europe for some on-the-tracks research. It's just so much more stress-free to walk into a station in the middle of a city, taking time to read as fields and forests speed by, a chic little snack and then, boom, you arrive right in the middle of another city as if nothing happened.
Sep 22, 2022
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Don’t get me wrong , I love a nice roadtrip. In fact, I think they’re needed. However, commutes can happily be replaced by train rides. Choo choo.
Apr 22, 2024
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When I was little I had to take a 5 hour train ride to get to the city where I was born to visit my family. I remember sitting there, no phone, no ipad, just painting and drawing and watching the beautiful landscapes and the horses and the cows. I was 6 and life was good.
my goal this summer is to take the train wherever possible and re-live that magic.
Mar 30, 2024
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So, okay. I’m a sucker for trains. I think they are nice and comfy, and Switzerland, where I currently study and live, is said to have one of the best train systems in the world so it’s basically law to like this particular mean of transportation over there... but even then, when I used to live in Paris, there was something about the subway that made it so very often relaxing to me— even during (the evil and ever so obnoxious) PFW.
So, to all of those who cannot see it and refuse to catch a vibe, here’s a little breakdown on what makes train rides so goddamn cool and how to make them better if you still think they suck after all this.
PROOF THAT TAKING THE TRAIN IS COOL
- First of all, I don’t want to brag, but the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français, France’s very own messy-ass train company) sends you a yearly breakdown of the CO2 you save by taking the train instead of driving everywhere like a dumb dumb. (Yes, I do not have my driver’s licence yet. No, I am not bitter about it at all). And let me tell you, if Katy Perry et al. took a train to space instead of riding J*ff B*zos’ d*ck, maybe we’d have had a chance surviving climate change. For one, I did my part by figuratively crossing the country a whole lottatimes in breaststroke (I am aware this is not the most accurate way to calculate length but I’ll happily treat it as fact). So, yeah, fuck you Blue Origins.
- Second and maybe the most important point : Do you even know how much time you can save by doing things you really need to do in the train??? Do you????
I am not even kidding, this is the perfect way to multitask if you’re a college student or a WFH type of lad. Train rides can be boring, sure I’ll concede. But bring a good book you’ve been trying to read but didn’t have the time to or your computer and you’re set for the next X hours you would otherwise be spending trying not to fall asleep at the wheel of your shitty 2014 Fiat 500 (again I’m not bitter just ecologically aware...ish).
- Last point: landscapes. Few are the places where you get to see so much whilst doing so little for it. It’s like hiking for lazy people. Love it.
SO YOU ARE A HEATHEN— AND REFUSE TO ADMIT THAT YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT TRAIN RIDES? HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO MAKE YOURS MORE FUN!
- A good playlist : can and will make almost anything 1000 times better. Here’s mine if you‘re too busy being so cool driving your cool person car (NOT. BITTER.) to make your own train mixtape and enjoy the ride.
- Crosswords : chances are, if you’re in the train, there’s an old person in your immediate vicinity. Ask them to help you out on the hard words instead of checking the answer sheet at the back of the book. Then, if (and only if!) they match your vibe, ask them their life story. You‘ll get reheated, well-infused tea AND a heightened sense of self for not checking out the answer sheet. You‘re welcome.
-Last but not least, and my favourite game to play ever, find the hottest person on the train : If there’s one, congrats! You can now ogle away and make up stories about your life together after they inevitably catch your gaze, ‘coz let’s face it, if you thought you were discrete you were anything but (Trains are smaller than you’d think and there’s not so many people that you wouldn’t recognise them when you inevitably take the same bus home afterwards. If you noticed them, they probably noticed you back at some point). If there’s no hot people on your train— congrats as well! It means it’s probably you. Boom, free dopamine boost. Go on with your day feeling like sex-on-rails.
To conclude, we should all fuck with trains. Except when there‘s a tuna sandwich involved in any way, shape or form. Fuck you if you are a tuna in the train person.
Apr 18, 2025
Top Recs from @alex-tieghi-walker
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Maybe it’s because one time I was lucky enough to live in a house with a sauna, or as a rowdy teenager I spent after-hours on weekends at London’s gay bathhouses, but, truly, still, at least once a week I need to decompress in a spa. When I lived in the Bay Area, I’d go to the Kabuki or the Russian Banya, and sit in silence and sweat. In L.A. I’ll nip down to Koreatown. Even the seedy spas are fab. I just want to exfoliate. Pls send spa tips 🙏🏼
Sep 22, 2022
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I’ll wear them until they are just raggedy scraps of leather hanging off my feet. I usually go for a sturdy boot situation—right now it’s the R.M Williams Craftsman boot—I’ll wear them to traipse through a bog one day and to a wedding the next.
Sep 22, 2022
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Cleanliness is godliness ! ESP when that cleanliness is given to you by 20,000 year old water from deep inside our earth. I have a whole map saved on my phone of secret and not-so-secret hot springs all over the USA and Europe. Happiest when dunked in hot water (*see spas, above)
Sep 22, 2022