Anonymous in a Canadian train station

By Daisy Game, Travel Editor

The Croft Magazine // Now in her final year, Daisy Game takes a trip down memory lane with an article written in her first few weeks of university.

“Oh God - we should have packed more pizza.’’

I looked at my big brother and giggled hysterically.

The Location: Jasper, Alberta, Canada.

The Dilemma: an extremely delayed train, and a very distant destination (20 hours away, to be precise.)

In the summer of 2018 - because we are both young and both mad - my brother and I flew to Western Canada. It had all gone astonishingly well. We had hired a car without being scammed (!) conducted civilised meet-and-greets with bears, orca - even chipmunk - and managed to find our way to the Rockies. But at 4 o'clock in the morning on the 12th of July - peering out onto a distinctly empty platform - it seemed our luck had finally decided to call it a day.

There weren’t even any sandwiches left to pillage. So far, we had been enacting our vengeance on this He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named train ‘service’ by taking not one, but two of each of the items they had supplied in their attempts to subdue the riotous passenger body. We deserved two egg and cress sandwiches, and we would take two egg and cress sandwiches, thank you very much.

(In the midst of our sandwich related crisis, the news channel:

*‘Western Canada experiencing ‘transit trouble’.*

We were very grateful to have that one confirmed)

7 hours after the first announcement was made, the crew left a quietly alarming message on the strange, makeshift whiteboard rigged in the centre of the station.

‘Please see staff for further details’.

It was that whiteboard which plucked the feathers off the ugly duckling. I caught the eye of the girl next to me, shrugged, and laughed. Nothing brings people together like the joys of shared outrage. And here was a situation so outrageous, it had become utterly glorious.

Later, as I was sitting on the floor and grinning at a gorgeous French man I had fallen in love with whilst chortling at the nutty German whose Mad-Tales-of-Mountaineering-Woe (his health insurance would come through soon, he assured us) inspired a peculiar fondness for humanity- it didn’t seem all that bad. Hands wrapped around a paper cup filled with tea, head resting against my rucksack, and the Canadian Rockies through the door.

Some journeys stay with us. I’ve not experienced such a physically emotional reaction in response to a landscape before, or since. But looking out that window - 18 hours after our original departure time, 20 hours to go - gazing at the miles upon miles of trees, river and rock - I was reminded that I live on a planet named Earth. And here she was: ignoring us and looking pretty impressive as she did so.

Today I sit, writing from my halls of residence at 1.15 am, 5 weeks into my first year of University - and I envy that girl. Because how lovely it is to think - 4 months ago, I was sat amongst the mountains: anonymous in a Canadian train station

Featured Image : Epigram / Daisy Game