Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Aight y'all, as a Sunday night treat, you get 3 new posts tonight! Read on and enjoy!

In this post, we will talk about each of our modes of transportation and what we love and hate about them, but we will open with a late-night conversation between Sara and Katie that could have only been brought on by exhaustion. Well, maybe also illegal drugs, but that wasn’t it. (I promise, Mom!)

Katie: So, if planes, trains, and automobiles were lions, tigers and bears, which would be which?

Sara: (Instead of saying “Katie, what the heck are you talking about??”) Well, I would say that a tiger should be the train. Not necessarily because it’s fast, but that it just has the idea of speed, you know? And I guess the lion would be the airplane because he’s just really strong. So that leaves the bear to be the car and that sorta makes sense.

Katie: So, plane equals lion, train equals tiger and automobile equals bear?

Sara: Yeah.

Katie: Well, you just put them both in order together. Cheater!

Sara: No, I had reasoning! It wasn’t all willy-nilly like you said!

So here goes our scientific analysis of transportation.

Planes

Planes get you there fast, but you have to deal with all the checking and claiming of bags and rules and all that. We definitely vote for planes on the way from the States to Europe, because a boat would suck. Unless it were summer and it was a cruise. But even then, that’s pushing it a little. The nine-hour flight from Atlanta to London wasn’t bad because it was direct and it was a red eye so we left at night and got there in the morning and didn’t really lose any time other than sleeping time. However, planes aren’t very easy to sleep on. So, unless you have a very good sleeping pill and a neck pillow or you‘re over 5 feet tall, you’re not going to do very well. Katie had these things (except for being under five feet tall), Rachael did not. For some reason, though, the sleeping pill didn’t work as well as she’d hoped and Katie only got about 5 interrupted hours of sleep versus all 9 hours uninterrupted. I guess you can’t have it all. Rachael’s chosen method to induce sleep was to drink some wine. That didn’t work too hot either, but it did work a little which is better than not at all. As far as RyanAir flights within Europe, we’re not big fans but it is super-cheap. They have weird rules and they’re really small planes and they take you to airports that are way out of the way. But they’re cheap. And if that’s your priority, then that’s how you should go. It sort of is our priority, so we took a few RyanAir flights within the UK since our rail passes couldn’t be used there. That takes us to our next method of transportation.

Trains

We’re big, big fans. Trains aren’t quite as fast as planes, but you do get to see stuff. And they’re pretty fast if you get a speed-train. Using our rail passes is basically like flying standby. If there’s a seat on the train, you get on. They check your ticket later. The pass is the ticket, so we don’t really have to book anything in advance unless it’s a night train or some other special train. We love that we have our bags with us so we don’t have to worry about careless plane dudes hurting them or losing them or whatever. We have lots more legroom and, if you’re lucky (which we have been all but once so far) you can get the set of four seats with a table. Then you have lots of space and can even prop your feet up on the seat opposite you! We use the table for typing up blogs while we have time, taste-testing gummy bears, taking naps and playing Uno.

The night train was really cool because we didn’t have to pay for a hostel and we got to sleep the whole way. It was an 11-hour ride, which was spent either sleeping or being almost asleep. It didn’t feel like 11 hours at all. It was great! Not the most sound sleep either of us has ever had, but definitely worth it and earplugs helped a ton!

Train subcategory: Metros!

We love when the cities we’re in have a metro system. It makes everything seem so much closer! It’s [nearly] idiot-proof and it is cheap and quick and we just love it! When there isn’t a metro system, we often throw in the towel and take cabs or walk way farther than any human should. This brings us to our next category.

Automobiles

Of course, we wouldn’t want to take this trip by car because then it would take a million years, but we’re car fans in everyday life. Our mommies took us to the airport in a car and bought us a delish dinner and that was wonderful. The only other cars we’ve taken are when we punked out and caught cabs. If we were richer, we’d take lots more cabs, but we’re not. Cabs are wonderful because they pick you up from wherever you are and take you right to where you’re going. You don’t have to walk a block or six to get to the stop and then another three blocks from the stop to your door. We like cabs but we can’t afford them. Darn.

Summary

Trains are definitely our hands-down favorite. They’re comfortable, scenic, cheap and fast. You can’t beat that!

XOXO K&R