Common Class?

The train ride to and from St Petersburg was a cultural adventure in and of itself. My ticket said "common class". Excuse me? Talk about humbling. I quickly learned what that meant. A car with two bench seats and a small table coming out of the wall. I immediately knew I was going to be in for an interesting night. Actually, two interesting nights since I could foresee the return trip being much the same thing. On the way up I went close to 10 hours without speaking. If you know me, this may sound impossible, but I did it. And it was strange. My feet couldn't reach the floor so I tried several positions to keep them from falling asleep, and used my duffel bag to rest my head on. I woke up around 3 am to an amazing dawn with a sliver of a moon still visible and watched the beautiful Russian countryside fly by for about an hour. The small fields between woods were covered in a fog so high that it would have been over my head. There were creeks everywhere and the tree trunks were so thin in proportion to their height that it's a wonder that they can even stay standing. I fell back asleep and awoke a little later to an orange spotlight shining directly into my window. I thought to myself "how many people get to see this?" And then two answers came to mind "How many are looking?" And "No one will ever see this exact one again." I remained silent. How very zen of me.

I'm not sayin'; I'm just sayin'.