The Importance of a Good Book on the Train (A Swiftian Satire)

I love travelling by train. For one thing, there's the scenery which you miss when flying, and the comfortable seats that are nonexistent by coach bus. Unlike the "horrors" of flying or taking a bus, Hollywood is always trying to present train travel with an air of mystery and romance. I mean, didn't Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy meet on a train? Didn't Wendy profess her love to Xavier as he boards a train? Didn't Harry Potter go to Hogwarts...by TRAIN??

And while I have yet to stumble upon a school of wizards by simply taking the train, I'm sure we have all heard some story about a friend of a friend who once met the prince of some random country, or their future husband/wife on a train (or maybe just some hot guy/girl they hooked up with for about a week), to know that train travel is indeed very, erm... magical.

Which is why it's highly advisable to always bring a good book with you when traveling by train, in case you really do end up sitting next to a prince, your future husband/wife, or some hot guy that you will hook up with for a week. I mean while we are secretly dying (just DYING!) to read about Brangelina in the latest issue of COSMO magazine, would you want to be tallying up your score of HOW GOOD ARE YOU IN BED?*, only to find out that you've been sitting next to the cute great great great great grandson of Voltaire the entire time?

Exactly.

Therefore, the key is to find a book that should suggest to the world (aka your seat partner) that you are in fact a clever, highly intelligent person, who would be a delight to talk to. You don't even have to be reading said book; as long as it's stratgeically positioned on the pull-out tray table with the book title prominately showing, so that your seat partner is fully aware that you are, in fact, the owner of such a book.

Note: It's best to buy said book secondhand to give the impression that you've read it several times. It should also not be listed in the TIME's 100 Novels of All Time...because then it looks like you're trying too hard.

Here are some suggestions.

• Dangerous Liasons - Choderlos de Laclos 
• Flappers and Philosophers - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
• Death in the Afternoon - Ernest Hemingway
• The Beach - Alex Garland

And now I bid you all, a happy book hunting!

* Why do the quiz on a train, when you can do it from the comfort of your home here.

** Also speaking of quizzes, the last time I took one (err...a really long time ago, of course), it suggested that I immediately dump any guy I date who owns in his posession, a Drake album. I've therefore come to realize that these quizzes are actually all created by a psycho ex-girlfriend of Drake, and therefore these quizzes are not credible at all.

*** I scored really high on that quiz by the way.

We all have our baggage

I am seriously in love with these luggage tags created by Anne Taintor! They're cheeky, fun and I can totally picture myself sticking those "size matters" tags all over my luggage, and fantasizing about that "size matters" guy (look at the size of that....fish!!). 

What do you guys think of these tags? They seem like an easy way of adding some fun to your boring luggage bags...although at the same time, they are most likely to increase the chance of you getting hit on by the balding middle aged man in the airport waiting area (you know, the one with the two kids who are busily playing on their gameboys). 

$8.99 USD/each at http://annetaintor.com

What Keeps You Motivated?

Not traveling anywhere this holiday made me realize that I actually haven't travelled anywhere in over a year (says the girl with the travel blog).

Well...I did go to Europe during the summer, and Montreal several times throughout the year, but the last time I went anywhere that I can sincerely say "I've lived there and fully experienced the culture" was Australia, two years ago when I backpacked the country for four months.

I tell my friends this and they all reply with the same answer, which is, "don't worry, you're saving up for Europe." (#firstworldproblems). While this usually makes me instantly happy as images of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben engulf my thoughts, it doesn't really make the "in-between time" go by any faster. Travel memoirs usually always begin with the writer talking about how they spent a year slaving away to work to save enough money to travel, and while in writing, this only takes about ten words to express, in reality, a year is a hell of a long time...

So the question for this week is, what is your "in-between time" therapy? What motivates you to not let your mundane job get to you as you slave away to save up for your travels?

Here are some of mine (if you're curious):

- Watching travel related movies and reading travel memoirs. Then envisioning a spin-off of the story featuring me and a certain boy doing exciting European things like eating croissants and reading the untranslated works of Proust (of course he is European and fluent in French, so he probably already does this daily).

- Keeping in contact with my friends from abroad. This is also particularly useful when I need places to crash - just kidding!

- Buying travel guide books and reading them in public places. That way, everyone will envy you on the subway as you sit there engrossed in "Lonely Planet: Morocco", while they are forced to read about Stephen Harper's new flannel shirt purchase in the daily paper.

- Shopping. Reasons include: "when I move to Europe everything will be more expensive since it's in Euros so buying this is actually an investment," or "everyone is taller in Europe so I should...buy more heels."

image source: atjeh-news.com