So on the plane I wish I could say I was cool as a cucumber, but truth I had lots of stuff on my mind. I am the main contact for 2 teams this month, so it was my job to figure out travel plans to get us to our contacts located in a place that I couldn’t even find on the map. ‘How would we buy train tickets? Will their be a train available? If not, where do we stay for the night? Will we be warm enough?” And the thoughts went on and on. If it was just me- I’d just figure it out when we get there, but with others being in my care I felt a bit stressed.
I really shouldn’t have though… The moment we landed, the excitement of being back in Europe rushed over me. We got to the train station safely, found the ticket counter and got our tickets. Easy! Wai-wai-wait not too fast! After buying the tickets I called our contact to let him know what time to pick us up at the Draganesti- OLT station. Just before the phone cut out I heard him say, “You have 60 seconds.” “What was that?” “You have 60 seconds.” Click.
Fast forward to the train platform. I really should have read the ticket more carefully. I saw 2nd class section A (its not about luxury here. Its about getting from point A to point B the cheapest way possible). I thought that the cart would have a 2 on it, so I got us all running down the train with 70 lbs on our back to the cart with the 2 on it. Unfortunately I missed the part that says cart 4. We were all in the doorway of cart 6 (why the cart had a 2 on it- I don’t know) and needed to rubics cube our way around each other, down the narrow doorways and to our seats (basically seaming impossible). We were not all smiles at this point. But, HEY at least we all made it on the train right?!?!?
Immediately after we got on the doors shut behind us and the train started moving (funny- A very similar experience happened in China). Way to be there right in time.
20 min later we finally get ourselves situated (at this point we have made ourselves very known on the train) and all I can think about is “60 seconds.”
My phone was dead so I had it charging. Once we got to the first stop I quickly realized what he meant. The train only stops at each station for 60 seconds before it starts moving again. 13 people with 2 packs ea. Out the door in 60 sec. NO! Should I mention that I couldn’t see a platform on either side? I got my phone up and working and called our contact ASAP. “Um I noticed that there was no platform. How do we get off this train?” He responded, “Exit left, but if you see a train coming- don’t. If you exit right (onto the actual platform that we didn’t know existed) then you will be on the wrong side of the train station and our people wont be able to get to you.” “And how will I know who is picking us up?” “They will speak English.” Ok… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. In that moment I recalled a story from our former squad leader (Joshua Maisner) who got left at a Romanian train station without his team at 3am due to the 60 second rule the previous year on his race. ‘We do not need to repeat history!”
I knew I needed a plan. We knew roughly when we needed to get off, so I had us suit up 15 min before and split up into groups of 3 to stand at various doors on the train. When the train stopped we were to push open the door and jump left. No one was getting left behind! Standing at our door the time that we were supposed to get off came and left. I’m standing at the door thinking- I feel like such a dork we have been standing here for 30 min with no sign of our stop. The Romanians on our train probably thought we were extremely egger/ inexperienced (which we were). HA!
Thankfully, shortly after we arrived. The stop was not marked. We just had to go for it. I threw open the door to find that there was 2 feet of snow beneath us. No time to hesitate, we all start jumping off. With 70 lbs on our back we quickly sunk in with our mesh running shoes on. Instant freeze. 60 seconds on the dot the train starts moving. I look around hoping for the best… SUCCESS! We are all off! Most people are laying flat in the snow, but we are all good!
Our contacts rushed out to great us with the most friendly of welcomes. From there we were brought to our house to warm up and rest.
One more memorable travel day!
