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March 2024
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Stinky Trip

My trip from Weimar to Rotterdam was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

It stunk.

From Weimar to Frankfurt the train was crowded and I was assigned a crappy seat across from a woman who did not smile once the entire trip. In fact, her face wasn’t even neutral. It was in a perpetual frown. Perhaps because she smelled bad—I wish I could have moved but the train was crowded and there was no place else to go.

I got on my connecting train early, found my assigned seat and then decided to sit at another nearby seat that was forward facing instead of backwards facing. The first hour and a half passed uneventfully.

Until the Canadians boarded—they had Canadian flags on their backpacks, Canadian Passports, and were stereotypical hippies on a road trip—stereotypical in that they were three young bearded men—the guy who sat opposite me was reading On The Road. And he smelled like he hadn’t taken a shower in awhile. To add to his odor offenses he brought onboard a French-fry concoction that he proceeded to eat. The man across the isle wrinkled his nose.

Too bad that wasn’t the end of it.

The guy took off his shoes.

Stretched his legs out.

I felt nauseous.

Flying really is more civilized except for the security checkpoints. I just wish it was a reasonable option to get to Rotterdam.

7 comments to Stinky Trip

  • disenchanted

    UGH! It must have been a smelly day for us all. I had an interview with a student who was over-perfumed. Let me tell you, I had a headache by the time that nightmare was over.

  • B.

    This is why traveling by car is my preferred method. If anyone’s stinky at least I can yell at them…

  • Gee, and I was gonna try to grab a shower in the Amsterdam airport. All to avoid doing this to my fellow passengers on the Trans-Atlantic leg of my journey back to the states. Not to mention, it would probably make me more relaxed because I will be clean.

  • but imagine worst, if they would have also in addition smelled from alcohol and tobacco, ohh maybe they did?

  • Luckily 99.999999% of Canadians are free of bad odours. 🙂

  • Jerry, that’s a pretty strong statement. I’m sure there is a greater percentage than that that smells.

    As for car travel, that means driving. I was able to work on the train trip, which was far far better–I got through something that was really annoying me.

  • Ewww. I apologize for the stinky Canadians. 🙂 I would have had to use my emergency Lufthansa air sickness bag for sure if I’d been on that train-