Midnight trian to Bern

I was sitting on the midnight train, due to depart from Lucerne at 5 past the hour and the last train back to Bern. I had an evening with my colleague John and the Swisscom Mobile guys at their data centre to ensure our MMS alerts platform worked well and delivered all the alerts for the FIFA World Cup football, my presents definitely helped! This was a success, as all the messages were delivered, Switzerland had beaten South Korea and we had watched the game on a big video screen with beer and munchies. All in all a good night and I then had to leave to catch the last train, which would be a 1.5 hour journey back via Olten, so I shouldn’t fall asleep, or I would end up in Basel. With 5 minutes to go I jumped on the train, the front section furthest away from the station so I would ensure some peace and quiet and plenty of room, but how wrong I was. Within these last 5 minutes my empty carriage became full, with all sorts or weird and whacky people (probably all Swiss!). As the Swiss team had won their game, Switzerland had woken up and people were parading the streets, shouting and partying, car horns blaring constantly as if the Swiss had won the World Cup. So I had the pleasure to share a train with some of them, not that I minded, but I was hoping for a quieter train journey. As the train departed there was not a single spare seat as we set of into the obis, but not before the train inspectors checked all the electronic brakes on each carriage. This is done on the older trains as there was a fatal accident a couple of months ago when a goods train ploughed into a stationary passenger train as it’s electronic brakes failed. So before I digress too much, which I have a habit of doing I will get back on ‘track!’ I had the pleasure to sit opposite 2 guys that had enjoyed the warm summer evening and were now tired and wanted to rest. So sprawled out on their seat opposite they made themselves comfortable, slipping their sandles off and leaving me with a deadly Swiss cheese smell, which nearly blew my socks off! Then to add to the smell and ambience was the warm days stagnant sweat, beer breath and someone playing their music so loud I thought I was in a disco. The pleasures of an evenings train journey…. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had to change train at Olten, so I only had to endure this for 30 or so minutes. I arrived at Bern at 01:36 am and walked home as the buses and trams finish around 12:30. Partygoers had also blitzed Bern, as there was rubbish everywhere, beer bottles and the usual crap. I was glad to get to bed; maybe I’m getter old?