Near death by automation

On my last train trip abroad, I almost fell out the back of the train. Seriously.

Borders stop trains in this land of EU meets Balkans. Paperwork is shared among passengers and police, contraband is searched for, train carriages disconnect and reconnect. This is the life of the rail in this region. Don't expect to get there on time. Don't expect there to be dining car. And don't take the overnight train from Budapest to Venice and think you will get sleep when you cross the borders with Croatia.

So it was not much of a surprise to emerge from the on-board toilet to notice that all the train cars behind me were no longer there. Likely left on the other side of whatever border we just crossed. Perhaps they left their passports at home. But what WAS a surprise was when I leaned towards the door to get a better look out at the big wide world of train tracks illuminated by the moonlight to find the automatic doors open up. As in, the doors at the back of the train that would typically open up so you could move about from carriage to carriage, just opened up to the great outdoors. Just like that. On a moving train. That was moving. I seriously had to take a fast step back cos if I leaned forward any further I would have found myself not on the wrong side of the tracks, but on top of the tracks. I swear I didn’t push a button or press eject or anything. I didn’t even touch the door. I just leeeeaned in. To take a look outside the window. Not jump out of it. Scared the crap out of me! I'm just not used to automated anything around here so much. I mean, the nice Hungarian train conductor's validate your ticket not by punching holes in it, or scanning it through anything, they actually just make a few squiggly lines on it. I recently deduced that these scribbles were in fact numbers, but I sorta had to laugh. Not that I'm complaining! I love the fact the low tech is truly low tech. I mean, is it necessary to have some fancy kit like the Austrians. No. A man, a moustache, a hat and a pen. That's all you really need to run a proper train service.

In any event, the pen is not mightier than the automatic back door.

And to think I had just been going pee complimenting this new Hungarian train carriage that actually had ac outlets for laptops and flushing toilets.