Strangers, Friends

I learned a new life hack today: always bring a pack of cards on a long train ride. I was riding on a 37 mile-long train from Toronto to Winnipeg when a guy with flaming red hair with a thin blond man asked me if I wanted to play cards. We started playing, and it turns out he is French Canadian and the guy next to him is Dutch. Soon a Bajan (Barbados) guy, a London (Canada) native girl, a French Canadian and a Chinese-born Canadian joined us. We shared stories of our adventures abroad, love stories and loss, all while enjoying the beautiful Canadian countryside. It was an amazing experience, one that I think the world is losing in tightly-confined airplanes and bullet trains. How often does one get to meet people from around the world that have seemingly nothing in common with you, neither class, race, religion, the only thing that brought us together was that we happened to share a train ride and we were bored enough to become friends.  Dare I say it, but a lack of internet was a wonderful thing. 

A few photos from the trip:

In case of emergency become Thor.