This is the simple story of what happened to a friend and I when we were travelling on an overnight train from Munich to Venice - and it serves as a good warning to anyone doing the same! So if you plan on being in the area anytime soon, listen up and you just might avoid an argument.

So to give you some background, when you travel by train through Europe you have close to unlimited options. One particular option is a night train, which is preferred by many because it saves time - you’re moving while you sleep and hence you don’t have to waste a day travelling! On a night train you are presented with even more options! The train is divided into classes, and you can usually choose from one of three: sleeper class, couchette class or seated class. In sleeper class each compartment in a car has two or three beds in it. In couchette class each compartment in a car has six beds in in. In seated class each compartment in a car has six seats in it. Which you choose depends entirely on how much you have to spend and what your preferences are, I personally prefer couchette class, otherwise you could end up sitting in a small room with six people, close to no room to move. It’s not fun.

Now back to the story - on the way to Venice we had chosen our night train, which was a direct train. However, we could not get a couchette and hence we were forced to resort to seated class. In the past we have done this and on one occasion we even got the compartment to ourselves, so it wasn’t too bad. That was not the case this time. When my friend and I boarded the train we met two American girls that we would be sharing the compartment with, and soon after a South African couple joined us too - it was a full house, and we quickly realised that this might not be the most comfortable ride of our lives. Just after the train set off from the station we realised something, the compartment we were in could clearly be used as a couchette class compartment if need be, because there were beds folded up against the wall above the seats! Being the opportunists we are, we chose to fold down the beds and each took one, thus making us perfectly comfortable for the long ride to Venice!

It would be perfect if the story ended there, but seeing as the title is “The Fight for Better Seats”, I somehow think there might be some conflict hidden in this story somewhere. During the night, possibly around 1am, one of the conductors came through the car to check tickets and passports, as is pretty routine even on night trains. During this visit the conductor (a very unpleasant Italian woman) realised that we were currently living beyond our means - we had only paid for a seat and yet we were enjoying the luxury of a bed. Now what most of us figured is that we weren’t hurting anyone and the beds were there to be used anyway. What is the point of having the beds there if they aren’t going to be used!? Well, as soon as the woman realised what we were doing she demanded that we get down off the beds, fold them back up and sit in the seats we were assigned - “You paid for a seat, and that is what you will get”. So with all of us still half asleep we slowly mustered out strength to do as we were told. We slowly managed to get everyone down and the beds folded away, with the exception of one which we were using to hold luggage. The woman was satisfied and went on her way without a word. At this point we were all tired, grumpy and uncomfortable and there was much complaining about the situation. By the sounds of it we weren’t the other ones either - from down the car we heard someone screaming, “Yeah!? I paid for water too, where the hell is THAT!?” Apparently the conductor had used the same line on them, but the passengers were fighting back. Apparently the conductor also didn’t care that the car bathrooms lacked any and all water, just as long as we were all seated. In fact, we were later offered bottle water for the price of €3 - the water was complimentary to the sleeper class passengers.

Within an hour another conductor (an equally unpleasant man) made the rounds, and then the fighting began again. As I mentioned, one of the beds was still being used to hold our luggage, which we had decided could not fit comfortably anywhere else. We figured that we were USING the beds per-sey, and hence there wouldn’t be a problem. We were wrong. The man immediately demanded that we take the luggage down and put it on the floor. When asked (pointedly) if he wanted us to be crammed in with it on the floor, he replied, “Is no problem for me”, and stood and watched as I and the other guy in our car struggled to pull down the insanely heavy bags (those American’s bags must have been LOADED) and pretty much either dumped them on the floor, trying to force them under the seats… or into the small area above the door for storage! Once the bed was folded and the conductor was satisfied, he nodded satisfaction to himself and continued on. So what happened to us from this point onwards? Well everyone took up places sitting very uncomfortably, trying to get to sleep. The American girls had sleeping pills so they had no problem, but the rest of us suffered. I, for one, was not going to sit up the whole night - I have never been able to sleep in that position well before and not be grumpy the next morning (well, grumpier than I usually would be) and so I took to what little space was left on the floor.

In the end we got to Venice alive, although tired. I guess the moral of the story is to have someone look out for the conductor if you’re paying for a seat, but getting a bed…