Hogwarts express

If you think SJ is bad, think again. At least the Swedish trains have been upgraded and renovated from time to time and the rails are most of the time flat. The Kenyan railway is something completely different. The train to and from Mombasa goes once a day one way and the next day the other way since it is only one rail and only one train. You always travel at night due to the days here being too hot and the trains being built before air-condition w ere invented.

We were taken by buss to the train station in Nairobi. There the sight of the human flood running into the station first met us, it was slowing down just slightly when it past the ticket salesmen (ticket machines does not exist) and then continued into the sitting carriages that were quickly filling up. We had 2 class tickets, which entitled us to a small room with four bunks and a sink in them, a lot better alternative to sitting in a crowded room for 15 hours.

I loved it! Okay so the rocking back and forth that the train did all the way to Mombasa made me seasick but still it was being on the Hogwarts express. The small compartments, the bunks, just the whole feeling of the train screamed magic.

An hour into the trip it knocked on the door and four bags of sheets and blankets were thrown into the compartment, for 2 kr the bed was made for you but the bed maker couldn’t really get into our compartment since we had thrown our stuff all over the place. After making our beds ourselves we started digging in to our snack boxes and at and at until we fell “asleep” (you sleep for 10 minuets then a bump on the rail wakes you up then you pass out again). I got one of the top bunks, it wasn’t as scary as I thought I would be to be hanging in the sealing as long as the thick safety straps were ups so I wouldn’t fall down when the train was bumping up and down a bit extra.

We were awaken 6.30 by a cowbell being rattled outside our door, time for breakfast. We went to the food carriage where we were seated and served breakfast. After that the trip wasn’t very pleasant anymore. The closer we got to Mombasa the hotter it got. In the end we were sitting in our in as little clothing as possible with our heads outside the window to catch the breeze from the train. When the train rolled up to the platform in Mombasa we were all soaked in sweat and having to carry our backpacks we almost died.

+30 degrees all week plus extreme sun and chilling by the pool made every drop of sweat worth it.