How to score your own compartment

Once again we were too stingy to splurge, this time on a sleeper cabin on an overnight train from Krakow to Prague. We opted for seats instead, and I wasn’t very pleased to find that the train consisted of corridor coaches rather than open coaches. How awkward is it to be stuck in a compartment for 8 hours with another stranger (or if you’re really unlucky, 7 other strangers) when all you want to do is take your boots off, put your feet up, kick back and lie down, anything to make yourself more comfortable on the narrow pleather seats of the compartment?

Also, if the dementors from Harry Potter and the sleazy Italian man from Eurotrip have taught me anything, it is that you do not want to be stuck with anyone you don’t know when you’re in a train compartment. Ever.

For the benefit of any future victims of this train configuration, here’s a little guide on how to score your own compartment in a corridor coach. You will need 1x train ticket, and the unabashed will to deceive:

How to score your own compartment:

1. Grab an empty compartment and settle down. Check that no one is around. Cover the seat with your belongings. Tip: be messy.
2. “Fall sound asleep”. Except not really.
3. Keep checking. It helps that you sprawl over your seat.
4. “Drift off” whenever you hear footsteps. It helps to look exhausted so the other passengers choose other compartments over yours.
5. Continue checking. Look fierce, just in case. I wouldn’t want to share the same compartment as someone who looks fierce.
6. Snap awake and flash the victory sign when the train starts to move. You now have your own compartment and a guilty conscience (if you, unlike me, have any semblance of a conscience)

Making sure no one came into our compartment wasn’t easy, but I’m glad we managed to pull it off, it took the discomfort factor of the train ride down from an 8/10 to a 5/10. One demerit point each for the uncomfortable seats, the unplanned hour-long stop near the Czech border, the heaters shutting down during aforementioned stop, the resultant delay, and the toilets. Argh.

I complain a lot don’t I…