There is a positive about having no cool points left, and that is I can make confessions without any fear of damaging my reputation any further...
With that in mind, here it is: I like train stations. Well, sort of. I like particular types of train stations, terminuses (or is that terminii?) to be precise. This is nothing to do with me being a train spotter, although I have been accused of being that in the past (I'll confess to enjoying travel of trains perhaps a little too much, but have no desire to take photographs of them...), nor is it because of the general collection of cafés that accumulate in larger train stations. That is merely a bonus.
My real reason is summed up by this sculpture in one of my favourite locations. Yesterday, I was in London and my friend asked to meet at St Pancras, and I was more than willing as it gave me a chance to go and look at The Meeting Place by Paul Day that is located in the Eurostar Arrivals lobby, which I feel really sums up what I love. There are a few areas that I'll confess to being a bit of a romantic in relation to, and one is people watching in places where people are reunited. This may be an extension of the fact that I love doing it myself - going to collect a certain special someone or a long since seen friend is such an exciting experience, it's something to look forward to, particularly the moment they walk through the door at arrivals and the embrace that ensues. It's the point where you have the opportunity to welcome the traveller home or to the destination of the journey, and I love it. Furthermore, it is arguably better in the other direction - there have been many a long journey made more than bearable because of the knowledge that someone will be waiting on the other side to welcome you.
And so I have my little bit of pleasure and enjoyment of sitting in a train terminus watching the same moment happen to others. People watching is a fun activity if you know where to look.
1 comment:
I too have no cool points to lose, so I can safely agree with you!
There is something particularly fabulous about certain railway stations, as they feel not just functional, but like an occasion as well. Try arriving on a long-distance train at Platform 1 at Paddington, and you'll find yourself imagining everything in sepia tones. There's something vastly impressive about rising above the semi-ordered chaos of the Gare du Nord in Paris to the Eurostar check-in, watching local and international trains scuttle back and forth.
Of course, the trouble is that so few stations actually have this sort of soul any more: witness the horror that is Temple Meads, or the way that New York's Penn Station has you feel like you're scuttling in like a rat. Or, worse, witness the drab concrete blocks: I don't usually believe in vengeance, except for the people responsible for the "redevelopment" of Euston.
So I hope you also went a little further down that level of St Pancras to tip your hat to the statute of a scruffy little man gazing at the fabulous roof (on a fabulous building) that somehow, through his efforts, survived the philistines of modernity...
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