@elduvelle @albertcardona Moreoever, why is it that there are direct flights between cities in the UK that I need eight changes on the train and a dozen little bus trips for?

With each change likely to fail at a rate of 10% that gives me a less than 50% change of reaching my destination…

Airplane it is.

@jonmsterling @elduvelle

This summer I have to go from Barcelona to Berlin. The non-flight options are ... insane. I wouldn't mind a 24-hour trip by train, but it's not even that*. Many legs, no coordination between providers, subways and buses included. I am not a XIX century naturalist crossing uncharted territory, I am crossing the European Union from South to somewhat North. It's embarrassing.

* I was hoping for a 2-leg train, i.e., Barcelona-Paris and Paris-Berlin in the same day, but no, that would require me sleeping in Paris! The lack of coordination is as astonishing as it is appalling.

@jonmsterling @albertcardona @elduvelle I kind of enjoy the vibe of public transit where it's like these are migrating beasts and by careful divination and ritual offering you can harness their primal energy to speed you in a particular direction, like a raptor riding thermals. Of course there isn't going to be a migration going precisely from A to B, but with a bit of cleverness you can stitch together something.

It's pretty magical and unprecedented in human history that I can cross so many different countries by land safely and relatively quickly. Sure, OK, it could be faster. But like, thank you migrating beasts you are wonderful creatures.