Well, Jill, this was an absolute delight to listen to. Brought me back to near botched public transit journeys of my own. In fact, it reminded me of once such an Ecuador I will soon write about.
I’ve been thinking a lot about voice in writing lately. And I just have to say yours is truly wonderful. Not sure who pointed me to you, but I’m very glad they did. :)
“Even a man without qualities has a father with qualities” is a Musil chapter title I think of a lot; love that guy, long books though! Also couldn’t agree more about Cusk, whom I like a lot despite it, but: absolutely lol.
When Abby came with me to the UK, we discussed how everyone says “sorry”; it’s not unheard of in the American South, and Abby and I both apologize for events far from our control constantly. For what it’s worth, we both love it in the UK. Everyone should be sorry! We all have a lot to be sorry for. We’re still, even in England, probably apologizing less than half the amount we should. When you talked to that dickhead German and found a way to be compassionate thinking of his possible particulars, that was the spiritual side of automatic “I’m sorry”-ing and it’s often beautiful! You didn’t stop him from learning English! You didn’t suggest it’s bad not to know English! But: you’re sorry he’s in that spot (maybe) and you were cooler to him than others might have been because of it!
I’m sorry for defending saying “I’m sorry.” I know it’s neurotic and that I’m neurotic. I’m a weird person, but FWIW I leave eunuchs alone.
Fully snortled aloud 😂😂 for the record, so do I. 😷 And Musil… well, I reserve judgment until I finish (which given the length may be in several months) but so far I am getting (1) many staggering, life-changing images and insights and also (2) universal, casual misogyny. Musil strikes me as a dude who would be like “I love women”, if you get me. From Clarisse to the cousin to Bonadea… a complete failure to understand anything about women coupled with a certainty he knows everything about women because really there’s not that much to know and men are by far the more interesting, nuanced sex. This is just a prelim take bc I’ve not even got to the halfway point so very willing to revise later (and actually always willing to revise a prelim take, cf: the end of Kudos caused me to almost fully rethink how I felt about Cusk bc it was so fucking perfect). And may I say I’m sorry for any angst and soul-searching this piece may have prompted about your own (and indeed humanity’s) saying of sorry. Also, I think you will enjoy hearing that my son (who has been raised almost exclusively in the UK) knows almost no words in any other languages but has nailed “Pardon” (French accent) and “Scusi” so that when we are abroad he is able to apologise as much as he is accustomed to. He actually asked me, mom how do I say sorry. This world is so hard to navigate. I’m sorry.
I used to be a waiter, while still studying, on the overnight trains in South Africa. That was long ago. You made me think back of all those interesting places the trains travelled through. There's an end to the journey, where they turn the train around. And of course all the people I met on the way. The things we did, while serving them fancy travellers. I should probably use those memories as inspiration to (finally) start writing here. Thank you!
Really enjoyed your travelogue. Those etiquette queries remind me so much of train journeys across Europe when I was younger, not quite knowing whether I was doing it right!
I love your summary of Cusk. 'Like a Michelin meal touched by too many fingers.' I'm a fan of her early books but haven't caught up with her more recent ones. I will read the review you linked to first!
This piece (and some earlier writing of yours) have made me realize something about travel writing. It isn't the descriptions of places and culture that I'm interested in. It's not journalism, even beautiful journalism. It's a strong personality interacting with what's foreign. The frictions - and surprise harmonies – somehow are the real delight for me. There's theater in it.
So, it's isn't a description of the Taj Mahal. It's the little girl selling mangos and blocking the photo opportunity and a dispute over ticket prices at the palace entrance that nearly gets you kicked out that tells me about India. Neither of which, umm, factor in this piece. We're a long way from India, but a strong personality and foreign settings are all over this. Great read.
Ah Adam, feeling very seen…. That’s always been my hook too. Like: thank you for this potted history of Bucharest (or wherever), I’ll pocket it for sure, but what’s most memorable was definitely the smell of overripe cheese and your tussle for armspace on a crowded train. Or something.
Anyway, thank you. Maybe someday I’ll go to Bucharest. And the Taj Mahal.
Love this. Judging from everyone’s lovely comments, I should be listening to the narration. I think I need a train journey with ear pods in.
This was all super-inspiring. I have a (ahem) milestone birthday (mm, when does an auld fella fade into the background?) next year and JoJo and I are planning a couple of months of interrailing (having not done that as a rite of passage in our youth). We have no fixed plans and we’re hoping to be brave/flexible enough to leave it that way, to hop off at interesting looking places, to avoid capital cities (apart from day trips), to stay in some tiny places with quirky histories and one bar where everyone stops talking when you come in. Also, the ‘sorry’ protocol (is that a name for a spy thriller starring a bumbling spook who is forever apologising as he goes about his international intrigue?) … I shall have learned the word for every country we pass through. As we travel, I hope to capture the vignettes a fraction as well as you do.
Ooh I love a good trainventure. IME, a good train app will be your BFF for booking the tickets without needing to actually be at a ticket counter. That's not cheating right? Enjoy! Will look forward to hearing about your adventures! The Sorry Protocol feels noir, lots of moody rain-drenched streets and turned up collars...
I never cease to get excited when I see one of your newsletters hit my inbox. Every time it is the most fun adventure. My update for you on this one: I read this while sitting in a chair getting a pedicure. I actually hate getting pedicures, but… beauty is pain (or something). The lady did something weird to my foot that cause a slight pain. I visibly winced and pulled my foot back. Usually I try to hold it together in these situations. Don’t want to make a scene, you know? Alas, not this time. She looked up at me. We held a momentary gaze, she and I. Then… I said… “sorry.”
“I’m sorry you hurt me” 😂😂😂😂😂😂 oh how we contort ourselves to apologise. Bless. Hope she gave you the best fucking pedicure of your life after that misdemeanor.
Thank you for your wonderful writing Jill. Just found you on Substack via your note about getting fed up with SS. Agree totally but so glad you came back!
Well it’s just bound to improve, and you’re earning the right to call yourself an anthropologist if you keep this excellent travelogue going. Sorry you didn’t have a nicer journey (had to be said).
Thanks Jill for taking us along inside your mind on the trip. So relatable from your struggles with the vending machine to the unnecessary "sorry" to the reference to LOTR. At least you got a Snickers bar.
Thanks David, that Snickers was the smallest possible consolation I was owed by the universe that morning. Felt so bad for myself but tbh totally self-inflicted (also glad the LOTR reference landed 🎯)
Well, Jill, this was an absolute delight to listen to. Brought me back to near botched public transit journeys of my own. In fact, it reminded me of once such an Ecuador I will soon write about.
I’ve been thinking a lot about voice in writing lately. And I just have to say yours is truly wonderful. Not sure who pointed me to you, but I’m very glad they did. :)
100%. I hope it was me that pointed you to Jill. (Since you don't remember, I'll take credit.)
If you haven't already, Holly, read the trip to Williamsburg and Vienna I.
It likely was. You’ve steered me to wonderful voices, so the credit seems well earned.
Good tip. Saving those pieces for my “reading hour” now.
What an absolutely lovely comment, Holly. Thank you 🙏 I've never travelled in South America at all, would be very interested to read your Ecuador....
“Even a man without qualities has a father with qualities” is a Musil chapter title I think of a lot; love that guy, long books though! Also couldn’t agree more about Cusk, whom I like a lot despite it, but: absolutely lol.
When Abby came with me to the UK, we discussed how everyone says “sorry”; it’s not unheard of in the American South, and Abby and I both apologize for events far from our control constantly. For what it’s worth, we both love it in the UK. Everyone should be sorry! We all have a lot to be sorry for. We’re still, even in England, probably apologizing less than half the amount we should. When you talked to that dickhead German and found a way to be compassionate thinking of his possible particulars, that was the spiritual side of automatic “I’m sorry”-ing and it’s often beautiful! You didn’t stop him from learning English! You didn’t suggest it’s bad not to know English! But: you’re sorry he’s in that spot (maybe) and you were cooler to him than others might have been because of it!
I’m sorry for defending saying “I’m sorry.” I know it’s neurotic and that I’m neurotic. I’m a weird person, but FWIW I leave eunuchs alone.
Fully snortled aloud 😂😂 for the record, so do I. 😷 And Musil… well, I reserve judgment until I finish (which given the length may be in several months) but so far I am getting (1) many staggering, life-changing images and insights and also (2) universal, casual misogyny. Musil strikes me as a dude who would be like “I love women”, if you get me. From Clarisse to the cousin to Bonadea… a complete failure to understand anything about women coupled with a certainty he knows everything about women because really there’s not that much to know and men are by far the more interesting, nuanced sex. This is just a prelim take bc I’ve not even got to the halfway point so very willing to revise later (and actually always willing to revise a prelim take, cf: the end of Kudos caused me to almost fully rethink how I felt about Cusk bc it was so fucking perfect). And may I say I’m sorry for any angst and soul-searching this piece may have prompted about your own (and indeed humanity’s) saying of sorry. Also, I think you will enjoy hearing that my son (who has been raised almost exclusively in the UK) knows almost no words in any other languages but has nailed “Pardon” (French accent) and “Scusi” so that when we are abroad he is able to apologise as much as he is accustomed to. He actually asked me, mom how do I say sorry. This world is so hard to navigate. I’m sorry.
I wish my offspring said "scusi." I would die with a grin.
Anyway, sorry, I'm interrupting.
It's delicious fiction! It's wry and insightful travel writing! No, it's Jill, being bloody brilliant...!
A/D
06:35
I used to be a waiter, while still studying, on the overnight trains in South Africa. That was long ago. You made me think back of all those interesting places the trains travelled through. There's an end to the journey, where they turn the train around. And of course all the people I met on the way. The things we did, while serving them fancy travellers. I should probably use those memories as inspiration to (finally) start writing here. Thank you!
Do it. Can’t wait to read. Here to read the fresh, new and different perspectives on experiences I’ve never had. Please do it.
What an adventure! I couldn't possibly do that much public transport ON MY OWN. You are a hero.
I kind of did it to see if I could still do that kind of thing. Turns out I can, but not without making myself ill 🤧
This is great, Jill!
Really enjoyed your travelogue. Those etiquette queries remind me so much of train journeys across Europe when I was younger, not quite knowing whether I was doing it right!
I love your summary of Cusk. 'Like a Michelin meal touched by too many fingers.' I'm a fan of her early books but haven't caught up with her more recent ones. I will read the review you linked to first!
This piece (and some earlier writing of yours) have made me realize something about travel writing. It isn't the descriptions of places and culture that I'm interested in. It's not journalism, even beautiful journalism. It's a strong personality interacting with what's foreign. The frictions - and surprise harmonies – somehow are the real delight for me. There's theater in it.
So, it's isn't a description of the Taj Mahal. It's the little girl selling mangos and blocking the photo opportunity and a dispute over ticket prices at the palace entrance that nearly gets you kicked out that tells me about India. Neither of which, umm, factor in this piece. We're a long way from India, but a strong personality and foreign settings are all over this. Great read.
Ah Adam, feeling very seen…. That’s always been my hook too. Like: thank you for this potted history of Bucharest (or wherever), I’ll pocket it for sure, but what’s most memorable was definitely the smell of overripe cheese and your tussle for armspace on a crowded train. Or something.
Anyway, thank you. Maybe someday I’ll go to Bucharest. And the Taj Mahal.
Love this. Judging from everyone’s lovely comments, I should be listening to the narration. I think I need a train journey with ear pods in.
This was all super-inspiring. I have a (ahem) milestone birthday (mm, when does an auld fella fade into the background?) next year and JoJo and I are planning a couple of months of interrailing (having not done that as a rite of passage in our youth). We have no fixed plans and we’re hoping to be brave/flexible enough to leave it that way, to hop off at interesting looking places, to avoid capital cities (apart from day trips), to stay in some tiny places with quirky histories and one bar where everyone stops talking when you come in. Also, the ‘sorry’ protocol (is that a name for a spy thriller starring a bumbling spook who is forever apologising as he goes about his international intrigue?) … I shall have learned the word for every country we pass through. As we travel, I hope to capture the vignettes a fraction as well as you do.
Ooh I love a good trainventure. IME, a good train app will be your BFF for booking the tickets without needing to actually be at a ticket counter. That's not cheating right? Enjoy! Will look forward to hearing about your adventures! The Sorry Protocol feels noir, lots of moody rain-drenched streets and turned up collars...
Gaah! This is such a brilliantly narrated piece! So happy to have found this. ❤️
🥰🙏
I never cease to get excited when I see one of your newsletters hit my inbox. Every time it is the most fun adventure. My update for you on this one: I read this while sitting in a chair getting a pedicure. I actually hate getting pedicures, but… beauty is pain (or something). The lady did something weird to my foot that cause a slight pain. I visibly winced and pulled my foot back. Usually I try to hold it together in these situations. Don’t want to make a scene, you know? Alas, not this time. She looked up at me. We held a momentary gaze, she and I. Then… I said… “sorry.”
I’m sorry you hurt me.
My god.
Great minds, I suppose.
Can’t wait to read about Vienna!
“I’m sorry you hurt me” 😂😂😂😂😂😂 oh how we contort ourselves to apologise. Bless. Hope she gave you the best fucking pedicure of your life after that misdemeanor.
"Apex connectivity", and attentiveness!
Thank you for your wonderful writing Jill. Just found you on Substack via your note about getting fed up with SS. Agree totally but so glad you came back!
Haha it was an observation not *necessarily* about myself (but also maybe a bit..) 🤣 x thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed it
Well it’s just bound to improve, and you’re earning the right to call yourself an anthropologist if you keep this excellent travelogue going. Sorry you didn’t have a nicer journey (had to be said).
More coming soon, from Vienna. I actually *loved* this trip. I live to do dumb shit and write about it. It’s my oxygen. ❤️
Thanks Jill for taking us along inside your mind on the trip. So relatable from your struggles with the vending machine to the unnecessary "sorry" to the reference to LOTR. At least you got a Snickers bar.
Thanks David, that Snickers was the smallest possible consolation I was owed by the universe that morning. Felt so bad for myself but tbh totally self-inflicted (also glad the LOTR reference landed 🎯)