20.46-22.00: Getting settled in, not much local interest, just where we’re a from. Someone mentioned that Denmark is a rich country.

We have bottom bunks, score, you can easily sit on them during the day, and there’s room to sit upright (unlike other bunks).

We made a rough draft in my calendar for when we will be where, right up until March.

Reading and listening to music.

Realised that we don’t know where the hostel is in Chengdu.

Talked about the budget for the trip when parents will come to visit.

22.00-23.00: Light’s off, makes reading harder; I got my torch, Mette went to bed.

Mette got back up, it’s raining like crazy, constant lightning framing trees against the windows, burning into our eyes, freezing them from motion. I have no idea where we are, but I’m glad I’m not here.

Checked the powerplugs, none of them work, maybe it’s because the lights are off?

Finished On The Road, brilliant and very well written, relevant today, easy to see how it inspired people. Interesting experiences, wouldn’t want all of them, but the land that he sees, is an exciting one.
Going to sleep, made preperations, all valuables are under the duvet, with me.

Going to sleep is easy, the train is quiet, the air is cool and there’s a gentle rocking motion.

23.00-08.00: Sleep

08.00-09.00: Waking up, snoozing. My back hurts, I guess sleeping coiled around my valuables, is a bad position, at least on a bed this hard.

09.00-10.00: Mette is awake too. Rolled into yet another station. Checked the power plugs again, no luck. Chinese person told me that they never work. Too bad.

Made porridge for breakfast, there’s a free and (nearly) unlimited supply of boiling water on Chinese trains.

Read “Fear of a Black President” (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/fear-of-a-black-president/309064/).

10.00-11.00: Listened to music. Went out exploring, the power plugs don’t work at the soft sleepers either. I found the diningcar. At the hardseats, the conductor turned me back.

11.00-12.00: Wrote in my journal. Played Superhexagon. Mette stopped reading, is listening to music. We both love this type of traveling, so much opportunity to sleep.

Mette ate porridge for breakfast, crumbled Oreos on top of it. Why didn’t I think of that?

We realised that at 8 in the morning, we had riden back through Kaifeng, and an hour later, Zhengzhou.

12.00-13.00: Mette went to sleep again. I finished “Pirates! An adventure with scientists”, utterly hilarious, the movie is good too.

13.00-14.00: We both ate a HUGE tuna sandwich, talked, future and past, about pets (should a tortoise be named Potemkin or Perseus?) and traveld.

14.00-15.00: Mulan and marabou.

15.00-16.00: Mulan and marabou.

16.00-17.00: Sorted pictures from Hua Shan and read a political profile of Elizabeth Warren (http://prospect.org/article/political-education-elizabeth-warren).

17.00-18.00: Reading, napping. Mette is reading about Yunnan (our stop after Sichuan) in Lonely Planet.

18.00-19.00: Dinner and Futurama; started sorting pictures from Shanghai.

19.00-20.00: Dessert biscuits, discussing Yunnan. Started reading a new book, Repulic by Plato.

20.00-21.00: Reading Republic.

21.00-03.40: Fell asleep, suddenly, while reading Republic.

03.40-08.00: Woke up, got ready for bed and went to sleep.

08.00-09.00: Tuna sandwich breakfast. Talked with Mette.

09.00-10.00: I’m glad I don’t live in the US (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/)
Read Repulic.

10.00-11.00
Wrote journal. We we’re told that we’d arrive in Chengdu soon, so we started preparing to get off, packing up all of our belongings, eating the last of our Oreos and such.

11.00-12.00: I guess we weren’t that close, we were supposed to arrive at 11.40 o’clock, but that isn’t happening, the train has slowed down, and we are still a significant distance from Chengdu. Though, we are also 1400 km from Beijing and 1600 km from Shanghai.

12.00-12.15: Arrived in Chengdu, after a long and satisfying trainride, this is easily something I can recommend (though, bring something to soften the beds).

It wasn’t noisy or boring, it was calming and I got to read plenty, sleep plenty and think plenty.
Plus, as Hobbes would have us know, tuna sandwiches are delicious.