An excerpt from The World by Train.
After three months of riding trains through, Berlin, Kraków, Kiev, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Ulaanbaatar, Beijing, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia, all cities begin to dissolve into one place. This new place, made from all places, has a train station. Inside is a small cafeteria filled with men playing cards. On the arrival platform, women and children sell hot coffee in small, white plastic cups. Others sell herbs and fruits brought in from the countryside. They smile at you with golden teeth. In front of the crumbling facade of the station, you can hail any car for a ride. Any citizen will accommodate you.
The similarities between cities crystallize as their differences become starker. You are overwhelmed by the number of people. Surrounded by so many human lives that have nothing to do with your own, you now know that your rules don’t matter, and that your comfort doesn’t matter. You are far from home and you’ve forgotten everything that was happening there. They have also forgotten you. You can see more clearly and you now know, at least a little more, what matters, and what might not.
We travelled over 18,000 miles.