The Hotel That Moves While You Sleep

There is a hotel where you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another. It is called a night train, and Europe is full of them. You board in the evening at a big city station, find your tiny cabin with its fold down bed and its little ladder, and somewhere around midnight the platform slides away behind you. Dare a friend to try this with you instead of a flight.

Existuje hotel, v ktorom zaspíš v jednej krajine a zobudíš sa v inej. Volá sa nočný vlak a Európa je ich plná. Nastúpiš večer na stanici veľkého mesta, nájdeš si svoje maličké kupé so sklápacou posteľou a malým rebríkom, a niekedy okolo polnoci nástupište ticho zmizne za tebou. Vyzvi kamaráta, nech to s tebou skúsi namiesto letu.

Picture the scene. Your shoes are under the bed, your ticket is tucked into the pocket by the pillow, and the whole room rocks gently like a boat. Through the gap in the curtain you catch pieces of the night, a lit farmhouse, a station name flashing past too fast to read, the black shoulders of mountains. At some point a border passes under you, and you sleep straight through it.

Predstav si tú scénu. Topánky máš pod posteľou, lístok zastrčený vo vrecku pri vankúši a celé kupé sa jemne kníše ako loď. Cez škáru v závese zachytávaš útržky noci: osvetlenú farmu, názov stanice, ktorý prebehne príliš rýchlo na prečítanie, tmavé plecia hôr. V istej chvíli pod tebou prejde hranica a ty ju celú prespíš.

In the morning an attendant knocks with coffee and warm rolls, and you lift the blind on a completely new world. Snow on the peaks, mist in the valleys, cows that have clearly never hurried anywhere. You went to bed in a capital city and woke up inside a postcard of the Alps. No airport, no queue, no lost luggage. Just a bed with a very good engine.

Ráno zaklope sprievodca s kávou a teplými rožkami a ty vytiahneš roletu na úplne nový svet. Sneh na vrcholoch, hmla v údoliach, kravy, ktoré evidentne v živote nikam neponáhľali. Zaspal si vo veľkomeste a zobudil sa v pohľadnici z Álp. Žiadne letisko, žiadny rad, žiadna stratená batožina. Len posteľ s naozaj dobrým motorom.