By Train to the Night Ferry
The details matter less than the practice of paying attention. I changed my mind about guesthouses twice while writing this.
Closing thoughts
Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. I would rather do one thing with care than five things quickly. I like mountain villages that shows the marks of how it was made.
The train was late, which turned out to be the best part of the day.
A few details
I changed my mind about ferries twice while writing this. The ferry crossing took four hours and felt like ten minutes. Nobody spoke much English, and somehow that made it easier.
- Budget twice the time you expect
- Stop before you are tired
- Keep a rain jacket within reach
- Write down what you change
Small things
Looking back, the remote approach was the right call. I keep coming back to guesthouses, largely because it rewards time. I packed too much, as usual, and wore the same jacket every day. I changed my mind about rainy cities twice while writing this. The best advice I got was simply to slow down.
A paper map invites conversations that a phone never does.
Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years. I changed my mind about mountain villages twice while writing this. Little, repeatable steps beat big plans very nearly every time.