SJ Sleeper train let down - Would I do it again?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sleep on a train? No I don't mean passing out in a carriage surrounded by other passengers when having a panic when you woke up with a dribble of drool coming out of your mouth as you try very quickly to discover if you are still in time for your stop or if you have to get off at the next available one and do a double back ride of shame.....

I mean sleep in a small room all to yourself like in the Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express. Well I have.......minus the murdering. 

I thought about it enough to make it my number 33 on my 40Before40 list. I was thinking about doing the London to Edinburgh journey because London is easy to get to from the South Coast of England where I live and I can fly back to a close enough airport to get home again, so it sounded like a win win. 

But considering the cost of doing all of that, London and Edinburgh didn't quite seem exotic enough. So when the chance came to have some time to myself and I created a whole route all around the SJ Overnight Train from Hamburg to Stockholm. I'd never been to either city before and the chance of more of an adventure seemed too good to pass up. 

It was easy to book the ticket for a private room, there was no way I was going to sleep in a couchette (a small room with up to 6 people sleeping in one space), via the SJ website. All of the payments were in Swedish Krona though so you need to take into account the exchange rate and any associated fees from your card provider. I just needed to choose the route and timings that suited me. 

I had a whole trip before this one on Cunard's Queen Anne to make my way over to Hamburg, a wonderful self propelled tour around Hamburg itself for about 12 hours which was wonderful, but tiring. I was waiting on the train platform for around an hour for the train. I like to be early when it comes to travel but to be honest I just needed a sit down to prepare for the next section of my trip. 

The train arrived on time (at least I think it was) and I climbed on board along with many other passengers. But the first thing that was "wrong" was the doors on the carriage didn't work. They didn't open and had stickers on them saying closed. So we had to board using the adjacent carriage and walk through the joining doors. One of which was rather heavy to pull apart. Then the lack of space hits you. Its hard to appreciate how narrow it is but it is only the a bit wider than shoulder width to walk along the corridor. I found my room with no fuss at all and I was suddenly in there. 

Both of the available beds were made up to be slept in so I did have a choice of which bunk I wanted, but one look at the ladder and lack of space made that decision easy. Bottom bunk for me! Upon investigation in the room, I found a sink, two sets of bedding with wafer thin pillows, not much airflow, a ladder to get up to the top bunk behind a broken back panel and a hard mattress. Well, it is a train carriage bench seat normally so it was hard and uncomfortable. 

Further down the carriage there was meant to be toilets, well there were but the locks were broken on them and they were so small, it was crazy! The other end (closest to my room) was the exit to the over carriage and the promise of other toilets. One of these was also out of order! Come on! 

So I just headed back to my cabin and tried to get cozy. The time was now 11.30pm. It had been a long day and I had another long one ahead of me. So some sleep would be lovely. The rocking of the train was surprisingly subtle and soothing rather than feeling like you need to strap in for a wobbly ride. Why is there a blue light on in my cabin? I wish I could turn it off. 

12am We've stopped somewhere. It looks like a siding where trains go to get worked on or ultimately relinquish their usefulness. There is a set of graffiti that looks like Albert Einstein, weird. Ah now I remember the guard saying something about stopping, this must be it. That blue light is like having the TV on in your bedroom. Bright and oddly annoying. I wouldn't mind if it was actually a TV showing my something interesting or funny. 

12.30am still here with Albert looking in at me in an oddly mocking manner. Like seriously why does that light need to be on? Is it for fire evacuation purposes so that you can see your way out easily?

1am Ah, I think we are moving again, but slowly. I can't believe it!! I had control of the blue light the whole time?!?!?!?! AHHHHAHAHAHAH

2am Come on woman, go to sleep! You are tired, you need sleep for tomorrow. 

2.30am Seriously now this is getting ridiculous! Just go to sleep!!

7am - apparently I went to sleep. Oh, did I have to be awake this early? The train doesn't arrive until 10am. Oh well I'd better get the camera out and record my feelings about the train so far. That's if the neighbours would keep it down! Bang, bang, knock, bang, scream 

I got up and decided to look for food. Moving down the train it isn't obvious where I needed to go to get the breakfast that was included in my ticket. I started heading down to the end of the train. More cabins met me with increasing numbers of people and beds in them, making them seemingly more uncomfortable to look at never mind sleep in. When I got to the end and didn't find anything I needed to turn around and head the other way. Walking along the train is a much more tricky experience than simply existing on one and the tracks seem more wavy than before as I found my self stumbling against the walls a lot more. Many more doors and carriages later I found the food that I was owed, which I then took back with me, down the long corridors, past all of the passengers in the chairs only sections of the train with varying levels of comfort. Some in standard train chairs and others in a seat which resembled something  from an upper level of an airline, but still upright. 

Finally back at the cabin to "unbox" my breakfast for the camera. Well, it didn't seem too appitising. A bread roll (chosen from a basket), a butter packet, an apple juice in a small tub, a yoghurt with no flavour information, a packet with the word granola written on it (presumably to add to the yoghurt), a broken in half pancake (well thats the closest food group I could attribute it to) a slice of cheese, one cherry tomato and a small slice of pepper. 

I was glad of my usual constitution being ok with having no qualms about eating most things as it was all bland, tasteless and seemed a bit cheap. None of it was tasty at all. (Even the yoghurt was sad). But it filled a whole and I chose to take some time to chill out in the cabin and watch the world go by for a while before getting the announcement over the pa system which did annoy me. 

Paraphrased it went something like this: "Good morning passengers and welcome to Sweden. I am informing you of a 1 hour and 30 minute delay to your journey today. I'm not going to tell you why though." 

I only had a small amount of time to enjoy in Stockholm before getting my flight out to get to Heathrow. Now this was cut short by 90 minutes!! Nothing was said before this 9am announcement and so now I had nothing more to do than wait and think. 

I decided well, there is nothing I can do about to so utilise the time. Get something useful done in this time that you couldn't have otherwise done. So I rearranged my luggage to better suit the flight later on and my back as I knew I would be walking continuously from the moment I touched the ground again. 

We arrived at the time stated following the delay and I had a wonderful time in Stockholm. 

Would I do a sleeper train again....maybe. Would I use the SJ service again...I would really have to have no other option. I didn't sleep well, the cabin was cramped even though there was only me, many things were broken, the food wasn't good and there was a delay. None of it was a pleasant experience apart from the scenery gliding by the window which was lovely, however the view from the plane leaving Sweden was gorgeous too and lets face it for the same price for a flight as train I would take the flight any day. So overall, no I wouldn't. Will it put me off trying another service in the future, no it won't. 

Until Next Time 

xx