This minor courtesy DID NOT happen to me on our trip to Maastricht this past weekend. To get to Maastricht from Den Haag you must change trains in Utrecht. Since Den Haag is the start of the line and since it was relatively early on a Saturday, my husband and I had no problem getting seats beside each other on that leg of the trip. When we transferred in Utrecht, however, the train was already at least 1/2 full and many more people were boarding with few getting off. Seats beside each other were not available so we opted for seats on either side of the aisle from each other (the trains have 4 seats across, 2 seats on either side of a center aisle). A woman had all her crap piled up on a seat that was across from another set of seats where the aisle seat was unoccpuied. I indicated that I wanted to sit in the seat beside her and she started to give me reasons for why I didn't want to sit there. I said I wanted to sit beside my husband (in English) and she was able to respond in English. I was having a little trouble understanding her, but I'm pretty sure 1 of her reasons for me not sitting there was that the train would be going in the opposite direction of how I would be facing and I'd be more comfortable elsewhere. She had other excuses that I couldn't quite catch, but the overall mood was "Go find another place to sit".
I didn't budge and she finally caved and moved her stuff.
As soon as the spot beside my husband cleared I moved to sit beside him. The woman promptly put all her crap back on the empty seat, but it didn't stay that way for too long. After a couple more stops I noticed she had another companion and my husband and I laughed the rest of the way to Maastricht
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| My bags need a seat of their own. You are NOT welcome to sit here, |
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