80 Days Around The Globe

Day 8

9:00 Am 

We boarded the train promptly, despite a crazed man who blocked our path.

He was trying to tell me something and i paused to listen. 

"The Artificer!" he hissed. "They aren't content just to make.Believe me! they long to destroy!"

I prescribed a cup of tea and some rest, and he nodded vigorously.

"But they won't stop telling me their plans!" he murmured. "They want to talk all the time!"

We nodded farewell, and stepped onto the train.

4:00 PM 

The coastal train from Thessaloniki to Istanbul appeared to be determined to go the long way round, as if the builders had preferred to stay in sight of the sea at all times for the good of their health.

I enjoyed the fresh air myself, of course; with the sun shining the Aegean was quite beautiful, and i could have been happy lazing by its shore, if it were not for Monsieur Fogg's insistence on constant departure. In truth, we spend so little time in each city in which we land that arrival seems to be an overstatement of the facts.

On board, I fell in with a middle aged greek couple who were going to Istanbul to meet their daughter.

I let them talk, without need for questions, and as i watched the scenery i learnt the girl was clever, inquisitive, impetuous, and lots of other words that displayed a caring, if concerned, parenthood on their part.

'What else they may have said i have now forgotten and it cannot have been important.

The train pulled up at sirkeci terminal and i waved the couple off as we disembarked.

5:00 PM we arrived.