I'm glad the train was late...

[Shamaël]

I often travel by train. At least twice a week. And of course, I always pay much attention to people around me, just in case...  Yesterday, my train was late. Very late. I had to wait during 2 hours in the station and it was very cold. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but there was a man standing next to me (as it's a small station, all the seats were taken) who had obviously a cold. He was reading a book and he was coughing and sniffling every 2 minutes. After half an hour waiting, he suddenly pulled a handkerchief (not a tissue, a pale blue handkerchief, folded and neat) from his pocket and raised it in front of his mouth and nose while his breath started hitching. I almost stopped breathing myself because this is just one of my favorite sneezing scenarios and it happened in real life. The man's breathing was erratic, his eyes were half-closed, but he didn't sneeze. It lasted at least two minutes - two minutes of false starts and build-up (I was just dying), and then he sighed and lowered his hand, as if he had lost the itching sensation. He put his handkerchief back in his pocket, took back his book... and he sneezed. Twice. The sneezes were not very loud but what was great was that after the anticipation the sneezing paradoxically took him completely by surprise. I really loved it. It sounded like "Ehpschew! Hapschew!". He hastily pulled his handkerchief and blew his nose.

That's not over. In the train, I was sitting nor far from him (by chance - the train was full and I couldn't chose my seat - at least I had a seat...). I was on the other side of the train alley (I don't know the word in English, sorry - I mean the path separating the seats from one side and the other side of the train) so I could see him and the woman sitting in front of him. He had his handkerchief ready to sneeze in it in case the same thing should happen to him. But it was the woman in front of him who suddenly bend over and violently sneezed in her cupped hands - and everyone jumped around her because her sneezes were very loud, and they came in fits of three - HEHIIITCHAAH! HIIIHTCHHHHAAH! HAAAHH... HAAAHHRRHCCHHAAHH! The last one came after a very, very huge build-up. It was amazing because she was a very small girl, with a tiny nose, and everybody seemed surprised that such explosive sounds could come from her... Some people chuckled, and there was two or three "Bless you" in the train. She wasn't embarrassed at all, she just laughed and shrugged. The man in front of her sneezed four times during the journey, always in his handkerchief, and more discreetly than the woman (his little "Hahpschuh!" were cute but almost disappointing after the woman's outburst...). When he sneezed for the second time, the woman blessed him and asked him with sympathy if he had a cold. The poor guy blushed - he seemed very shy and I think he was really embarrassed, but he answered her and they started to talk. She said that she was not ill, but that she had allergies, even in this time of years. And, as to make a point, she sneezed again (a little fit of three), in a tissue she had in her hand because she had not stopped wiping his nose. They talked (and occasionally sneezed) during the whole journey and they exchanged phone numbers.

I don't know if they will see each other again, but I personnally enjoyed this trip, despite the fact that I arrived 2 hours late...

Edited January 26, 2017 by Aliena H.

[Alicia2]

I'm glad the train was late too, this sounds amazing! And how lovely that the man and woman ended up bonding over their sneezes and actually exchanged numbers, doesn't this just prove there's nothing more romantic than sneezing? You described it really well too, I feel like I was there too. I can just imagine them sneezing over each other on their wedding night (which I know is silly but I can).

And if you wanted to know I call the alley between the train seats the aisle. If you hadn't said that I'd never have known English wasn't your first language.

[Juniebee]

1 hour ago, Alicia2 said:

I'm glad the train was late too, this sounds amazing! And how lovely that the man and woman ended up bonding over their sneezes and actually exchanged numbers, doesn't this just prove there's nothing more romantic than sneezing? You described it really well too, I feel like I was there too. I can just imagine them sneezing over each other on their wedding night (which I know is silly but I can).

And if you wanted to know I call the alley between the train seats the aisle. If you hadn't said that I'd never have known English wasn't your first language.

I'm wondering what the lady was allergic too, if her allergies are normally that bad, if medicines help god i"m such a nerd

BUt this was adorable! I love the handkerchief and the soft sneezes and the embarrassment from the guy and just ahhhhhhhhh <3

[Sneezingnonstop]

This is an incredibly arodable story, thanks for sharing it with us!!

[kushamisukii]

wow that is so cute!! haha. I can't believe that's real life, what a cute world :') 

[M214186]

Public transit sneezing is very wonderful. Thanks for sharing. 

[Shamaël]

22 hours ago, Alicia2 said:

And how lovely that the man and woman ended up bonding over their sneezes and actually exchanged numbers, doesn't this just prove there's nothing more romantic than sneezing?

Yes, that's exactly what I thought when I saw that they were talking together...  I confess that I can picture very well the wedding night (yes, we are silly but does it really matter?). Thank you for the vocabulary lesson!

21 hours ago, Mwsapphire said:

I'm wondering what the lady was allergic too, if her allergies are normally that bad, if medicines help god i"m such a nerd

Don't worry, you're not alone! I was very pissed off because I was seated near 3 very noisy guys, who were talking out loud and laughing, so I wasn't able to hear what my sneezy little "couple" was saying...  And of course they didn't spend the whole journey talking about sneezing and allergies (that would have been a bit weird...), but I'm pretty sure she said what she was allergic too, but my neighbours were almost yelling, so I couldn't hear. Too bad. But of course I wondered exactly the same as you!!!

@M214186: Oh yes, transit sneezing is the best (in my opinion) in real life - because it could happen any moment and the person can't escape...

[allergyboy2001]

 Very nice!

[Psyneezy]

You wrote this really well, thank you for sharing I ditto what every above said!

[BananaTree]

Hey, i ship it  Very nice obs indeed! Thank you for sharing

[Luisa39]

What a story!  Your descriptions are so vivid that I could picture it all quite well!  By the way, I would love to hear French people bless.  I know the phrase is "A vos souhaits" (or "A tes souhaits"), but I've never actually heard anyone say it as I've never been to France.

[atchoum]

Wonderful observation !  I love sneezes on trains, you can get lucky.

I'll post my next observation.  One that sticks in my mind is from last year in Italy, really one of the best of  2016.  I arrived at the station not 5 minutes before the train was due to leave, but 25 minutes, so I had plenty of time.  The waiting room started to fill up, and a businessman in his early thirties  - very smartly dressed (you do see a lot of smartly dressed people on the trains  in Italy !) - came in, sat down and absorbed himself in his Ipad. I was standing not far away, reading, but with the rest of the waiting room in my field of vision when the businessman sneezed to his left, quite openly (unfortunately I didn't see if there was any build up),  moderate volume, quite uninhibited, just aiming at the floor.  He hardly had time to straighten up when he was overtaken by another sneeze, then a third one.... and then he went back to his iPhone. No nose blow, no sniffing...  No one in the waiting room turned a hair.    The train arrived and unfortunately  we didn't get into the same carriage, but my neighbour when I did find a seat, as tall dark student type, sneezed a discreet but uncovered double 10 minutes into the journey.

 

 

[Hajo]

What a wonderful observation. I LOVE train observations, escpecially if you have the luck to find a guy with a cold (or allergies), whom you can observe in best case for a few hours. You can study the sneeze and noseblowing behaviour, which for my opinion depends very much from the concret situalion. (free places maybe or full compartments etc.)

You descibed it so nice, that he was embarrassed when she asked him, if he would have a cold. Nice idea, that there a relation started due to sneezes maybe.

 

[Shamaël]

On 04/02/2017 at 9:01 AM, atchoum said:

I love sneezes on trains, you can get lucky.

Yes!!! It seems you have been lucky too... Witnessing uncovered sneezes in public transports or buildings is quite rare, so I liked your obs as well!

It seems that I'm not the only one to like train / public transports observations... If anyone is interested, maybe we could start a thread just for these kind of obs? (I have a lot of them, as I frequentiy take the train...)

Anyway, I've got another one : today I came back from Paris and I was sitting next to a man who was sniffling non-stop - and I have the fetish but constant sniffling without sneezing just upset me after a while (and it last almost fourty minutes...). And then, when the ticket inspector came in the carriage (car??? I don't know which word I should use here), he sneezed violently four times just when he was handing her the tickets. It was at the same time funny and embarrassing (and very enjoyable for me of course ) because each time he wanted to give her the ticket, another sneeze would come (without any build-up or warning) and prevent him from doing so, because he turned away from her not to sneeze on her. He sneezed in his elbow - and it sounded quite wet : "HehSCHHah! HaSCHHahh! HahTCHAAH! HAT'SCHAHhh!". Then he said "Excuse me" and blew his nose (not too soon!) before giving his tickets to the woman. I thought / hoped he would sneeze again but he resumed his sniffling () and I was relieved when I finally got off the train.

[Psyneezy]

21 hours ago, Aliena H. said:

Yes!!! It seems you have been lucky too... Witnessing uncovered sneezes in public transports or buildings is quite rare, so I liked your obs as well!

It seems that I'm not the only one to like train / public transports observations... If anyone is interested, maybe we could start a thread just for these kind of obs? (I have a lot of them, as I frequentiy take the train...)

Anyway, I've got another one : today I came back from Paris and I was sitting next to a man who was sniffling non-stop - and I have the fetish but constant sniffling without sneezing just upset me after a while (and it last almost fourty minutes...). And then, when the ticket inspector came in the carriage (car??? I don't know which word I should use here), he sneezed violently four times just when he was handing her the tickets. It was at the same time funny and embarrassing (and very enjoyable for me of course ) because each time he wanted to give her the ticket, another sneeze would come (without any build-up or warning) and prevent him from doing so, because he turned away from her not to sneeze on her. He sneezed in his elbow - and it sounded quite wet : "HehSCHHah! HaSCHHahh! HahTCHAAH! HAT'SCHAHhh!". Then he said "Excuse me" and blew his nose (not too soon!) before giving his tickets to the woman. I thought / hoped he would sneeze again but he resumed his sniffling () and I was relieved when I finally got off the train.

 

That obs is great too lucky you! I understand what you mean about sniffling though

[atchoum]

On 13/02/2017 at 11:10 PM, Aliena H. said:

Anyway, I've got another one : today I came back from Paris and I was sitting next to a man who was sniffling non-stop - and I have the fetish but constant sniffling without sneezing just upset me after a while (and it last almost fourty minutes...). And then, when the ticket inspector came in the carriage (car??? I don't know which word I should use here), he sneezed violently four times just when he was handing her the tickets. It was at the same time funny and embarrassing (and very enjoyable for me of course ) because each time he wanted to give her the ticket, another sneeze would come (without any build-up or warning) and prevent him from doing so, because he turned away from her not to sneeze on her. He sneezed in his elbow - and it sounded quite wet : "HehSCHHah! HaSCHHahh! HahTCHAAH! HAT'SCHAHhh!". Then he said "Excuse me" and blew his nose (not too soon!) before giving his tickets to the woman. I thought / hoped he would sneeze again but he resumed his sniffling () and I was relieved when I finally got off the train.

Sneezing ticket inspectors indeed ! That's quite a treat.  I can only think of one incident that is similar, and it was a long time ago, on a night train - a very crowded one - coming back from Zagreb.  The ticket inspector, in his mid twenties, was obviously suffering from seasonal allergies, and he blew his nose between every ticket he inspected.  I unfortunately didn't see him sneeze, but I did hear a couple of sneezes in the corridor, which I supposed were from the ticket inspector, but the most intriguing was going past the little ticket inspector's room, which was shut, I heard  a sneeze and a blow, so I was sure it was the allergy boy.

[Saimou]

Great obs !

On 27.1.2017 at 0:05 AM, Alicia2 said:

I'm glad the train was late too, this sounds amazing! And how lovely that the man and woman ended up bonding over their sneezes and actually exchanged numbers, doesn't this just prove there's nothing more romantic than sneezing? You described it really well too, I feel like I was there too. I can just imagine them sneezing over each other on their wedding night (which I know is silly but I can).

With how embarrassed the man seemed when his (rather discrete) sneezing was called attention to, I think there's a decent chance he might actually be a sneeze fetishist. I mean, the woman has a lot more reason to be embarrassed about her sneezes in a non-fetish-y context, yet she seemed almost proud of her sneezes (and rightfully so, if you ask me !) If that was the case, he would surely try to court that woman. She sounds like real keeper: startlingly loud sneezes that come in threes, spectacular, year-round allergies and total lack of any embarrassment or restraint. Who knows, maybe she's a sneeze fetishist herself? Just at the other end of the scale personality-wise. I can totally hear the wedding-bells tolling, accompanied by the groom and, especially the bride, sneezing .