This Christmas season I've found myself taking some very special journeys - like many other people, no doubt. Wasn't sure if I should share them or not, but decided to in the end.
As a trucker just starting out in Innsbruck, gifted a garage by my parents but with no truck to my name, I was working and and saving up cash making local deliveries... and then one early summer night I had a dream. It was simple, but very strange, for it was of winter, and of a green truck standing in the snow. As I gazed upon this boxy apparition, I heard a voice utter the following words: "M. A. N.... M.A.N. ... Magic At Night". And then I woke up and ate my cornflakes, and thought about what I'd just seen. Personally, for magic at night I prefer W.O.M.A.N. but perhaps it meant something else? I was perplexed to say the least. And then I opened my email after breakfast and found something from my Bank. They apparently want to lend me $100,000 Euros! It can't be a coincidence, I thought, so I decided to take a look at my local Second Hand Truck Shop web page - and there, right on the front page was the very same truck from my dream. Amazing.
It was obviously meant to be, and I could just about afford it so I thought, why not. Soon I was in possession of two things, a second hand MAN TGX XL with a 1,160L tank, 330 hp and just under 100K km on the clock. That works out at about 1 Euro per km, so I deffo got my money's worth. Permanent wear 1%, some other issues that make it emit worrying noises occasionally, but it hasn't even stalled yet. What a sweetie. The other thing was a considerable debt. Time to get to work, I guess.
Here are a few shots from our first job together - Innsbruck to Salzburg hauling rooflights for Dachser.
Had to stop at this weigh station, a first for me in Europe, I think. Never seen one before. Very strange. However, there was no icon, so I just sat where it seemed I should and pressed enter. Nothing happened, but I was thanked for my pains as we left, so I must have done something right.
After a cold start it brightened up into a lovely sunny day.
Arriving in Salzburg. We of course made many more trips like this, which I shall not trouble anyone with.
Parking up. After a few weeks I was just starting to lose my natural feeling of wonder that I'd found a new truck through a dream, and forget about the mysterious phrase "M. A. N. - Magic At Night" (after all, everyone knows it stands for Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg) when I had another strange experience after turning in for the evening... and I'm not sure it even was a dream this time - it felt so, so, so, so, so real.
It was 2am, and something made me rise from my bed and cross the muddy waste ground lying between our house and the garage. All was eerily quiet, yet the air felt like it was kind of 'fizzing'... For some reason, I felt the urge to get in my still new nearly-new truck.
I started the engine, and somehow knew just where I was going - to DHL, and there a gaily painted trailer was awaiting me, and unmistakeably only me.
I hooked it up and we headed out, I knew not where... yet the weigh station which had newly appeared to the north of Innsbruck seemed like as good a destination as any. It was almost as if it were calling to me...
Through the dark streets of Innsbruck we drove, and then along the motorway for a short stretch...
...until we reached the weigh station. There in the car park beyond I espied a hazy patch of what seemed like falling snow. Could it really be snow? It never snows in Europe these days.
On a whim, I drove the truck into the cloud and found that it was not snow, but twinkling lights. As we drove in, I felt cold and energized, yet simultaneously warm and cosy. What is this?, I wondered. Not sure quite what happened next - everything went black - but then...
...we were suddenly somewhere completely different. Snow on the ground everywhere, and gently glowing streetlamps. And lights in the trees, as if it were Christmas, and not the summer. "Wow," I thought. "Am I in Narnia?"
But no, twas not Narnia. No evil white queen exists to spoil this fabled land. No, this place is far better than Narnia.
Suddenly I know where we had to go - to the Town Square! And so we set off, slipping and sliding through the snow.
Eventually the glowing lamps of a settlement hove into view.
There were no cars driving on the roads anywhere, so I was able to step outside the truck and take some pics of the beautiful buildings and scenes we encountered on entering town.
It seemed a place wholly dedicated to the spirit of Christmas...
...a wondrous land far removed from the troubles of our world...
...rather like the whole of Trucksimland actually, but with added Christmas joy...
...a land where all is well, where shops with shelves groaning with gifts for Santa to bring stay open all night long, and wallets are perpetually full so that the joy of giving and receiving may be felt by all. Winterland.
Krigl
