Working in a global company — with a team across Europe and a secondary home in France — has resulted in many hours on trains instead of air miles since I stopped flying a year ago, and I love it! It has also resulted in many conversations, and several people are now following in my steps.

A challenge has been to order and buy the tickets. Flights can be bought through our travel portal in a few minutes; train bookings can take days. It is frustrating to see how everything, even the travel icons, are reflecting flying as taken for granted. I have been interviewed on the Swedish news regarding the need for better and cleaner toilets (!), something which seems to have given me an unofficial status as “toilets ombudsman,” and I now have a dialogue with SJ (Swedish railway) thanks to the debate it caused on social media.

Not flying gives me a good feeling. I love watching the landscape outside the window when traveling, and I can work or read without any problems. The sense of time and place is “real” and I am not suddenly just finding myself being in a new country or city without context. Not flying makes me feel more true to myself and closer to nature.