..and I'm sure that there is no "bureaucracy at its finest" involved in air travel wherever the OP lives.

The European rail system is just fantastic, I love using it and I'm sure that when the OP gets there he'll realise that all this worrying was for nothing. I was travelling all around Europe on very complicated international itineraries long before the internet was around and I don't recall experiencing a single problem. I used overnight trains, couchettes, sleeping cars, day journeys involving tight connections, border crossings in pre-Schengen days. Not once did I have to stand, although a few times I had to shift poachers out of my reserved seats. I just came to terms with the fact that things don't always work as they do "back home". Thank God.