Coming Soon!

Well, I have done a little bit of travelling without updating my blog, tsk tsk. Coming soon I should have a few wonderful posts about my time overseas in London. There will be a hostile hostel, academic references, lots of walking and tube riding, museums galore, gray days with my classmates, sunny days with Matt's Aunt Carol, tea at my bedside to wake up, more walking and tube riding, more museums, some shopping with decreased spending power, a trip on the London Eye, and getting out of Heathrow just in time. What fun! To whet your whistle, here are some pics of what's to come, this one is in Greenwich, where I stood in both hemispheres at once:

and then the classic Christmas image, the Holly and the Ivy in Hampstead Garden Suburb:

More to come soon! And by the way, Matt and I did make it back to Bangor, and onwards to Halifax back in August. From NYC we went on to one night in Boston, where we stayed with Jim and Charlene and they fed us a nice feast of burgers and a delicious brownie dessert. I think that was Matt's first meeting with Danny and Roxy and Claire, and i think he enjoyed it. heehee. Then we moved on to Portland, on the Downeaster. We had some Buddhist Monks with us on the train, one of whom was chanting near Matt for the ride. Mary Lou greeted us in Portland, and we got to walk around the Old Port with her and Carole, checking quite possibly every old map in the antique map store. Here is us walking around on the docks:

Carole and Mary Lou took us out to dinner at the floating restaurant, and i had a wonderful Lobster Ravioli. We then got to visit some more at their home with their cats, and then Pa came to give us a ride to Bangor for the final leg of our trip. A big thanks to all who took us in on our journey! August now seems like it is so far away, but we've got plenty of pictures and memories to remind us of a wonderful month and trip.

Last week recap

Finally, the update which you have all been waiting for, which brings you up to date on about a week's worth of traveling! Woo hoo! The internet access has been somewhat limited for the past week, and I tend not to write posts whilst they are happening (ie writing on the train and uploading later). Perhaps my lateness in updating will keep my recount a little briefer than normal (a good thing!) So, here we go... back to Chicago...

Mon, Aug 21-- We did in fact go to Giordano's for deep dish pizza. We got sausage and spinach, and it was good and filling, unfortunately we're not bringing any home as I don't think it would keep. After we walked down to the river, and came back up the Magnificent Mile past the Wrigley and Tribune buildings, many fancy shops, a water tower built like a castle, and finally made our way back to the hotel.

Tues, Aug 22-- We went on an architecture boat cruise in the Chicago River put on by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It was a 90minute tour that took us up the main branch of the river and on the two smaller branches as well. Along with seeing lots of buildings (many designed by Mies Van der Rohe), we went under more than 20 bridges, some of which were double decker. Our guide told us all about the architects, uses, materials and construction of the buildings along with many jokes. I would highly recommend the tour, it was quite enjoyable.

After we ventured to Millennium Park, with an amphitheater designed by Frank Gehry, the same man who made EMP in Seattle. There are also other interesting sculptures there, and we had our lunch in a cafe there. We decided to try to go to the Field Museum, so we walked through Grant Park as well, past Buckingham fountains, but we were sort of late in getting there, so after ruling out Shedd Aquarium too, hopped on a Metra commuter train and out to Hyde Park. I lived there for 4 years, and we found my old apartment building (couldn't tell if it was the same one though), and walked around the University of Chicago. Back on the Metra to downtown, we went to Marshall Fields, a large department store. We wandered around a bit there, didn't buy any Frangos though :( Finally, we had dinner at a Cajun restaurant called Redfish, where i had Jumbalaya.

Wed, Aug 23--We checked out of the hotel, but kept our luggage there, and headed north to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We spent a few hours there, going about the whole park. Highlights included the large monkey house, where we got to see a gorilla baby, and chimpanzees, though it didn't smell as much as I remember as a kid. There was also a small monkey house, with a gibbon mama and child. We saw sleeping lions up close, and those polar bears which we had missed in Churchill. It was a hot day in Chicago, and we cooled off with milkshakes on the way back to the hotel.

We got to the train station rather early, and waited in a big group for our train, the Capitol Limited, to board and leave. We were 15-30minutes behind schedule leaving Chicago, where it started to rain hard. Just over the Indiana border we stopped for tornados which apparently crossed the tracks 10 miles down and knocked over cars on a freight train. We were waiting there for at least 6 hours, putting us behind schedule.

Thurs, Aug 24-- Continuing on the Capitol Limited, we awoke to hear that we were 9 hours behind schedule somewhere in Ohio. I took advantage of this longer train to do lots of reading. They gave us complimentary lunch of Dinty Moore-like beef stew, and as the ride wore on, gave us complimentary dinner of a "snack pack" as well, and by word of mouth we learned that in the snack car everything was free. Nothing much to report on the scenery, as I was absorbed in my book. We went through the Alleghenies and Appalachians, and there are narrow tall houses in Pennsylvania. Finally arriving in DC at 10pm (supposed to be there at noon), we were greeted by the Washington Monument out the window, and by Sean at Union Station. We got a mini tour of DC's lights, and called it a night.

Fri, Aug 25--Sean took us to breakfast at a diner, and then we tried to get internet at Starbucks, but instead had to pull over on the street to try to connect to someone's wireless. (that was 2 posts ago). We went to the Air + Space Museum and saw early flying machines, including the Wright Flyer, milestones like the Paul Allen private plane that got into space, a plane that went around the world in 9 days without refueling, the evolution of spacesuits, satellites that gather data that i used for my honours research, or at least learned about in some of my geography classes, and walked on an air craft carrier model and Skylab. You could spend days in just 1 Smithsonian museum! There is a lot to read there, though Matt and I noted that some of the computer related displays are a bit dated.

We grabbed a hot dog for lunch, and went to the National Building Museum. We just noticed it on Sean's map and decided to give it a go, it deals with architecture and urban planning! We got there rather late, so couldn't stay long til it closed. It is in a big beautiful building with huge columns inside, and nice decoration on the outside. We saw exhibits on Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in Oklahoma, and on green (sustainable) buildings, and a cool model of DC used to help plan it and locate metro stops. I wish we had more time there, but it'll have to go on my list for next time!

We then did a grand monument & memorial tour. We walked past the Washington Monument, to the World War II memorial, which I believe opened in 2004. It has large fountains and is sort of split between the Pacific and Atlantic with panels depicting the war, with appropriate quotations throughout. Then we took the long walk around the Tidal basin to the Jefferson Monument, and continued around the opposite side. We walked through the Franklin Roosevelt memorial, which Sean hadn't been in and is new as well. It is large with lots of fountains, a few sculptures and quotes from his 4 terms, and seemed to have far less people than any of the other locations, which was nice. We crossed over to the Korean War memorial of soldiers in the field and faces on a wall. Then we made our way to the Vietnam War memorial and a monument to the nurses. Finally we climbed the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, which was by far the most popular, and got to see Honest Abe and the Washington monument and it's reflection looking out where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his I Have a Dream speech. We ended the night in Georgetown, a lovely old city, with lots of brick buildings, very busy and full of shops and restaurants.

Sat, Aug 26--We ate breakfast in Old Town Alexandria, at a quaint French restaurant where I had strawberry crepes romanoff. We walked down to the Potomac and saw catfish feeding at the surface. Then it was off to Union Station to head to New York City. DC's station is a gorgeous building. We left a hot and dry Washington DC, and en route to NYC the weather started to change, got cloudy and rainy. We went through the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, Philadelphia, Newark, and finally arrived in NYC right on time at 5:45pm. Ned was there to pick us up, and we grabbed a taxi to head to the upper east side and drop our stuff off. It was chilly in the city, a frigid 60something, cooler than we were expecting. We ended up grabbing a pint that night and watched some of the Mets game near where he lives, and then headed down around the 20s to meet up with some of Ned's friends and have supper.

Sun, Aug 27-- It was grey and rainy whence we got up, so we took our time getting ready to do anything. Ned's Mum had picked us up some NY bagels for breakfast which were nice and as chewy as ever. We walked down to the Mac store, a glass cube with an apple in it on street level and the store is underground, which was packed with people (where I made my last post). We went to FAO Schwarz as well, it was smaller than I remembered it from years past, but apparently it's having bankruptcy issues. In any case, the Legos were impressive and we saw a $50,000 toy car. Matt thinks this guy is from Harry Potter. We jumped on the metro down to Union Square where we went to a dive bar with great burgers called Corner Bistro. Matt and Ned thought the rainy day called for a cozy bar and a game on tv, so we proceeded onward, and when they found one I took a walk around the area, browsing the local shops. I met back up with them and we went back uptown to take a break at Ned's place. We then met up with a couple of Ned's friends for supper at Brother Jimmy's BBQ, how appropriate since Boston and Uncle Jim's will be our next stop. Matt and Ned shared a dish with an interested flame in the middle of it, and I had a decent brisket sandwich.

Mon, Aug 28--This morning we got up, readied ourselves, packed, and hailed a cab to Penn Station. Since we had our cumbersome baggage, although our train didn't leave til 1pm, we weren't able to do very much in the mean time. Our train was right on time, and still is, and we are en route for Boston, our 2nd to last stop on our North American tour.

NYC

Just to let everyone know, we are now in the Mac Store in New York City. It is packed with people, lots of them taking advantage of the free internet and nice computers like me. Our trip up to NYC was uneventful, we sat in the quiet car on the train, which was nice. It was just a 4 hour trip and we got in on time. We are now visiting with Ned and are about to go to FAO Schwartz. There is not time to write much more... on to Boston tomorrow.

A brief update

Hey there, we're in Washington DC now. We spent a nice couple of days in Chicago (my home town), and did get to Giordano's for some deep dish pizza. We also walked on the Magnificent mile a few times, took an architectural boat tour on the Chicago River, walked through Millenium and Grant Parks, hopped on the metra to Hyde Park (my old stomping grounds) and got up to Lincoln Park Zoo. The Capitol Limited to DC was delayed just out of Chicago because of tornados on the track, that apparently knocked over part of a freight train about 10 miles ahead of us! In all, we were delayed further by freight traffic, and got into DC about 10 hours late! Anyways, we're here now, staying with Sean and about to go to the Air and Space Museum... more on all of the above and our DC adventures later...

The Empire Builder

Sat, Aug 19--Ed dropped us off at the train station, and we proceeded to inquire about our reservations to upgrade to sleeping class at the counter. There was some difficulty with them, and we stood at the counter for literally 45 minutes. Finally it was all sorted out, we checked our baggage and boarded. We reserved a roomette which was pretty cozy, and we got complimentary champagne, let the perks of sleeper class begin! We got views of Puget Sound and Mt Baker a little while after departing Seattle. We also went through the Cascade mountain range, and a 7.79 mile tunnel. On this segment of the train a couple of Rails and Trails people boarded and talked about sights that we were going by. Their commentary was interesting, but monotonic and thus somewhat annoying. We both had bland steaks for supper, but at least it was included with our sleeping car accomodation. Our attendant made up our beds and I took to the 2 foot wide upper berth for the night. The ride was a little rocky, but luckily there were safety straps should i roll out.

Sun, Aug 20--We woke up in Montana, near Glacier National Park, still in mountains. We had breakfast and as the train continued on the scenery changed from mountainous to rolling hills sometimes with mountains in the distance. This truly is big sky country, and it seems to go on forever. We had lunch in the dinning car again, and in the afternoon participated in a complimentary wine and cheese event with Washington wines and Minnesota cheeses. We sat with some people who had been travelling as long as us through Texas and the southwest, then up through California to Seattle, and then the Empire Builder. They said the Sunset Limited was 9 hours behind schedule because the freight trains take major precedence over Amtrak. On the Empire Builder, which is on Burlington North Santa Fe tracks they are a bit kinder, and typically our train stays on schedule. I watched Walk the Line in the afternoon as we rolled by more hill, fields, cows, and vast openness. We ate supper (seems like all we did on this train was eat!) with some New Yorkers who had come on this train to Seattle then took a cruise to Alaska and were returning home. We crossed the border into North Dakota, which looked pretty similar to Montana. We strectched our legs in Minot, ND, and back on the train watched another movie before bed. We traded berths this time, so Matt got to experience the small, wobbly top bunk, whilst I got the extra 4 inches and extra stability the bottom bunk provided.

Mon, Aug 21--I slept very well, and ended up missing Minnesota entirely, not getting up til 10:30am! We had slept through breakfast as well, which was fine with all the food we'd been having lately. We did catch a breif glimpse of the Mississippi River, which makes up part of the border. We were ready in time for lunch, and dined whilst riding through Wisconsin. Now the scenery has changed, it looks a lot more lush, more trees, more civilization than most of the Empire Builder's path. It was only a little while longer til we reached Chicago, signalled by the Sears Tower's appearance, and Union Station. We are now staying on the Gold Coast, can see the Sears Tower from our window, and are contemplating Giordano's deep dish pizza for supper. It feels good to be home :) heehee...

I'm having a little trouble uploading pictures, so they'll be added later.

Seattle

Thurs, Aug 17-- We arrived in Seattle pretty much on time, and Ed was there to greet us with flowers, what a treat! We then made our way around downtown a little, and then headed out of the city towards Renton. Lilly (the dog) was at Ed's house to meet us, and after a grand tour of the mansion we got a good night's sleep.

Fri, Aug 18-- We went into the city around lunch time to Red Robin's on the waterfront for burgers. We were right next to the docks and got to see a couple of ferries come in. What a lovely view of the Olympic mountains across Puget Sound as well. Then we walked through the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and saw a two headed calf and a frightening mermaid and child (big scary teeth). We proceeded to the Pike Place Public Market, and didn't get to see them tossing the fish, but saw the vast selection of seafood available, and some gigantic lobster tails. Then we took in a pint at Kells, an Irish pub nearby. Finally, we drove over towards the space needle, and went to the Experience Music Project. This is a cool museum, designed by Frank Gehry. We saw exhibits on music posters, Jimi Hendrix (who is from Seattle), Hip-Hop, bands and movements from the Northwest, and stage costumes. We also got to jam in the interactive part of the museum. There are a bunch of areas where you can play guitar, keyboard, drums, etc, or try out mixing boards and pedals as well. There are studio-type rooms where there are a number of instruments to play, and I rocked out on drums whilst Matt played guitar or keys... Not sure how well our beats went together though. There is a monstrous sculpture inside which looks like a tornado of guitars, apparently made up of over 700 instruments! Then we walked around the Space Needle and gift shop, seeing every possible souvenir of Seattle. We got to see glimpses of Mount Rainier on the way home, and all had a nice ice cream to end the day.

Sat, Aug 19--We got up early this morning, as Ed had a surprise planned for us. He wouldn't tell us what it was but hinted yesterday that it might involve heights. We ended up driving to the Museum of Flight at the Boeing Airport, and saw that biplane rides were available! This was what Ed had in mind for us. We got to put on cool bomber jackets, life jackets, hats with goggles and headphones, and fly around West Seattle and Alki. It was very cool. We took off and headed towards downtown and the Space Needle, and could see the Cascades to the east, and the Olympics to the west. We could see trains and the station where we will be heading out of later today. I could see the pier where we ate lunch yesterday. We made some quick turns, without advanced warning, and were looking down into the water. We flew over Puget Sound and around Alki Point where there is a nice light house. A few more quick and angled turns and we were headed back to the airport. Landing was fine, no need to use the life jackets, and what a fun ride! We are now just chilling back in Renton, waiting to head back to get on the train to Chicago. We think we've upgraded to sleeper class for this 2-night journey, so it should be fun and relaxing!

Thanks for all the comments, good to know people are reading the blog!

The past few days

I apologize for the delay in this post.... those coffee shops in Vancouver with wireless internet are few and far between. That or we were out sightseeing (and our hotel did not have internet)!

Sun, Aug 13-- As hinted at in the previous post, Shamil and Nash took us out to the Rockies! We drove to Banff national park, and boy is it gorgeous. Once in the mountains, everywhere you look you want to take another picture. The Bow River that flows through the area is bright green/blue and glacially fed with mineral deposits. We went to Johnston's Canyon where we were greeted by a Parks Canada guide who said that a bear was sighted in the past hour, so we should travel in groups and be careful around blind corners. We walked in along stone boardwalks to see a nice waterfall, and did run into a few chipmunks, but no bears again. We got back on the Trans Canada to head back to the town of Banff. There they have the huge Fairmont Banff Springs resort, starting at ~$450/nt. The whole town was full of people, and lots of touristy shops and restaurants. We only stayed there a little while, and headed back to Canmore to have supper. Shamil and I both had bison lasagna, so I had bison three different ways in 2 days! We left the beauty of the mountains and headed back to Calgary, and then Matt and I proceeded onwards to Edmonton.

Mon, Aug 14 -- We had to get up bright and early to return our car, and get to the VIA station. The train was already running late. so we had to wait for the Canadian to arrive. There is not much for exciting scenery outside of Edmonton until the Rockies are reached again. This time we entered Jasper National Park, and the train made a stop in Jasper for about 45 minutes. Jasper seems slightly less resort-town than Banff, but it is still full of gift shops and has the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (which we couldn't see) as well. Back on the train we went past Moose Lake, 8km of blue/green waters, of course surrounded by tall mountains. We had some rain, so along the way we also got to see some pretty rainbows. After exiting the National Park, we passed Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian rockies, but it had some clouds at its peak. Later in the evening we passed Pyramid Falls, where the train slows down so people can snap pictures. That night we dined on Mr Noodles and watched some of Brokeback Mountain, since it was filmed here in Alberta.

Tues, Aug 15 --We arrived in Vancouver a couple hours late, as is usual. At the train station the line for cabs was enormous so we decided to walk over to our hotel, which was nice after sitting for a long time. We were able to check in early again, and rested to make up for some lost sleep on the train. Then we strolled down Robson St, supposedly Vancouver's Rodeo Drive, but it was more reminiscent of St Catherine in Montreal than what I would imagine Rodeo Dr to be like. We had lunch at Bojangles Cafe, a chain, but decent nonetheless. We then rented bikes and biked around Stanley Park, a 1000-acre peninsula just west of downtown. We got to look back at the city, go under Lion's Gate Bridge, look out towards Vancouver Island and see lots of container ships, go past beaches on English Bay, and head back. It was a nice way to get some exercise and a lovely ride. Continuing our way along the waterfront we walked past the marinas looking to North Van, and past Canada Place convention center. We had a pint each at the Steamworks Brewery, then made our way towards Gastown, where the city began. We walked around just down the Water St, then didn't go any further than Carral (?) as it is supposed to get pretty sketchy pretty fast. Even then we went through a park that I would not have liked at night. After a bit more walking around, we headed towards Yaletown, where we dined at Lucy Mae Browns. We had a seafood platter to start, with lobster turnovers, risotto and prawns, and salmon and halibut tartares. The halibut tartare was actually quite nice! And the platter turned out to be on the house since it was a little slow in getting to us! Sweet! Matt had a salmon entree and I had lamb shank with a cinnamon-y flavour, quite good. After a supper like that, what better way to end the night by watching some Food Network and head to bed.

Weds, Aug 16 -- The morning commenced with coffee and banana bread, then we headed back to Gastown to go to Storyeum, an underground live history museum. The BC live part was okay, it had actors in 6 different rooms acting out native customs, the Hudsons Bay Company coming, gold and getting people to move to BC, and the transcontinental railway coming. This program seemed more geared towards families with kids, so we were kind of disappointed. We also got to see Dinosaurs in Gastown, which redeemed the visit. There were a number of fossils, and dinosaur skeletons constructed from 80% real fossils, including a Crightonasaurus, named after Michael Crighton! I also pretended to be a dinosaur. We got to see an life size animatronic T-Rex too, which was pretty cool. We lunched in Gastown, at an Irish pub, and walked back past the steam whistle clock once again on our way out. We walked around the Historic district a bit, and headed all the way down Granville St, contemplating going to Granville Island and market, which would have been closed by then, so decided against it. Instead we made our way to Yaletown again, and over to the southeast waterfront, and back up to Robson to get Sushi for supper. I was only adventurous enough to have California rolls, but it was pretty good.

Thurs, Aug 17-- We made haste to get back to the waterfront and catch a ferry to Granville Island, and had coffee and a scone for breakfast at the public market there. We wandered about the whole island, past the Emily Carr art school, a houseboat community, through numerous artsy shops, some book stores, the Granville Island Brewery, etc. We had lunch at a seafood place where Matt had salmon fish & chips, and I had a cajun salmon burger. It was great, and a very popular place. We headed back to the market where we began and grabbed ice cream before catching the ferry back to Yaletown. We taxied it over to the station, arriving at 4:15 to find people already lined up for a 6pm train! We had to go through security for Amtrak, something we've never had to do for VIA, and boarded the Cascades 45minutes before the train was to depart. The cars on this train are smaller than normal cars, and it has two fins. Supposedly this train can go 80mph now, but if tracks were improved could go 110mph! Leaving Vancouver, the mountains look like a paper cutout behind the city, and approaching the border the tracks are right along the splashing rocky waterfront. USA here we come!

The Canadian -- segment 2 & Calgary

Fri, Aug 11 --We continued to wander around Winnipeg for a little while, not really finding that much to our liking. I think we came into the city thinking about it sterotypically as a boring city, and left with somewhat the same impression. Had we more time there, we might have visited the Man and Nature museum, or the Art museum and left with a different impresssion. Perhaps next time. We headed back to Union station to get the train, which ended up departing an hour behind due to locomotive troubles. Then we were off through the prairies once more. Whence we reached Saskatchewan that evening the skies turned dark and it started to rain, and then the sky lit up with sheet lightning. Sometimes we'd see a large bolt off in the distance, but most of the time the sky would just turn white. We slept off and on in our seats, ahead of some people who Matt, as an anthropologist, determined to be Menonnite. This was there first time riding a train, and they were filming everything, and throughout the night proceded to talk pretty loudly in english/dutch?/german?. I guess it was interesting to listen too, but hard to fall asleep to.

Sat, Aug 12-- We woke up in Alberta, and found out we made up some time, and arrived into Edmonton around 8:30am. We made our way over to the car rental place, and got our car without extra underage driver fees or extra driver fees. Yay! Then we headed out to Calgary, down Wayne Gretzky Dr, past Rexall Place, and onto Hwy 2. We stopped in Nisku for some breakfast at McDonalds, then continued on to Red Deer, where Ron McClean of CBC's Hockey night in Canada is from. Finally in the early afternoon we made it into Calgary. We found Shamil's house and ended up going into the city, down 17 Ave, or "the Red Mile" to meet up with him and his brother Nash. We checked out the Fringe Festival with street performers. We saw the supposed Canadian National Juggling Champion, but he seemed to drop things a lot... He did balance a ladder on his chin, which was impressive, but then when he was supposed to juggle in said position, he failed miserably. We left before the grand finale, so don't know if it got any better. Then we headed down 17th Ave to Ming, where we sampled Calgarian beer. Then it was over to the Eau Claire market for the Taste of Calgary. We got to sample chicken potstickers, bison ribs, bison burger, spolumbo's sausage, misir wot (ethiopian chick peas and lentils), fried raspberry gelato, and green tea ice cream. Wow! I wish there were Taste of's in every city we were going to. Then we headed over to the Drum & Monkey and eventually ended up at Bob the Fish and met up with some of Shamil and Nash's friends, which was fun.

Sun, Aug 13-- We have now broken fast at Shamil's house, eating french bread and fresh fruit. The weather has changed dramatically, it's nice and hot, where as last night was frigid! It was literally like late fall. It is bright and sunny and we are thinking of going towards the rockies, to Johnson's Canyon. Then it will be back to Edmonton for us tonight and catching the train tomorrow morning.

By the way! We went to this second hand store on 17 Ave, where supposedly they got all the costumery for Brokeback Mountain. Though I didn't get any cowboy shirts, I did pick up a conductor's hat, perfect for the rest of our trip. And Shamil got a neoprene jacket.

The Hudson Bay -- there, back, and in between

First off, let me wish a belated Happy Anniversary to my parents, on this day of this post! :) Here's a pic to make you happy:
Sun, Aug 6 --Back in Winnipeg we headed to the Forks Market, which unfortunately was soon closing. We were able to get our food for the way up to Churchill, and even a bottle of wine! Too bad the hot dog stand was closing, we wanted to get supper there! Instead we ate at Earl's right next to the station. We then returned to the station, called our respective parents, and waited for the train.

We boarded at 8:30pm and departed at 8:45pm in a fairly empty car. We rolled into Portage La Prairie on the same tracks we'll be taking on the Canadian on Friday, through more large crop fields. At 10:30, it was time to sleep, but unfortunately we had no pillow or blanket, so i asked for them, but none were to be had on this train! egad! Luckily it wasn't that cold like on the Ocean, but still! We made due with our sweaters, and though i woke up a few times, had my best trainsleep (so far).

Mon, Aug 7-- We woke up to sun and foggy crop fields. In one field I saw about 25 deer, our first major animal sighting. Turns out we were still in Saskatchewan when we woke up, soon to go through Hudson Bay, SK. We reached The Pas, MB, pronounced "the paw", at 10:45am, where we added a coach car, another locamotive, and some passengers. Still the train wasn't that full, and Matt and I had 2 four-seaters to ourselves. The scenery turns marshy, called muskeg, a bit further up the tracks. There appears to be lots of alder, birch, aspen, some sort of purple wispy flower, black spruce, and cattails. We ate lunch of rotis bought at the market in the dining car whilst watching When We Were Kings. Later in the day we passed a beautiful Cormorant Lake, though I am not sure where the name came from, since none of those birds should be around. At night we ate sandwiches for supper, and took a detour up to Thompson, where we would pick up lots of people to fill up our car. We were running pretty behind schedule by now, and it seemed that the whole way from The Pas we were just creeping along at a snail's pace.

Tues, Aug 8-- We woke up earlyish, and were supposed to arrive in Churchill at 8am, to no avail. We were now about 4 hours behind schedule as we creeped along sometimes stopping at remote locations. Having not prepared for a breakfast, we ate on the train, blueberry pancakes and bacon, pretty good. We finally arrive in Churchill at about 12:15pm. We arranged our luggage and then asked about where to go to swim and see whales, and what the risk of polar bear sighting was. The Parks Canada guy was, surprisingly, very wishy washy, and not very assuring about places we could and couldn't go to keep out of polar bear harm. Alas. We set off towards the town complex, as there is supposed to be a beach behind it, whilst walking around, we ran into this: We continued on, going towards the beach, and spotted lots of white things out in Hudson Bay, they were beluga whales! Tons of them! Despite Matt's hemming and hawing and concern that I would get hypothermia, I did go swimming in Hudson Bay. I got out to my waist and splashed around a bit, then promptly got out. The water was really nice on our feet, didn't seem as cold as the Atlantic, but once your whole body was in it was pretty cold. You might just barely be able to see a white speck to the right of my head, that's a whale. We stood in the water watching them for awhile, some eventually came probably 150m away and would stick their heads out! Then we headed over to the Eskimo museum, where there were lots of carvings done by native peoples, mostly from further north in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. There were also some stuffed polar bears and walruses, so I guess we did get to see some bears in Churchill. Our train back to Winnipeg turned out to leave late, scheduled for 10pm instead of 8ish, so we hung out at the Parks Canada building (which coupled as the train station) and watched a couple of films on Churchill and the wildlife.

On the train back we had upgraded to sleeping class, getting a double berth, and how luxurious compared to coach! We got to board first and get settled in, then once the train got moving, we could take showers! and boy was that nice, having not showered since Saturday in Toronto. It's interesting trying to shower on the train, luckily there is a hand rail in case the ride gets wobbly. It was so nice having a flat bed to lie on too! Unfortunately our meals weren't provided like i had thought, so we had bought food in Churchill (talk about expensive!).

Wed, Aug 9 -- Again the train was running very slowly, apparently it is because of the tracks up in the muskeg. In the summer months, they are worried about them heating up and settling, and the train has a high risk of derailing, so they have to take it very slow during the day, they can go a little faster at night. We got into Thompson in the early afternoon, probably running at least 5 hours late at this point. We go on the same tracks that we went up on, so it's the same scenery, just backwards, and sometimes we saw different sections of the trail that we were passing through at night going up. We passed the time by reading, watching movies, crosswording, eating, etc. At one point we stopped in the middle of nowhere due to some traffic communication, allowing us to get even further behind schedule.

Thurs, Aug 10-- So we woke up this morning, and were somewhere around Saskatchewan, meaning we were about 8 hours behind... eek! We ate our breakfast, showered, and got told by the attendant that since we were so late, we were going to be getting a complementary lunch at noon! how great! And what a large lunch it was. We sat with two older women from Winnipeg and Calgary. Did I mention we were the youngest in sleeping class by about 25 yrs atleast? Anyways, we finally ended up rolling into Winnipeg at about 5pm, 9 hours behind schedule. Apparently this qualifies us for some sort of discount. We shall see. We walked over to our hotel across the Assiniboine and Red rivers. We had to set out to find a laundromat after going for 11 days, which was no problem, and had a gourmet dinner of Little Caesars and Catfish beer.

Fri, Aug 11 -- We have spent the morning here changing our rental car for Edmonton... that was fun. And we've dropped our stuff off at the station, and are just walking about Winnipeg. It's a nice little city, a bit empty til you get downtown. Matt's bugging me to wrap up here at Second Cup, so that is all! We're off to Edmonton tonight.

The Canadian -- Segment 1

Hi everybody! and sorry for the lack of posts of late. We've basically been travelling since last Saturday...rode more than 5000kms, hadn't showered from Saturday morn to Tuesday night, changed time zones, slept in sleeper class, swam in Hudson Bay... more on that later though. We are back in civilization on non-moving ground in Winnipeg for the night, and so I shall try to post a bit tonight and tomorrow morn before we take off again to Edmonton. I can't believe we're already 11 days into this trip! Now it's going by too fast! We are doing the Canadian in 3 separate segments, Toronto-Winnipeg, Winnipeg-Edmonton, and Edmonton-Vancouver. Here is the first of these segments:

Sat, Aug 5-- Bright and early in ghetto res we rose and made our way to Union Station, Toronto via the subway. We made it more than an hour early and were able to grab a cinnabon for breakfast at the station. We got on the Canadian, which has older cars on it than the Ocean, and I dozed on and off from Toronto to Sudbury. The scenery all around is rocky outcrops of the Canadian Shield. At Sudbury Matt got all excited and pointed out the giant smokestack that was at one point the tallest in the world. No sign of the big nickel though. After Sudbury Junction we stopped at Capreol where we could get out and stretch for a bit. At this point our train was running ahead of schedule! This is me looking very happy to be getting boarding. Back on the train was more rocky areas and lots of nice looking lakes, apparently popular for fishing, and a few little places to stop at. One place was basically someone's house with a man and a dog outside, a couple people got off the train with packages, and as we were leaving there was a sign with the "town" name, then pop: 13, dog catcher: Morley. Most of the other places we stopped were similar small campy areas. We kept our eyes peeled the whole time for moose, but saw none. I was already a bit tired by 8:30, and thus attempted to fall asleep. It was a bit better than the ocean, but not amazingly comfortable. I think the ear plugs are crucial.

Sun, Aug 6 -- We woke up around 7ish and had coffee and ok on the train. The same scenery repeats itself, in lots of pristine secluded lakes, some with a lone camp. Throughout a lot of this area there are no roads, so planes or trains are the only way in. We rolled into Sioux Lookout, more than an hour behind, for a little stop. I detrained to see about getting a coffee, but what looked like the main street there was all closed and deserted, so i went back to the train. Apparently others were more successful at finding things, cause the people sitting next to us came back with cinnabons! what? Onwards we went to Minaki and Malachi and the Manitoba border. After Elma, MB the views start to change into more prairies with flat fields stretching forever. We past many with hay bales and some filled with sunflowers. We rolled into Winnipeg 2 hours behind at 5:45. We had survived the longest distance segment of our trip on VIA!!! yay!

The TO

4 Aug -- It's the last morning in Ottawa, and we have decided to break fast at the hotel's restaurant. It's not bad, though a bit overpriced. We waited for a bit in the Ottawa VIA station. We took the 12:30ish train to Toronto, due to get us into the city around 5pm. It was a lovely train, a 4 hour train is just perfect, not too short, not too long, not too uncomfortable. I saw lots of bogs as we got out of Ottawa, a few blue herons in said bogs which train tracks were literally going right through, and farmland in between Ottawa and Toronto. Around Oshawa, which is around 45 minutes outside of Toronto, there began manufacturing plants to add to the landscape. the big GM plant in Canada is located here, though I did not see it. I had first heard of Oshawa in Canadian City, a geography class I had in second year, it reminded me then, as it still does of Osh Gosh Begosh.

We rolled into Toronto amidst a bit of rain and got the subway up to Spadina station, where we walked the rest of the way to our accomadations at the U of T... ugh... they were cheap, which I am proud of Matt for getting, but also a mix between depressing and scary, I am scared to go to the bathroom alone, less some B horror film should come to life here. Anyways, it's not tooooo bad, and like i said, it's cheap. We wandered down Spadina, through Chinatown, to find Queen St, and head over to Smokeless Joe's, a bar with over 250 beers, the most in Toronto, on John St. After sampling some French, Canadian, and American beers, we had supper at a Korean/Japanese place on Queen. It was darn good, then we called it a night.

5 Aug --We got up early to a Res breakfast here at Wilson Hall, then made quick work to get downtown to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Front St. It was everything I had wanted it to be! We saw displays on inductees, the Canadiens dressing room, displays on other hockey leagues, got to play forwards and goalies, got to see broadcast booths, played trivia, and of course saw all of the NHL trophies. Like I said, since it is the coolest game on earth, it was an awesome place to visit, despite being in the same city as those despised Maple Leafs, ugh. We then treked over to the St. Lawrence Market, a farmer's market in downtown, which was pretty cool, we were going to get some supplies for lunch and breakfast tomorrrow, but to no avail, it was hard to find peanut butter! Then we headed back over towards the CN tower and the SkyDome thinking that we might want to catch a Blue Jays game. The Jays are stinking though, so instead we headed over towards the waterfront, and got ourselves a drink, and a much needed sitting down. Then it was back up Yonge St (pronounced Young... I know, it makes NOOOOO sense....), and over on Queen, where we eventually met up with some of Matt's law school buddies, Robin and Eric, and ended up getting supper and having a few pints. Good times, they are nice people. We're now back in res and about to head to bed to get up bright and early to catch our train over to Winnipeg in the morn.

I have tried to keep this one a little shorter (hope I succeded!) Thanks for the comments so far... hard to believe we're only 6 days into this thing!!!

Ottawa, Day 2

Aug 1 -- (Continued) To cool off we hit the pool, which was nice, but a bit chloriney, but nice. Definitely hit the spot after such a hottttttt day. After we headed over to the Byward Market for supper at a little Vietnamese restaurant, Café Indochine, where I had the steamed salmon and a spring roll and pineapple sour soup to start. Everything was really good and we finished off with an iced coffee. Then we walked past the American Embassy and around the back of the Chateau Laurier to see the Rideau canal by night. Then we came back to get an early and good night's sleep.

Aug 2 --We started the day at about 9am, and headed over towards parliament. En route we saw a little of the changing of the guard, and tons of people gathered around to watch, we broke away to see if we could get a tour of parliament. Turns out the ceremony happens everyday anyway! On the tour we saw the House of Commons, the Senate, and the lovely library, which is newly opened. In the House there are stained glass windows with the flowers representing each province. The door between the Library and rest of Parliament is iron, which prevented the fire in 1918(or 19?) from spreading from the main building to the library and destroying the collection. Clever, eh? The decorations inside Parliament is really nice, and there are lots of stone carvings often representing all of the different provinces.

After we walked around for a long time looking for some place to eat lunch, we finally settled on Eggspectation. Then it was off to the Supreme Court, where we were the only ones on our tour. We got to see the Federal Court and Supreme Court, which apparently looks bigger on TV. There is a former justice who looks very much like Peter Mansbridge (a CBC anchorman), and the first woman on the supreme court went to Dalhousie! Perhaps Matt was inspired. To round out our day in the nation's capital, we headed over to the War Museum. There was a special exhibit was on the Seven Years War. The museum was very interesting and informative, though it seemed like the exhibits never went into how the various wars were resolved. There was also a large hall with many tanks and other vehicles on display including the Panzer and a UN peacekeeping truck.

We returned to the hotel to give our feet a break before dinner and cool off with another swim in the pool. We picked out an Italian restaurant in the Byward market called Mamma Grazzi's. It was pretty good, I was satisfied with my caprese salad and Matt and I shared a pizza. Rain had been predicted for the day, and though it had rained whilst we were swimming it stopped en route to the restaurant. Unfortunately when we left, it was absolutely pouring and we had to get our feet totally soaked on the sidewalk, and though we thought to bring an umbrella our clothes were pretty wet as well. Humph.

Now we're back safe at the hotel, and can hear the rain still pouring outside. Matt is commenting incessantly about my writing, and has compared it to the parliament, where I am the House of Commons preparing a bill/blog, and he is the Senate correcting and approving. What a good analogy! Tomorrow we're off to Toronto! and I shall try to add some pictures soon.

All aboard...and on to Ottawa!

31 July -- The trip has commenced! Getting our tickets in Halifax was no problem and the attendant did not bat an eye at my name misspelling, so I felt no need to mention it as well. We did this at 9am to be sure all was in order, after popping over to the Trident Café on Hollis Street for coffee and a cinnamon bun. It's a cute café and used book store.

We were back at the station at 11ish, and Barbara and Al saw us off, giving us lots of food goodies for the trip. Matt scaled this down to a more reasonable amount to bring. We boarded at about 12:10, and were off on time. Matt and I chose opposing seats, and I thought I had made a bad decision as I was facing backwards and feeling slightly trainsick as the trees whizzed by the train. Leaving Halifax we got nice views of the Bedford Basin, and tried to wave to Matt's parent's house. Hours later, after Bathurst, NB, there are views of the Bay de Chaleur, and at this time of day the sunsets are most lovely. Looking west over the mountains on the Gaspe the sky was like a pale watercolor rainbow, quite beautiful. I love sunsets, and over the St Lawrence are some of the nicest ones I have seen. It's unfortunate we don't leave Halifax a bit earlier to catch these, but that would put us into Montreal too early.

We're stuck in Cambellton, NB, now for awhile, for no aparent reason. We're supposed to meet the Chaleur train in Matapedia and delay even more there... The bridge to Quebec is big and green and lit up. I am optimistic about sleeping as our seats recline pretty far, and I am getting tired (at about 10pm). The blankets they gave us are subpar, quite thin and small, though. No sleep for the next 7 miles whence we go through our first tunnel (only 45m long though)!

1 Aug -- To sleep perchance to dream, and dream I did about our train going through some sort of pirate amusement park. and the train split between Matt and I and we went down different paths, and all the while I was quite keen with my camera, documenting our adventure. That sleep was short and often broken though, I would estimate I slept between 3 and 5 hours. We had an interesting simpleton family with a baby sitting beside us... and therefore lots of crying through the night. And the train seats though sort of comfy, aren't that comfy for sleeping. humph.

Due to the delay at Matapedia (the Chaleur was late coming in and then had problems hooking up i guess), we were already about 1.5 hrs behind at Charny (near Quebec city) and then about 2hrs behind when we finally reached Montreal. We came over the Victoria Bridge, and it was nice coming into a familiar city. The train turned west towards St. Henri, then backed up and we went in the reverse direction into the train station downtown. People with connections to Ottawa had missed their train, and a bus was being arranged for them. Back in Halifax we had checked our bags to go to said missed train, so we tried to figure out how to get our bag back to check in Montreal, but the half the VIA people we talked to were rude and unhelpful. Eventually we got outside at the bus... ugh.. a gray and humid, heavy day in Montreal, not so desirable to stay there. Since there was room on the bus, and we were worried about future train delays, we hopped on that bus to Ottawa! Our first spontaneous change in our North American adventure!

The bus took 2.5 hours, and brought us in to the capital of Canada, which awaited us at the balmy temperature of 104F/44C degrees, or so the bus driver said.. ahhh!!! too hot! We found a cab, and popped on over to the hotel here. The heat here is quite oppressive, when one is used to Maine and the Maritimes. Thus, our afternoon has consisted of going to the Rideau Centre to eat lunch, find Matt some sandals, and pick up some much needed Tylenol and ear plugs. We're plotting invading the swimming pool sometime soon, then going out for dinner when perchance it will have cooled down. Right now weather.ca says Ottawa is 36C, and 48C with the humidex. We're seeing on TV that Chicago is 107F, so this will be good preparation for the heat. And we'll have a break in Churchill, where it is 8C now!! haha! More on Ottawa and our sight seeing to come tomorrow. Stay cool everyone!

Troubles with Amtrak

I received our 2 North American Rail Passes around the 14th of July and, since I was away, opened them up on the 16th of July, and lo and behold, they were for the wrong dates, saying they were valid for travel not before 17 August 2006 and not after 19 September 2006. Unfortunately, the 17th of August is when we start travel on Amtrak, but not when we start travel on the train trip, and therefore need to use our passes. After making numerous phonecalls to both Amtrak and VIA on Sunday and Monday, it was determined that I could exchange them at Halifax for correct passes before we began. About 2 minutes before we were out the door on Monday to go to Ireland via Boston, someone from Amtrak called and said that exchanging at Halifax was actually not okay, and that I needed to exchange them with Amtrak. Unfortunately the closest Amtrak station is in Portland, and so I would have to FedEx the passes back to them so they could issue new ones. I wrote them a letter explaining the problem, enclosed all the passes and tickets as instructed, and Pa took care of FedExing them.

I arrived back from Ireland yesterday to discover my package from Amtrak with my new, correct passes! ... or so I thought. I opened Matt's and the pass was correct, and the tickets were correct, though for some reason there was an extra ticket from NYC to Trenton, NJ on 31 July. Then I looked at my pass, and my freaking last name is misspelled, printed twice on every ticket and three times in the pass. It also says twice on every ticket and three times on the pass that valid photo ID is required... too bad the name on my ID and tickets/pass won't match up!

So I have called them this morning to find out what to do... and a supervisor is supposed to call me back today. I think Amtrak can probably make some note in my reservations that this is wrong, but I think the problem might be with VIA accepting it. And I am due to travel in 6 days! Egad...

More Amtrak troubles: All Aboard? and Behind the Scenes:
The Making of 'Amtrak: All Aboard?', Repairing the Rails (or not) , CNN transcript from a train delay ... oh the horror! And some jokes at Amtrak's expense, inlcuding:

Due to recent cutbacks,the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Ouch.

Update: Amtrak has called backed and said it is okay! They have also contacted VIA and said it should work out with them as well. Phew!

Ireland 2006 -- Part 1

Mon, Jul 17 -- Our flight to Shannon, which was supposed to leave at 9:20pm, was already delayed til 10:20 whence we arrived at Logan at 6ish, and another hour later was delayed more til 11:20. Finally we boarded at 12:15, after someone was hauled off the previous flight on a stretcher (eek!) and they thoroughly searched the plane for contraband. Our flight was bumpy and cramped, and we all tried to sleep the best we could. I think my seat had extra troubles and was jerking back everytime i shifted, i presume much to the dismay of the person behind me. I had on my sunglasses to aid in my sleeping attempts and another woman in the row behind me said to me "You really do look cute in your big dark glasses. They hide a multitude of sins." ?! What did she mean by that? Perhaps she saw all my seat manouvering attacking her rowmate? Soon enough we landed in Shannon.

Tues, Jul 18 -- Customs was easy and we were soon on our way to get the car, a Toyota Avensis, a model we don't have in North America. Lots of cars were normal sized, even some SUVs, not the sterotypical Euro midget cars. Momo drove perfectly to Limerick/Luimneach where we lunched at Mojo on and walked around. We saw St Mary's Cathedral, built in 1168. The river Shannon runs through the city and we got to see some swans floating by.

Onwards to Cork/Corcaigh! Since our flight was delayed, we didn't get to Ireland til noonish, so decided to skip Bunratty, though we saw it from the road, and continue on. In Cork we managed to find our B&B, the Gabriel House, up a long hill, then down a steep curving driveway to an impossibly sloped car park. We all napped, walked into Cork and dined at The Red Pepper on N. Main St., then returned home. En route, walking up the steep hill, an Irish lad started talking to us, asking where we were from, etc. I did most of the answering and he asked "are you getting married?" I replied "No, not soon anyway." then "do you want to?" ha! an interesting encounter... He bid us farewell and a good vacation in Ireland and gave us all a good chuckle for the night.

Weds, 19 July -- In the morn, we set off for Blarney/An Bhlárna and the fabled Blarney castle and stone -- supposed to grant the gift of the gab. I remember reading about this in Richard Scarry's Busy Busy World from my youth! We got there about 10am, and already tourists were piling in. As we approached the castle, we got stuck amongst a tour group of school kids, much to my chagrin. Turns out they were from Maine and were touring Ireland, Scotland and Wales, there was even a chaperone from Bangor! Inside the castle we went up 127, mostly winding, narrow, claustrophobic, slippery stairs with 1 rope railing to hold on for stability. After coming out at the top I think all of us were shaking like leaves. And the Blarney Stone was right around the corner, barely any time to compose and prepare! I was the first to go, nervous to slide myself back, and gripping the man who is stationed there to keep you from falling.

I kissed it twice quickly, once for me and once for Pa, hoping the man wasn't going to drop me over if that wasn't allowed. Then Mum went, and Momo went, and KK opted out, but took all of our pictures. Then it was back down a kinder staircase to the bottom. We walked around Blarney Mansion, and the grounds with a Rock Close, Druid sacrificial altar, bamboo-looking plants, and of course, palm trees.

Then it was off and around Cork to the east. We got to Youghal, pronouced Yawl/Y'all, and walked around, got picnic items, and saw kids jumping off a diving board on rocks into the ocean.

Then it was off to Ardmore where there was a beach and we picnicked on a bench nearby. The weather grew greyer and even sprinkled, so we just walked along the beach which was warmer than the ocean in Maine, and had lots of beached jellyfish! They looked like giant irises (of the eyeball kind) Momo picked up many of them, I was just brave enough to poke one. We also walked around Ardmore's Round Tower, which was like a round obelisk which monks built back around 1100 with a door way only about a third of the way up to protect it from attack.

There was a cemetary around the tower with lots of nice Celtic crosses, and a ruined church building as well. Later we drove back west to Cobh, pronouced "cove", where the rescue crew went out to help the sinking Lusitania and the last port of call before the Titanic set sail for America. It was a very quaint town. We walked up to the large gorgeous church on a hill overlooking Cork Harbour. Unfortunately we did not get to go inside for long, as they were preparing for a wake for a recently murdered Cork girl who had just moved to Cobh. We proceeded back down to the center of town, and saw people fishing on the docks, catching 1-5 mackerel at a time. They were flopping around on the docks, much to some of our amusements. We dined at The Quay in Cobh, a lovely place looking into the harbour. Goat cheese balls and ciabatta to start, and I had a lamb burger and a pint of Guinness for supper. Delicious! Back to the docks on the other side of the restaurant we saw a statue of the first Irish immigrant to go to America, Emily something, and more mackerel being caught by a ~10 yr old red headed, freckled, so cute! little girl and her dad. KK picked up the fish for fun, and the girl told us that we might not want to watch whilst her dad took care of cracking the mackerels' necks. Then a boy, who could have been Momo's son with his red hair and freckles, tried to sell us some fish, perhaps we could take it back to the hotel? they could prepare it for us? We left the mackerel in Cobh and headed back to Cork.

Thurs, 20 July --We got up early, broke fast at the B&B with the usual of muselix, porridge, eggs, toasts, no black & white puddings yet. Then we headed west for the Ring of Kerry. First stop was Killarney/Cill Airne, which was a town the size of Skowhegan, but very touristy. Mum and I sung what we could remember of Bing Crosby's Christmas in Killarney (and all the folks are home...!) Onwards we stopped at a bog village near Glenbeigh where peat harvesting goes on. There we saw traditional houses set up with thatched roofs, and harvested peat which smelled...interesting.

Continuing along, we drove through the Coomakista pass where fog rolled in, there was a statue of Mary, and you could see fences for the sheep going all the way to the top of the surrouding hills. We lunched in Waterville and walked along the rocky beach there. Along the southern edge we drove a very narrow road to the Staigue Fort, built around 100 BC, and KK and I cautiously traversed the surrounding field in attempt to get close to the sheep.

Ice cream was had by all in Sneem, and KK and I had some weird Irish coffee, or perhaps Bailey's Irish Cream flavour. Finally ending the ring of Kerry, we headed inland towards the Killarney National Park, but not before seeing sheep crossing the road near the Avoca Café. In KNP we stopped at the Lady's View, where the Queen's ladies liked to stop as well. There is a nice view of the lakes there, and in the opposite direction mountains (and clouds).

We got some exercise at the Torc Waterfall, cause Fodor's said there was a nice view to be had if we went a little further than first sight of the waterfall. We went up 242 steps, and continued on an uphill gravel path for a long while, and ending up turning around, never finding said view. Alas. Finally, we noshed in Killarney at a traditional Irish restaurant. Mum and I had Guinness again, and Irish stew, shepard's pie, and salmon, along with too many potatoes were had. Then it was back to Cork for the night.

Links: Here is a nice little tour around the Ring of Kerry. Megalithomania! includes Staigue Fort. Avoca, the café, woven products, fashion and interiors store, etc, has a swanky little website. And finally a different version of Christmas in Killarney by, who else, a band from Nova Scotia!

tips for traveling on amtrak

part of tip 7:

never try to exit the train while it is moving.

Required reading

Herein, I think, is the chief attraction of railway travel. The speed is so easy, and the train disturbs so little the scenes through which it takes us, that our heart becomes full of the placidity and stillness of the country; and while the body is being borne forward in the flying chain of carriages, the thoughts alight, as the humour moves them, at unfrequented stations... -Robert Louis Stevenson

This was found in The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux, which contains many more train musings which i have read, and said I should write that down, but i couldn't stop reading, and have consequently lost those musings til a reread. This book is my preparation for my own cross continental railway journey, and thus far (from London to Bombay) is quite enjoyable. It has warned me not to be Dufilled (a term for a passenger whose train leaves with his luggage onboard but without him, one of the characters Theroux meets in Europe). The price of train travel seems to have changed dramatically (this book was published in 1975), though like with the musings, i am at a loss for exact numbers (i should keep post-its handy whilst reading). In any case it seemed cheap for traveling first class which includes sleeping accomodations and meals, though that could be because of the time and area. It was interesting reading about him traveling from Turkey to Iran to Afghanistan to Pakistan. Unfortunately, I think it was probably a much different, and probably more accessible, trip 30 years ago then it would be today. Theroux remarked that he had thought Amtrak was the worst railway in the world, but even it served hamburgers which was better than some of the food (or lack thereof) on the trains he has riden thus far. I hope my journey on Amtrak does not confirm his opinion, though whence i ride I shall only have VIARail to compare it to. And Theroux seems to be quite the worldwide train traveller, with The Old Patagonian Express going through the Americas, and Riding the Iron Rooster through China (which I have also acquired), and Dark Star Safari which involves some train and lots of other transportation from Cairo to Cape Town. I commence my own Railway Bazaar in 16 days. Before that I am off to the Emerald Isle in 2 days though!

Some trivia: Theroux was 34 when The Great Railway Bazaar was published. He went to UMass Amherst. He was in the Peace Corps in Malawi but got expelled for political reasons. Some of his fiction books have been controversial, supposedly involving people he knows, such as Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange. Theroux currently lives in Hawaii and keeps bees.