Bored on Amtrak
I am ambivalent about this whole train travelling across the States method. To begin with, my initial trip was horrible and very confusing/depressing, but with careful study of Amtrak and their shitty ways, along with my own preparations, I've found that spending 48 hours on a train to go from Dallas to Providence isn't actually that bad.
Music keeps me sane. Tylenol PM is my friend, and electricity is my god. Let's recap.
I took a train from Dallas to Chicago. 22 hours of fun. I was very sleepy and worn out from lots of drinking and not much sleeping in Dallas so I put on some headphones and slept through all of this trip. The train station at Chicago is actually organized, unlike the hellhole in LA where you are just supposed to interview everybody standing in each line and figure out which line you need, and the station at Chicago announces arrivals and departures, as well as has a tele-prompter that tells you which gate/train you need to get on. Hurray. Finding my next train, which brings me to Washington DC was rather painless. All aboard.
My train to DC was not as pleasant. It was about 15 hours total and we bounced all around the fun states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and then finally arrived in DC. This was the first train I have been on where they actually had a smoking lounge and despite heavy temptation and a bit of stress, I did not smoke. I'm so proud.
The train station in DC is very much like the one in Chicago except I would say that it's even easier to find one's way around. Oh yeah, except, the station at DC is fucking huge!!!!!! I was scheduled to leave DC at 4:05 pm however, since we arrived at 12:30 pm and I noticed an early departing train, I did some quick moving and got my ass on it. I'm sititng here on this train using my laptop because apparently the smaller trains have an electricity feed in every seat. The ride has been very pleasant (well except when we were going through Jersey...) and in no time, I'm going to be in Providence where my family is very excitedly awaiting me. For now, I am very thankful I still have all 13 episodes of Hellsing on my computer and free electricity to watch almost all of them. :)
Lessons learned.
Train food fucking sucks. NEVER EVER GET A SALAMI SANWHICH ON A TRAIN!
Train food is expensive. $45 I spent on train food and it was probably worth about $10 in the real world.
Trains give you waaaaay too much time to think. Sometimes it's a bad thing, especially if you overanalyze everything like me.
Oh Brother Where Art Thou CD is probably the #1 stress reducer when annoying girls behind you want to talk loudly about their crappy love lives in the middle of the night.
Sometimes, weird one-eyed guys who sit next to you actually have two eyes. One eye might just be very lazy. ;)
I miss my home and my friends.
Music keeps me sane. Tylenol PM is my friend, and electricity is my god. Let's recap.
I took a train from Dallas to Chicago. 22 hours of fun. I was very sleepy and worn out from lots of drinking and not much sleeping in Dallas so I put on some headphones and slept through all of this trip. The train station at Chicago is actually organized, unlike the hellhole in LA where you are just supposed to interview everybody standing in each line and figure out which line you need, and the station at Chicago announces arrivals and departures, as well as has a tele-prompter that tells you which gate/train you need to get on. Hurray. Finding my next train, which brings me to Washington DC was rather painless. All aboard.
My train to DC was not as pleasant. It was about 15 hours total and we bounced all around the fun states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and then finally arrived in DC. This was the first train I have been on where they actually had a smoking lounge and despite heavy temptation and a bit of stress, I did not smoke. I'm so proud.
The train station in DC is very much like the one in Chicago except I would say that it's even easier to find one's way around. Oh yeah, except, the station at DC is fucking huge!!!!!! I was scheduled to leave DC at 4:05 pm however, since we arrived at 12:30 pm and I noticed an early departing train, I did some quick moving and got my ass on it. I'm sititng here on this train using my laptop because apparently the smaller trains have an electricity feed in every seat. The ride has been very pleasant (well except when we were going through Jersey...) and in no time, I'm going to be in Providence where my family is very excitedly awaiting me. For now, I am very thankful I still have all 13 episodes of Hellsing on my computer and free electricity to watch almost all of them. :)
Lessons learned.
Train food fucking sucks. NEVER EVER GET A SALAMI SANWHICH ON A TRAIN!
Train food is expensive. $45 I spent on train food and it was probably worth about $10 in the real world.
Trains give you waaaaay too much time to think. Sometimes it's a bad thing, especially if you overanalyze everything like me.
Oh Brother Where Art Thou CD is probably the #1 stress reducer when annoying girls behind you want to talk loudly about their crappy love lives in the middle of the night.
Sometimes, weird one-eyed guys who sit next to you actually have two eyes. One eye might just be very lazy. ;)
I miss my home and my friends.