It is my spring break this week - it's been pretty wild. Highlights: buying a fantasy baseball magazine & going to the beach, only to find it overcast for the hour I was there, then having to leave right as the sun came out. Fun fun fun! Also, I'm growing a mustache, which is undermining the little self-confidence I possess.
Anyways, since I don't have much to blog about, I thought I'd write about my trip last spring break. I for some reason decided I wanted to visit the state of Washington, but that I wanted to waste a day and a half of my life on a train. I got the idea from a random email that offered a card that cost $20 but saved you $15 if you bought an Amtrak ticket, so you only had to save $5 more to break even. Of course, I never used the card again, but I did get an interesting trip out of it.
I should note that I like trains, as much as you can like a form of transportation - I've ridden slick ICE Trains in Germany and sung Christmas carols on ghetto Russian passenger trains (responses: "Fuck off!" - a Merry Christmas to you too!). So I wanted to test out American trains and see what all the (lack of) fuss was about. I boarded in Seattle, and was pleased to be on the upper level (there's no real benefit like there is w/ a double-decker bus - it's just nice to be higher). I was pleased to be seated next to no one. This is because there's an interesting crowd who rides trains - it's a combination of people who live in towns where a train stop is closer than an airport and people who are legitimately afraid to fly. So it's not like I don't mind associating with men in flannel shirts and slightly paranoid people, but I do mind sharing a seat with them.
When we finally embarked, it was less epic than expected (it was more like a tiny jerk instead of a steam whistle signaling my departure as beautiful women chased the train down the platform until they could see my beautiful face no longer).
read two pages à realize I hadn't understood anything à go backà read those pages again more carefully à come to the same result
This pattern continued on and off for 35 hours, at which point I finally finished the book.
I do feel the need to convey how long 35 hours is, especially when you are indoors in a confined space for that long (there were short smoke breaks, but I was always too scared I’d wander off and miss the train, leading me to begin a new life as a fisherman in the port town we were stopped in). 35 hours is unbelievably long – the train left at 9am, and as I was getting ready to go to sleep at 9pm, I realized only a third of the trip had passed – even when I woke up at 9 the next morning, there was still a whole 12 hours left until we reached LA.
I associated with fellow passengers on this trip - the most interesting was definitely an Iraq War veteran I shared lunch with at a little cafe on the train. He was the only surviving member of his battalion, who were all on an armored vehicle that hit a land mine. He now received some sort of veteran's compensation for the rest of his life, and was taking the train to see some of his friends. I must say I felt humbled for what this kid had been through and witnessed already at such at a young age (he was only a couple years older than me).
I do recommend the trip, solely for the sights. The train traverses through some of the most beautiful terrain America has to offer. You go through the thick, lush forests of Oregon onto the wide pastures of Salinas Valley and down a beautiful stretch of untouched California beach front, all while passing through tiny little towns you'll never hear about in the newspaper. It's really breathtaking - it feels like you have a front-row seat to a TV screen that is continuously broadcasting unedited scenes from the Planet Earth series.
Next time you have 35 hours to spare, this is a worthwhile way to spend it.
