Hi folks, my name's Al. I've taken up residence on Alex's travel blog as I made the decision to spend my inheritance on travelling the world for a few months, and I'll document my exploits from time to time as I go. Sometimes I'll be travelling alone, sometimes with friends, and sometimes just crashing at somebody's flat (cough Alex and Lachy cough) - it's going to be interesting, as I'm not one to often leave my comfort zone. My journey starts with a tour of the US, followed by some time in Fiji, a few weeks in Australia, and ends with a brief stint in New Zealand. Let's do this.
Part Three
Let's start with the big stuff, three words: Stephen King's house. He lives in Bangor, Maine, and we sat in the car outside his house at night like the creepy stalkers we are. I also took part in an American pub quiz, which they just call 'trivia' here, and lost pretty badly due to our lack of knowledge of American high school sports teams; I got lost in the forest on the University of Maine's campus like a true tourist; I got questioned by a jogger while I sat on a bench, as she apparently likes to check on the mental health of young people on their own (in case I'm contemplating crazy gun stuff, I guess); I tried fried dough covered in syrup and powdered sugar -delicious; and I had margaritas with Jack and Jess before heading back to Boston. I can't thank them enough for their hospitality, and I'll miss their dogs.
Back in Boston I visited the New England Aquarium, where I may have insulted the staff by saying one of the turtles looked sad. "Nope, just old and tired. We DO look after them," was pretty much her response. My ferry trip to Salem to learn about witch burning was cancelled due to stormy seas, so I went out to Fort Warren instead. It's basically a fortress built on a Boston harbour island to defend against the British and such, but the technological advancements in military vehicles made the place pretty much obsolete as soon as it was built. My tour around the place was just me and old people, and the guide took us into this pitch black hall to 'have fun with the acoustics'. What followed was all of us singing 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' in the dark, and this old bloke broke out into some song from the 1920s and we all listened as it echoed creepily. Weird.
I'll tell you though, it was nice sitting on this island, admiring the view of Boston from afar.
That night, my good friend Jonny arrived at the airport to join me on the remaining leg of my USA journey. The flight company lost his luggage, so we headed to Urban Outfitters to buy him new clothes until his bag caught up with us. We had dinner in Quincy Market, and a beer in the bar from Cheers (where everybody knows your name) to cope with the loss.
The next day things really started to go tits up. We boarded our train to Chicago, knowing we were in for a 21 hour long journey. I'd been told the fields of Ohio and Indiana we're going to be dull, but THAT dull? Oh god. The bit of the journey I wanted to see - Niagara Falls - was in total darkness when we passed, so that wasn't cool. Anyway, this is the slowest train I have ever been on. We were meant to arrive in Chicago at 9:45 this morning, it's currently 18:10 and we're still not there. That's over eight hours late, due to frigging freight trains hogging the tracks. Our train is like a polite person, letting all the big freight trains go past; we've spent more time stationary than we have moving. If I didn't have Jonny with me I'd be a lot more insane right now. Although he keeps singing lines from Frozen, and the conductor is pretty much ready to quit his job. They've told us they'll put us up in a hotel in Chicago seeing as we missed our connection to Seattle a long time ago, so that could be good. I feel like I've dragged Jonny out here, only to get him stranded in the arse-end of Indiana. Ah well, we're staying positive. We even wrote a poem to battle through the boredom. An actual poem, don't ask why.
This wouldn't happen in Britain. I'm sorry for all the times I doubted you, National Rail.
Okay, here we are, two days later. We're on another train, out in the plains of North Dakota, waiting for freight trains again. Amtrak is just bad in general, it seems. Our night in Chicago was needed, after a total delay of 11 hours; the hotel was swanky (even though it was in the dreaded South side of town) and we ordered takeaway sandwiches to eat in the room like kings. We had one day to wander round the city, admiring the amazing city centre, the impressive architecture of the buildings, and ride the ferris wheel down on the pier. I was gutted that the floating interactive zombie haunted house was closed, as I would have definitely dragged Jonny onto it. Chicago seems like a cool city, and it's sad we couldn't spend more time there, as the waffles and pancakes we ate were fantastic.
The current train is full of characters: like the sweaty fat biker who walks past every few minutes to choke us on his BO, and the cowboy with his red neckerchief and leather boots who's lost his disposable camera, or the young Amish guys with bowl haircuts. If we become stranded, it'd make a hell of TV drama as we all struggle to cooperate and survive. Plenty of fatties here to cook and eat if things do turn to cannibalism, though. We're going to take a break from eating crisps and trail mix, by having overpriced dinner in the dining cart later on. Jonny hates poor people too, so here's hoping it gives us a break from the riffraff. Anyway, this wonderful train service doesn't offer wifi, even though the journey is 48 hours long, so I'll post this when I get to Seattle.
Next week, Washington and Oregon. Stay tuned.
