Olivia Sutton's Fanfic Journal

Train Travel

"Have you ever been on a train?", and my answer is "yes, in four countries". Well, I thought that would be a good topic for a blog entry, so here it goes.

FACT 1: I love traveling. I really do. Only by traveling can you have truly different experiences, meet new people, and really find out how the world works. If you never leave your home town, you just can't do that.
FACT 2: I don't mind flying, I really don't (although the new regulations suck), but I hate airports. I'm extremely claustrophobic, and airports tend to hit my claustrophobia and make it sky high. I got searched for that in Ireland, so... not the best combination. But airports, like O'Hare, especially, are dark, cramped, have few windows, and have you ever noticed -- there are no exits once you get into your flight area. Freaks me right out. But once I get on the plane, I'm absolutely fine. Relaxed. Even excited to be off on a new adventure.
FACT 3: Trains are GREAT! I've traveled by train in four countries and every single time it was a great experience, even when I got lost or went the wrong way.
Here's some great train trips!

Summer, 1987, Chicago to San Francisco (Amtrak, California Zephyr)
My graduation present from my folks was this trip. Mom and I went first class, with a sleeper car. This meant we had our own compartment (with our own porter) and the seats folded down into a flat bed at night. The second bed folded down from the ceiling. So, at night you had a traveling hotel room, and during the day you had a private compartment. The trip also included gourmet meals in the dining car, and a welcome aboard basket of fruit, cheese, and wine (couldn't have the wine, darn it). I spent most of my trip in the observation car. It was GORGEOUS!!!! Everyone, and I do mean, everyone should take a train trip across the US once in their lives. This particular train went through gorgeous red rock canyons, some of which you can only see by train. Way cool!
The return trip was on the Empire Builder across the Northern US, and not quite as pretty - just lots of green. And it was dark when we went through the Rockies.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada Subway, Various trips (late 90s)
Toronto has only two subway lines, the yellow line (which has two branches forming a "Y" before hitting the main yellow line) and the Green line. The Yellow one goes North/South, the Green one goes East/West. Easy-peasy. I sorta' wished I'd used this one PRIOR to the Tube in London, UK, but still.
Every time I go to Toronto, I try to get a hotel on the West side (near us) with free or included parking, and I leave my car there. I then walk to the subway and take that into Toronto. You do NOT want to drive in downtown Toronto. I've done it, but not fun, and parking is a nightmare. Besides, in the summer, the city is a beautiful place to walk -- and the weather is very nice (not as hot as say, Chicago). I've not really been to Toronto in winter, but I know they have "Underground Toronto", "PATH", and various skywalks -- between the three systems you can get pretty far without going outside. Anyway, the subway is the easiest way to get into the city, and to get around quickly from point-to-point. And, yes, like most subway systems, as long as you don't leave the station, you can switch to another line or even go in the opposite direction. (Just don't try to jump across the platforms. Ouch.)
London, England, UK, Spring 1988
The London Tube. The Underground. Color-coded maps that look like a plate of spaghetti. The London Underground actually got it's start in the Victorian age (1800s) and some of those really old lines still exist. And in some of the biggest stations, like King's Cross, all those lines not only cross but are stacked with the oldest (like the Metropolitan, if I'm not mistaken) the furthest down. BUT, with all that, it's still fairly easy to get around (the color-coding helps), and if you do get lost - remember the Golden Rule of subway travel - Do Not Leave the Station. As long as you stay in the Station you can catch a different train and fix your mistake. Trust me, I have done this.  Twice, I think.

I was in London on a college art history trip -- and I really wish I had had more time on my own.  I really only had part of a single day to myself, and didn't get to see a lot of the stuff that I wanted to see.

Still, you know, it was London, so like, awesome!

Ireland,  October 2001

A friend and I booked a one-week vacation in Ireland.  We stayed (with a tour group, who turned out to be retirees from Wisconsin, but that's another story) in the middle of nowhere.  OK, it was County Meath, but trust me -- middle-of-nowhere.  Our first couple of days we did the extra-cost package tours that the package tour recommended.  By bus.  Let me tell you - even with a tour guide, you do not want to take buses in Ireland.  Unless you enjoy car sickness.  But anyway, after a couple of days of that we wised-up and started to take the train.  So we went to Galway one day by train, and Dublin the other day by train.  (Where we were staying was about half-way between the two.  To give you an idea, it's like Galway was Grand Haven, Detroit was Dublin, and we stayed in Lansing.)  The trains were again very easy to use.  Also, really, really fast.  The train to Dublin, especially, which was fairly full of commuters with laptops and mobile phones was fast, efficient, and real easy to understand and use.  Once we got to Galway we just walked around the tourist section of town (our second day there, we'd gotten there the first day by bus).  We also walked all over Dublin, though' if I went back I'd look into trying out their public transport - whatever they have.  Great things to do in Dublin:  See the illuminated manuscripts, including The Book of Kells, in the Trinity College library (It was great!  Very pretty.  The only problem was, it was Rush Week for the college, and my friend and I were wearing backpacks to hold our stuff - so the students thought we were students and kept trying to get us to join every organization and sports team on campus.  But still -- the library, museum, and manuscripts themselves, all really neat and definitely worth it.  Have High Tea in Grafton Street.  We found a store that was three different restaurants and a tea & chocolate shop (and I'll tell you -- those chocolates were incredible, and the tea was great too).  My friend and I found this place on the first day in Dublin, and we were a little hungry, so we thought we'd get tea and a little cake or something.  We both ordered tea.  The waiter said, "tea for two then?" and we nodded, and I was thinking, "uh, yeah, there's two of us".  Well, it turned out we got TEA - as in a meal.  Not only a teapot with at least 10-12 cups of really good tea, but one of those little multi-level server things filled with tiny sandwiches, cream puffs, fruit things, chocolate yummy pastry things, and tons of other food that I couldn't even describe.  We'd discovered - TEA - The Meal.  Gosh, was it good.  We couldn't eat it all.  Went back the next day -- still couldn't eat it all.  And not that expensive.

Finally, go to the St. Stephen's Green in Dublin (near Grafton Street), but it was like Central Park in New York, I guess.  The thing is - the minute you got in the park it was totally quiet, no car horns, or traffic noise - just birds and stuff.  There was all sorts of historic monuments, which were cool to look at, if a bit sad.  There was a big duck pond with a bunch of confused-looking Mallards (My friend kept wondering what they were doing there) and other ducks.  There were flower gardens and all sort of stuff.  We only went in the park once, but it was way cool and I'd love to go there again.

Finally, in terms of shopping, the one place we went, again, twice, besides a lot of really good candy and chocolate shops, and various bookstores, was Forbidden Planet - the SF bookstore chain of the UK and Ireland.  Great place.

So anyway, I like traveling, and I like train travel.  I've also done short hops in and around Chicago (yep, been on the "L" but only with a native guide).

--Olivia