This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…
Vancouver, B.C
Maybe we’d got cocky. Five weeks of hassle-free Amtrak voyaging, it had to go wrong somewhere. The fact it was our last journey of the trip just made it seem like fate. Up until now, we’d sorted out all our trips in advance and had all our tickets in hand. We’d deliberately left the last few days of the trip vague, in case we wanted to spend longer somewhere or missed a train etc. So, once we’d finalised our plans, I’d rung up Amtrak and booked our seats, all we had to do was pick them up at Seattle station. However we had not realised our plan would be foiled by a transvestite Amtrak assistant called Jessica.
She was really trying to be helpful, but had no idea how to print off our tickets. Time was ticking on, but still Jessica was having no joy, even when she called over her supervisor. Meanwhile, the Amtrak conductors were harassing Martina to get on the train. (Why they had to leave on time beats me, nine hours late into LA didn’t seem a problem to Amtrak). As the conductors were getting impatient and blowing the final whistle I just grabbed my credit card and passes and we jumped onto the train. Luckily the train conductors were charmed by our youthful looks and warm British accents and ignored the fact we had no ticket.
The journey back into Canada was short and without the immigration nightmare of entering Toronto. The nightmare only started when we found our hostel.
After the extravagance of our Seattle hotel, I’d opted for the most budget option for our Vancouver accommodation. That left us with the American Backpackers Hostel on West Pender Street. On entering the hostel, we were greeted with signs above the clerk’s desk saying:
“No sexx in rooms. Use the sexx room instead”
“Recommend us to friends, get $5 discount.” Read the rest of this entry »
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We waved goodbye to our VIA Canada train as we jumped off on the Canadian side of the falls. We hadn’t chosen that side for any reason, it just seemed simpler to get to from Toronto.
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