Via Amtrak? Or Am-not-trak?

Okay, so I didn't learn my lesson and decided that before things got hectic for both my friend and myself, I'd take a trip up to Montreal to visit her. Yes, Montreal, Canada.... Although a flight to Montreal takes about an hour and forty minutes max, the cost is the same as flying home to Los Angeles from New York. So, in the interest of saving money (a round-trip student fare from New York Penn Station to La Gare Centrale - Central Station - in Montreal, Quebec is a whopping $100 and change), I decided that although the train-ride is 10 hours long, I would do it since I had tons of reading to do for school.

So I awoke (or didn't really sleep actually) at 4:30 a.m. to make sure I was on the 5:59 a.m. train (at the latest) out of Port Jefferson into Penn Station. When I got to Penn Station in New York, I started to panic when my reservation # would not bring up a reservation for me on the Self-Ticketing Machine. Oh boy.....I HAD confirmed at home, but what was going on?!? I was cursed!! I went to the Amtrak counter which had a long line. I kept flipping my phone while in line, afraid that I'd miss my train to Montreal (and there was no LATER train at all.....just one, and that was it). Well, I wasn't cursed. The guy at the Amtrak counter said that I was missing a letter in my reservation code which was why it didn't show up. Whew!!!

And for the next trick..... I had to find the Track # that the train was departing from, but first of all, I had to "check in" with some lady at a podium (so the guest services guy told me). And what do you know? I finally found her, but she was sorting out the line between those that needed to "check-in" and those that were OK to go. Hey!! How am I supposed to cross over from checking-in to OK-to-go??? I tried to sneak into the line, playing dumb, and was sent right back out to the side. There was a guy who was sent to wait at the "podium" too and he was mumbling about how ridiculous the whole procedure was. I couldn't have agreed more. I can't tell you how agonizing it is to watch all these people board the train before you and wonder if there was going to be a good seat left for you. After all, this was a first come first serve boarding - no reserved seats. Yah....agonizing....bitterly agonizing.....with me kicking myself for not catching the 5:45 a.m. train out of Port Jefferson which would have gotten me into Penn Station a whole half hour earlier. And above all, I had no idea why there were TWO ladies attending to the boarding line, almost redundantly checking the tickets while there were those of us just standing there waiting to have our IDs checked and our tickets stamped (that's what was supposed to happen I guess, as I later got a big "CANADA" stamped on my ticket).

I got on the train with about 10 minutes to spare. And fortunately, it was not that full to where I couldn't find a row all to myself. . . or so I thought until a lady sat next to me. I had no idea why because there was a row opposite me (albeit it was facing me) that was empty. I began to grumble to myself. No, I was not a happy camper. I needed some sleep.

The train ride itself was okay. The scenery was so beautiful that I soon forgot I had been grumbling and tired. The rocking motion of the train did not allow me to stay awake long, and about an hour and a half after our departure, I dozed off. Reading? Eh? What reading? I had the hardest time focusing on my reading, although I did valiantly attempt some. But most of the time I was either 1) sleeping, 2) snacking, and 3) enjoying the scenery. The scenery while passing through the Adirondacks was absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking! I was very happy I had decided to take the train.

My happiness waned when the Canadian customs officers boarded the train. They were pretty serious and seemed real hard core. I heard some guy given the 3rd degree because he did not apparently have enough official documents to prove he was really who he was (he had done a name change so it sounded like all the documents he had did not have the same name on them all). I almost felt bad for the poor guy as the officer stated she'd have to call the US authorities - and she did! He was allowed to continue, but she told him he'd have just as hard of a time when he returned. Oh boy.

Anyway, I don't even remember what time I arrived in Montreal. I believe it was about 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. (I was supposed to be there at about 6:30 p.m.) All I knew that I was very glad to be off the train and very hungry. My stay in Montreal deserves another blog entry. This one is simply about the train ride.

Suffice to say my train ride back was fairly uneventful, although I did make sure that I was at the train station much earlier for my ride back. I almost laughed when I saw the same guy who had mumbled about the ridiculous procedure at Penn Station standing at the front of the line that was forming that morning. I guess both of us had learned THAT lesson. Of course it took an hour at the border, but was not too bad. I got a lot of reading done on my way back, but also couldn't resist napping. The rocking motion of the train is so conducive to napping! Again, the scenery was gorgeous! Some trees were already trading their greenery for reds and yellows. The above picture was taken while going through the Adirondacks. There was a massive body of water that was just absolutely inviting (for pictures and for swimming). :)

So all in all, I got home at almost 1 a.m. having missed the 9:39 p.m. connecting train to Long Island from Penn Station and waiting for the 10:43 p.m. train.... I was exhausted when I got home, and thought about a conversation I had with a lady on the train as we were seemingly inching towards New York City. She said it was nice to do it once, but she'd rather drive or even fly than take the train again. I think I agree with her. It's great to do it once, and to the unsuspecting soul, the thought of it is great - but in reality, it's tough to spend that amount of time on a train. The car, I heard, can do it in less than 7 hours with no traffic. That's like driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco..... Very do-able when it's not winter.... I don't think I'll be doing any traveling for a while now. This trip to Montreal really did me in.....at least as far as trains are concerned. Heh heh.