Time to share a little bit about my itinerary, I guess. Day 1 was pretty rough. It included 2 flights, brief touring of vancouver, and the start of my first train ride. There is probably going to be a lot of talk about trains in this blog series, but for now I will simply say that train rides are long. Really, really long. 4 hours in and we're nowhere near even thinking of done and an entire gaggle of teenage girls has gotten on the car at the very next station. They are very loud and will be there for pretty much the entire trip. I'll be honest, As I was trying to find a way to fall asleep that first night in a seat only slightly more comfortable that coach class in an airplane, I was thinking that I had made a terrible mistake.
But then, when I woke up at 5:30 that morning I saw this out the window. Maybe the picture doesn't convey this (actually, I know it doesn't), but it was an incredible sight. Something about the pale blue of the light on the mountains combined with my delirium-inducingly bad night of sleep.
A thing I have to apologize for is that many of these pictures have slight reflections that I couldn't always avoid while taking pictures through the train window. Oh well, such are the issues one has to contend with when travel-blogging (or blog-traveling).
The train was traveling through the Canadian Rockies for pretty much the entirety of the first day, and the views didn't stop being incredible throughout. Here are a few highlights
Some waterfall was the first thing that was pointed out to us over the train's PA system.
One of these is the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies. It has some impossible to remember name like Mt. Thompson or Mt. Johnson or something.
View from the 'dome car', a very important feature of the train
We also passed by something that was called ‘boob lake’. I’m sure
that this was the name because the woman who announced it as we passed by had a
telling pause before she said it, as if to say ‘are they putting me on by
making me read this?’ Lac-boob in the French. Everything on the train is repeated in French. It's a little bit disonent with the setting. Like the Old West has suddenly collided with the French Countryside.
This is the town of Jasper, where we had our first stop. I spent my time here searching for a place to find a shower. No showers on the trains, at least not for the underclass (more on this later).
I realize this is mostly a photo blog today, but I'm saving most of my observations about 'The Train' for when I've been on it a few more times. Besides this is what a train ride is like- long periods of silence while natural wonders pass by you at an easy pace.
For right now, let's just say that train travel is like a confusing cross between flying coach
and being on a cruise ship. One of the interesting things about the
train is eating on it. Every day you must make reservations for what
time you want to eat, and you are seated at a table of 4 no matter how
many are in your party. For efficiency, I suppose. It has the great
effect of making you talk to a variety of people, even if you aren't the
type that normally does so. Each person I've met so far has been a
friendly and interesting dining companion. Maybe more on this later.
Not much to report on day 2 besides kilometers and
kilometers (I’m trying!) of hi-lighter yellow canola fields. I’m learning about
the provinces and their identities from my dining mates There’s not one person
who has not made the Winnipeg=Winterpeg joke yet. This seems like it may be important.
A lot of flooding now, as we leave the mountains of British Columbia and Alberta, and enter into the plains of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Next time we explore Winnipeg, capital and only real city of Manitoba.
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