20 New Things: Take the train
I just looked over at the sidebar to make sure that this was even still on the list. It is. But, so is a bunch of other stuff that I have no recollection putting on there. Grow something edible and eat it? Learn to do the splits? I can't believe I wrote those things and it's only been a couple of months since I created the list. What on Earth. I can already see I won't be accomplishing everything I wrote down. Bizarre.
Anyway.
In fairness, I have been on trains before. I've taken the Grand Canyon train a couple of times. I rode the Verde Canyon Railroad. I've been on the Disneyland Railroad and undergrounds and overgrounds and that little train that drives around the mall. Okay, maybe not that one. I've never taken a regular train to get between cities, though, which is what I was envisioning when I added that to the list. It's not really a thing people do in the west, I think, as evidenced by the fact that it takes 33 hours to get from Tucson to Flagstaff on Amtrak.
Recently, I was on vacation in Ireland (hahaha, you're going to get pretty sick of hearing that, I bet), and we needed to get from Belfast to Dublin. So, not only from city to city, but country to country. Go us. We booked ourselves tickets on the 8 o'clock train and hopped on board. Figuratively speaking.
It turns out that taking the train is not that special. We rode facing backwards, which I guess is kind of a novelty. And there was a dining car, but since our journey was only 2 hours we didn't check it out. There's an attendant, kind of like a flight attendant, who goes around with food and such. You could buy something off her cart (I had a "cappuccino" and a muffin) or you could order something hot. I overheard her explaining the hot food to another passenger- she would take your order and then when she got to the end of the car, she'd ring the dining car and tell them what you wanted. Then someone from the dining car would deliver the food to your seat. Not a bad deal. Apparently the dining car also had real coffee, from beans. If you ordered coffee from the cart lady, you got instant. She had cups with the coffee already in them, and she filled them with hot water from a tiny sink on her cart. I had that. It was fine, although possibly a little pricy.
When we first left Belfast, the conductor or someone- I don't know- came through and punched our tickets. He came around again after the first stop and re-punched them. There were several more stops but that was the only time they re-checked tickets. If that's how it always goes, it seems like it would be pretty easy to sneak on to the train after the first stop. They did not check our tickets when we got off the train, so I don't know. I'm too much of a rule follower to ever find out.
So, that's the train. I'd probably do it again, you know, if it was practical. This was affordable- I can't remember what the tickets cost but it wasn't much. It was easy. You could carry on however much luggage you wanted. You could eat snacks. The scenery was decent. People were just reading the paper and chatting or whatever it is people do on trains. Quite peaceful, really. We got to Dublin on time, disembarked, and took a cab to our next destination. Stay tuned, because that checks off another item on the list...
I didn't take any pictures of or on the train. Heavy on the text, light on the photos. Blog fail.
Anyway.
In fairness, I have been on trains before. I've taken the Grand Canyon train a couple of times. I rode the Verde Canyon Railroad. I've been on the Disneyland Railroad and undergrounds and overgrounds and that little train that drives around the mall. Okay, maybe not that one. I've never taken a regular train to get between cities, though, which is what I was envisioning when I added that to the list. It's not really a thing people do in the west, I think, as evidenced by the fact that it takes 33 hours to get from Tucson to Flagstaff on Amtrak.
Recently, I was on vacation in Ireland (hahaha, you're going to get pretty sick of hearing that, I bet), and we needed to get from Belfast to Dublin. So, not only from city to city, but country to country. Go us. We booked ourselves tickets on the 8 o'clock train and hopped on board. Figuratively speaking.
It turns out that taking the train is not that special. We rode facing backwards, which I guess is kind of a novelty. And there was a dining car, but since our journey was only 2 hours we didn't check it out. There's an attendant, kind of like a flight attendant, who goes around with food and such. You could buy something off her cart (I had a "cappuccino" and a muffin) or you could order something hot. I overheard her explaining the hot food to another passenger- she would take your order and then when she got to the end of the car, she'd ring the dining car and tell them what you wanted. Then someone from the dining car would deliver the food to your seat. Not a bad deal. Apparently the dining car also had real coffee, from beans. If you ordered coffee from the cart lady, you got instant. She had cups with the coffee already in them, and she filled them with hot water from a tiny sink on her cart. I had that. It was fine, although possibly a little pricy.
When we first left Belfast, the conductor or someone- I don't know- came through and punched our tickets. He came around again after the first stop and re-punched them. There were several more stops but that was the only time they re-checked tickets. If that's how it always goes, it seems like it would be pretty easy to sneak on to the train after the first stop. They did not check our tickets when we got off the train, so I don't know. I'm too much of a rule follower to ever find out.
So, that's the train. I'd probably do it again, you know, if it was practical. This was affordable- I can't remember what the tickets cost but it wasn't much. It was easy. You could carry on however much luggage you wanted. You could eat snacks. The scenery was decent. People were just reading the paper and chatting or whatever it is people do on trains. Quite peaceful, really. We got to Dublin on time, disembarked, and took a cab to our next destination. Stay tuned, because that checks off another item on the list...
I didn't take any pictures of or on the train. Heavy on the text, light on the photos. Blog fail.
Comments