The first day on the train was mostly spent by myself catching up on some reading and blog posts. I also spent a lot of time looking out the window while I ate from my mountain of prosciutto sandwiches. Two people who I met on the lineup to the train, Mai and Eugene were great to chat with. We all played games of Settlers of Catan together. The scenery rolled by as I went from stop to stop, remembering the landscape, more than I did the route. Actually, the route on the way back went a different way over the great lakes and I didn't see too many intersecting points at first. The train kept moving and things rolled on and on and on. I felt like my trip was on rewind.
From the second day I started to get to know another group of people who we would eventually make a group called the "train crew". We were mostly travelers going the distance across the country and we would chat for hours in the observation car where the canteen was located. We played music and games together, talked politics and shared about each other's life histories. Its amazing how much you can learn about other people when you're alone, there's no WiFi and you all have a captive audience with each other. I still keep connection with this group and I'm just waiting for the opportunity to see them all again.
We rolled from the great lakes to the Prairies where we had a stop... Apparently the train was hours late to get into Winnipeg because of all the freight traffic on the railway. The freight traffic on the railway these days takes first priority as we started and stopped many times. Unfortunately this cut our 2 hour break in Winnipeg to a 20 minute dash to see if there was anything open near the train station. Unfortunately the group I was with couldn't find anything in time and dashed back to the train to catch the next leg of the trip.
As we went from the prairies to the Rockies and approached home, I had a lot of thoughts, reminiscing on the previous 100 days and had the chance to meet so many random people including a family from Bangladesh, a very kind woman from Mexico who helped me gather my things and traveled with me a little when we returned to Vancouver and this all felt very fulfilling.
My final verdict about the train is that it felt restricted after the freedom of cycling all the way across Canada, but as a way to meet others and reflect, it was definitely a worthwhile experience to take it. When I got on the train I imagined that we would be allowed to walk the entire length of the train, but with a locked door to the upper classes, I always wondered what the experience was like for the others who weren't taking economy.
Off the train, onto the SkyTrain and into a familiar bed -- I had finally made it back to Vancouver.
Goodbye Toronto!
Goodbye Manitoba
Through the prairies
The dome car
Rolling prairies by train
With some little lakes dispersed in between
Prairie Lake
Beautiful clouds
Outside for one of the short breaks
An example of one of my many sandwiches
Into the hills
Finally in BC
Following the river
Almost there!
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