Amtrak
One day my boyfriend and I made the mistake of using Amtrak in an attempt to save 80 bucks on a trip from upstate New York to New York city. The advertised ride was 5 hours which we figured wasn't too bad for the savings compared to flying. Unfortunately for us the train was coming from Canada and the Republican convention was going on in NYC = extreme terrorist paranoia as it is too tempting to blow up all those republicans in one hit even for those peace loving canadians. So the train meanders into Syracuse a mere 2 1/2 hours late we jump on with all our baggage and have to walk through the entire train while trying not to knock out people with our bags trying to find seats in the jammed packed full train, finally finding some right in front of the loos. Our ETA in NYC then gets progressively later with not one but two stops for armed police types and salivating bomb squad dogs to search the train. This would have been painful enough as it was if it weren't for the revolting stench emanating from the loos for the entire journey. When we finally arrived in the city well after midnight we had to walk for 3 blocks with all our stuff to find a taxi to take us to our hostel as they had blocked off the whole area for the convention. Our ordeal was not over as once we got to the hostel they told us they had given our rooms away since it was after midnight (as per their policy despite the fact we had rung several times and assured it would be fine) but we would be able to get a room in another hostel another short taxi ride away. Cheers mate! I was so tired after that I was even able to sleep in the hot airless cupboard of a room in a bed that made a bed of nails seem comfy in comparison.
(toffee pop, Wed 13 Sep 2006, 18:03, Reply)