Day One - The Train
A lot of people were curious to hear how this part of the trip went as it could influence their future travel plans. I highly recommend you pay the nominal fee to upgrade to Business Class if you choose this mode of transportation. There’s nothing wrong with Economy/Coach however there is one huge advantage to the upgrade: peace and quiet.
Not to sound elitist but you get higher quality (and subsequently lower volume) traveling companions. All it takes is one obnoxious loud-mouthed American to put a sour note on your trip as unfortunately we experienced this time. I won’t go into details as I’d rather not relive it but perhaps Mindi will blog about it and post a link - could be good to vent the spleen, personally I prefer to forget.
If it wasn’t for that one crazy lady I’d have nothing but nice things to say about the train. Even the border guard / customs agents were charming. So in conclusion I recommend taking the train with the caveat that the romance of meeting new people on the train can be a double-edged sword; you’re more likely to get Jackass than Before Sunrise.
The hotel was a little bit harder to find than anticipated but that was largely because the Seattle map in my PDA had some kind of error that made it unusable. Technology’s great when it works, and makes you walk a few blocks in the wrong direction when it doesn’t.
Note: This is my 150th blog entry.
