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It's a month since my return to the UK and I've got 'itchy feet' already (as the saying goes). In this final blog from my USA adventure I thought it would be good to reflect on my trip and look at some key stats to conclude before I start my next adventure.
Best towns
People keep asking me what's your favourite place you visited on your trip? Truth is I loved the whole trip, the journey itself, the process of travel, meeting all the different people, hearing their stories, seeing new towns every few days and taking in the scenery enroute. A few places standout for me. I really enjoyed Washington DC. It's a beautiful city, with a lovely feel to it. The wide boulevards and classical but clean architecture appeal to me. It's my kind of town and I could imagine living there. I also really like Minneapolis. The area I visited had lovely houses, small neighbourhood shopping areas with small stores, cafés and coffee shops. One might say similar to some outlying areas of London, so I felt comfortable there. The city also has the cultural thing going on, which I was lucky enough to experience. The other standout place for me was Charleston, just for the beautiful buildings (of which I took numerous pictures) and the barbecue sauce I sampled and still dream about!
Differences
People also keep asking what's the key differences between US and UK? Everything in North America is BIG! The roads are big, the trains are big, the cars are big, the supermarkets are mega and food portions are huge! Some cities are not set-up with walking in-mind, so you take your life in your hands when walking as there's often no sidewalk. That brings me to the other difference which is not plainly obvious. The language is very different. This was highlighted when I sat next to Buck (the musician) for the 14 hour train ride from San Francisco to LA. I talked about lorries and he would say 'what's a lorry?'. Translation, a truck. What's a tap... a faucet; can I have my bill please... the check; cell...mobile, toilet....restroom or washroom; motorway...highway; pavement...sidewalk. You get the picture. People are really friendly and kind, but in my experience the Texans are the friendliest and the Canadians super kind and friendly. The least friendly places were San Francisco and Miami (a bit like London...except during the Olympics when we became the friendliest people on earth). I wonder if it's anything to do with them being tourist towns?
Challenges
The only real tricky moments were early days when I nearly missed my flight at Heathrow and the shuttle bus not turning up at Asheville, North Carolina for my connection to Charlotte to pick up my first Amtrak train. My main challenge was technology. My 64 GB iPad was full after three weeks, my Blackberry was full and kept freezing at the most I opportune moments requiring me to have to flick out the battery and reboot the phone and my Nokia phone didn't connect to the web. Minor irritations. Overall I was very lucky throughout my trip.
The food
My best food (and coffee experience) was in Portland Oregon. My cup of coffee from Public Domain still remains the best cup of coffee of my life and I enjoyed the quirky restaurant scene with delicious soup and salad combinations.
My interests
If you've followed my Flickr pages you'll have noticed how I love to take pictures of buildings. I hope to pull together a slide show of the different architectural styles in each state I passed through. It was fun sitting on the train with my iPad pressed against the window waiting for an interesting shot. The landscape really varied east to west. I experienced a lot of icy cold weather. I bet if I traveled at a different time of year I'd have a completely different perspective. Each town I stopped at I always tried to get the supermarket experience and visit as many of the eateries and coffee shops as possible. I achieved my goal of meeting people from all walks of life. A really interesting cross-section of people travel the rails, some for the first time, other seasoned travellers. I didn't meet many commuters. It's a different kind of travel experience in US simply because of the vastness of the country and the distances covered, and the often infrequent service on certain routes.
The stats
Overall I travelled for an eight week period circuiting the States by train (with a quick trip to Canada). Some trains left at anti-social hours and generally when this happened I didn't book a roomette and 'slept coach' instead. So, during the eight weeks I missed 8 days sleep. I travelled through 25 US states and one Canadian state, passing through 8 time zones on the circuit, 130 (plus) stations, stopping at 19 stations and visiting 31 towns. During daylight hours I tried to take in as much scenery (landscape, villages, stations, etc) as possible. The 5000 photos I took is testament to that.
Feedback
I've asked some of the people who've read my blog for their thoughts. I tried to keep things relatively short. I tried to become more descriptive as my journey progressed... that was the plan anyhow. I recognise a large focus of my chat was around food or drink experiences. Some people found it interesting and said I gave a good flavour of my travels. One person said they'd have liked more description of the places I visited. Another friend said how my reconnection with people came across, which is great, as the people I met enroute made the adventure come alive!
Those Itchy Feet
It may come as no surprise... I'm already planning my next trip! After a brief trip up North, I'm off to Nantes in Brittany early February. I've also got a wish list in my head which includes Scandinavia, South of France and Italy. I've started the research and plan to continue blogging about my train adventures. I also hope to return to the States and travel around California by train. I'd love to experience the California Zephyr as part of that trip.
Thanks for following my adventures and I'll be writing ad-hoc posts about my upcoming European micro-trips.
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