Princess on the Road

After a spot of souvenir shopping at Tiffany & Co and some final sightseeing at the Empire State Building on Thursday followed by some housekeeping on a wet Friday, it was time to say good-bye to New York and hello to Niagara Falls via the Amtrak.

 

Not wanting to cart all my souvenirs around with me, I have decided to post them to myself to a US mail forwarding address that I use to enable my online shopping addiction (some US online stores do not ship internationally but will ship to a US address that then forwards to an international address).  Although US post offices are conveniently open on a Saturday, opening time wasn’t until 9am, I had to be at Penn Station (which was 70 blocks and several subway stops away) for a 10.15 Amtrak train.  I did intend to go Friday evening (post office was open until 7pm, how about that Australia Post) but my laundry took a little longer than expected so I figured I would be there first thing in the morning:

8.50: Arrive at the post office, it’s open just no one behind the counter.

8.51: Try to figure out what the fuck I have to do to send a parcel from this joint.

8.53: Spot the flat pack parcels on a shelf – $10.35 for up to 70lbs to any destination, sounds good to me especially since I have bought a fair bit of crap.

8.55: Assembled box and cramming everything into it.

8.57: Complete postal address details.

8.58: Standing in line behind a million other people to be served at 9am.

9.01: First person served.

9.02: Second person served.  Punching them through quick, I should be out of here in no time.

9.03: Some old duck goes to the counter.  She needs a million things done.  The post office counter lady isn’t impressed the old duck hasn’t got her paperwork complete when the sign clearly says to make sure all papers are ready before coming to the counter.

9.05: Post office counter lady sends the old duck away to get her papers right. 

9.07: Asian chick has two parcels.  It seems she has never posted anything before in her life, as she has to ask whether the parcels will go to the address she has written on them.  Where the fuck else would they go?

9.10: Illegal immigrant wants 200 stamps, some change, a money order, and needs to post three million letters.  I think I might be running late.

9.11: Old duck is back but doesn’t go to the end of the line.  Lucky she has her shit together this time.

9.12: Two people in front of me, each only has one letter.  Thank fucking Christ.

9.14: My turn.  Here is my parcel.  Here is my money.  Thanks for the receipt.

9.15: Waiting for the elevator at the hostel.  It is very slow. 

9.17: Grabbing my bags from the dorm room.  I’m soooooo not going to miss that smell.

9.18: Push my way in front of other people to get in the elevator.

9.21: Push my way in front of everyone to be first out of the elevator.  Heading to the lobby to check-out at reception, which usually has a million people waiting.

9.22: No one is at reception.  I go straight to the desk, hand over my keys and it’s off to the subway.

9.24: Swipe my Metro Card at the turntable.  Insufficient fare.  Bullshit.  Go to the counter and ask for a fare.  Back to the turntable and swipe.  Get stuck in the turntable because my turtle won’t fit.  How embarrassing.

9.31: Next subway downtown arrives.  I’m starting to wonder what I will do if I miss my train.

9.33: First stop 96th street.  I’m going to 34th street.

9.36: Next stop 86th street.

9.41: Next stop 79th street.

9.42: 72nd Street.

9.44: 66th Street.  I’m going to miss my train.

9.47: 59th Street.

9.50: 50th Street.  Still two stops to go.  I’m getting a little stressed.

9.51: 42nd Street.

9.54: 34th Street.  Looking for the right exit so I don’t get lost.  Find the right exit that will supposedly take me to the Amtrak.  Let’s hope so.

9.56: Looking for a Quik-Trak machine to print my ticket that I purchased online.

9.57: Find Quik-Trak and print ticket.  That was easy but now where do I go?

9.58: Some random woman asks me if I’m looking for the Amtrak.  I say yes I am.  She says follow me, I’ll take you there.  Er, ok then.

9.59:  Random tells me the Amtrak isn’t on time today.  I say that’s lucky because I’m running late.  Random says she needs to get some food.

10.00: Random points to nowhere in particular and says to get a ticket from that window.  But I already have a ticket, what do I do with it?  Go to the window for a ticket, now do you have anything you can give me so I can feed my babies?  Oh, so that’s why you’re being so nice – you want something.  Should have known.  I give the random $20, she says she’ll carry my bags for another $20 so she can feed her babies for the week.  Thanks but I’ll manage, here’s $2 to go away.  Random leaves.  Where the fuck do I go now?  The train is going to go without me.

10.01: There is a big board with all the trains listed.  Every train is either delayed or cancelled but mine is on time.  There is people everywhere.  I ask an Amtrak person where I should go to board my train.  He says no one is boarding and I have to wait for an announcement.

10.02: I realise that I won’t miss my train because it isn’t here yet.  Neither are the trains which were scheduled to leave 3 hours ago.  There has been a bridge malfunction and all trains have been delayed.  How lucky is that.

10.10: There is an announcement that the bridge has been fixed.  The poor suckers that have been here for hours cheer.  I wish they would be quiet because I can’t hear the rest of the announcement that says something about my train.

10.12: My train is boarding.  I have to get to track 7.  I saw a sign before with track 7 on it.  I see the sign again and dodge the thousands to get to it.

10.13: An Amtrak person says to go back to the centre stairs to board the train.  I haul my turtle down 3 flights of stairs.

10.14: I flash my ticket at the Amtrak person at the bottom of the stairs.  She tells me to board at the back of the train – I can’t work out which carriage or seat is mine according to the stupid ticket.

10.15: I go too far and realise I’m at the cafe cart where you can’t board.  I have to walk back and now I’m stuck behind stupid people. 

10.16: The next line is shorter and boarding quickly.  There is a large group of people heading towards the next line.  I quickly push in front of them.

10.17: I’m on the train.  Yay!  Now where the fuck do I sit.

10.18: The guy in front of me asks if I know what is going on, where do we sit.  I say I have no idea. 

10.19: I find a vacant window seat.  I almost dislocate my shoulder trying to lift my turtle into the overhead luggage compartment.  I’ll probably break my neck trying to get it down later.

10.25: I’m getting settled in my seat.  Some chick asks if the seat next to me is taken.  I say no, you can sit there.  She does.  An announcement says to sign your ticket in the space indicated.  The chick asks me for my pen.  Just wait, I need to use it first, dickhead.

10.31: The train leaves.  I made it!

 

The rest of the journey was very pleasant – it is actually quite a nice trip as I got to see a fair bit of the Hudson Valley and the seats are super comfy compared to the tuna cans of a long haul flight.  There is also powerpoints at each seat so I could plug my laptop in and charge my iPhone.  I should have taken something to eat with me though, like other smart people did – the microwaved cheeseburger from the cafe cart wasn’t very fulfilling.  I took a few happy snaps along the way which I have included for your viewing pleasure. 

 

 

 

 

The train also arrived early in Niagara Falls and there were plenty of taxis waiting.  Although I was a bit worried after I got into my chosen taxi as the driver spent the first part of the trip on his cell phone talking about ’seeing some naked women’ and ‘yeah I’ve got a girl in the backseat’ and ‘I’m bringing her now’.  Great, I just willingly got into a car with a rapist.  After a few minutes he hung up the phone and told me Carroll sent him to pick me up, which made me feel a little better since that was the name of the lady who owned the hostel where I was staying.  He rambled on about shit a bit more as I started to recognise the street names and realised I wasn’t destined for a life of sex slavery.  Once at the hostel, Carroll showed me around the place – which is actually her house – and I had a shower.  I did intend to go out to get something to eat but after sitting on the comfy bed with real sheets, it was nighty-night for me.  Next time I’m going to be on time for the Amtrak.

 

Peace out.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under USA Trip '09. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.