My trip to Halifax was so full of fun activities that I did not have time to update the BLOG. Sorry to anyone who was looking for promised updates.
The train brought me back home Monday afternoon but it has been a little busy this week too. It was a great trip. The train left Ottawa and arrived in Montreal as scheduled and the trip was largely uneventful. Upon arrival in Montreal I had plenty of time so I went in search of food to take on the train to Halifax and got a spot on line. While in the lineup a conversation began with a couple of people who had come up on the train from Toronto. They were very concerned about getting on the same train as an extremely obnoxious child with useless mother and granny. This became a concern of mine too.
The woman behind me in line, Jane, and I decided to join forces and find the quietest seats we could. Ha! There we were surrounded by people who appeared to be adults who would quietly snooze all night. Were we ever wrong.
We initially became suspicious of the prospects for a good train ride while in the station... waiting in line for 75 minutes PAST the expected departure time. After finally being granted admission to the train there was a further delay while they brought additional cars to accommodate about 200 late arrivals... all exchange students heading East. We found out after arriving in Halifax that the delay was due to a gas leak near the rail lines somewhere east of Montreal. The end result was 4 hours and 47 minutes late arrival in Halifax.
Oh, it doesn't end there. Jane and I found ourselves surrounded by the noisiest, yappiest, rudest people on the train. The b*t*h sitting in front had 4 teenagers with her. She looked like a recently retired cheap stripper/biker b*t*h and she talked like one. She and her kids were all heavy smokers so everytime the train stopped they were on the platform 'power smoking' 2-3 cigs each. They smelled like disgusting filth. Yuch! The ex-stripper, as Jane and I came to call her, had a voice like an old miner... al rasp and gurgle. And she felt a need to talk loud enough for people 3 cars along to hear her. The kids weren't much better. One (the younger boy of about 13) was across the aisle from me and kept shouting over for his mother's and sister's attention until I finally told him to "shut the f*** up" if he didn't want to get them all tossed off the train. That happened about 1/1:30am. Jane was up and down the aisle telling kids with CD & MP3 players to turn down the volume. And that was how the entire night went.
Back to work for now. More about Halifax and the activities later.
Posted by gailene at August 26, 2005 11:23 AM