Winnipeg

          After the sun went down, I got comfy in my seat and watched a couple episodes of Planet Earth. I got sleepy and stretched out across my seats to nap for the evening. I was awaken every hour or so to the train stopping, either to let a freight train pass, or to let passengers on or off. Also, the attendants walking past me would wake me to as they awoke the passengers and got them ready to leave. Or welcomed the new passengers and orientated them to the train. I remember at one point being quite annoyed that we still hadn't arrived in Winnipeg.
          As we stopped I noticed that some of the families were getting off the train. Little Ava, and her young momma were the first to leave at Sioux Lookout, at about midnight. Passing their empty seats heading to the washroom felt different. A couple hours later the native family mommy, daddy, brother of 7 years old and baby were the next to leave. I didn't want to lose any more of my coach mates... but then I realized.... I was next!

          I fell back to sleep an hour or so later. I awoken this morning to the sun rising in the prairies. It was such a different site from anything I'd seen before. The land stretched out for miles and miles, no hills, and no trees. I could tell that the prairies were coming because the trees kept getting shorter, and had less and less branches. The evergreens were getting so skinny.
          We arrived in Winnipeg around 7:45am. I climbed off the train, as a different kind of feeling overwhelmed me. It wasn't completely sadness for leaving my coach-mates and comfort of the train. It wasn't completely fear for being alone in a brand new city. It wasn't completely the exhaustion I felt from a lack of sleep in four days. Maybe a mix of all, with a mild bout of excitement for the trip I was about to embark on.
          From the train station I used my fancy phone to find the closest breakfast place. I ate at a Pancake house (called Pancake House). I tried their pancakes.... which made me realize as much as I like pancakes, they are never what I except them to be, and am constantly disappointed. I should really only eat pancakes when I make them. I make them to be much thinner, more like crepes, and usually add bananas. Yum! I would like some now...
          Anyways, the scrambled eggs had great flavour, the bacon was perfectly cooked. The hash browns were perfectly cooked, but could have used more seasoning... and the pancakes, were pancakes.
After breakfast I began to wander around this area of Winnipeg called "the Forks".
          I headed towards the water and noticed a giant area with a historic landmark. When I first got there, there was a fitness group using the area as their own home gym. They were running around the monument, and using the viewing benches to do exercises off of. I felt like I was bugging them, and sat by the river for a bit.
          When I was ready to, I headed back to the monument. It was this circular rock thing with these large metal arches over top of the giant half sphere. The metal was designed to allow the sun to shine different symbols through shadows and light. SpongeBob climbed up on the rock sphere and tried to decode some of the symbols. He said it resembled Squidworth's music or something... I wasn't quite listening, he tends to ramble on a wee bit from time to time.

           I followed the river and discovered the Plaza. This is a nice skate park that was full of young skateboarders using the various ledges, bowls, half pipes, and ramps. The coolest thing I saw was this hill type thing. It went up and down like a wave, and I kicked around for a bit to see if anyone would ride on it. No one did. This park was the biggest skate board park I've ever seen, with the most equipment. It was entertaining to watch. Although I did notice the age of the skaters were much younger than what I would expect. Usually at the Bathurst skate park is anywhere from 15 - 30 year olds, where at this park were 10 - 16 year olds. Much younger kids.
          After watching the kids skate for a bit and realizing I missed skating with my brother, I left the park and decided to follow the river. There was a nice nature path that I followed along. It was peaceful. The river was overflown and a lot of the paths down to it were chained off and closed due to flooding. It was slow moving, and seemed like it had only recently unthawed.

          I stumbled upon another monument of sorts. At first I thought it was these weird copper pipes pointing to the sky. As I got closer I noticed it was huge. There were steps leading down in the centre. I was so confused as to what it was. In all directions the copper pipes were set up circling the huge area. In the very centre was a circular sun. There were plaques all around the centre. As I went over to read the plagues I noticed each one was about different constellations. It told when they would be the most visible, and a little bit about their historic significance.
          I realized that each of the copper pipes pointed out the constellations, and if you stood on top of the sun in the centre, you could clearly see these sites. I thought this was grand! It was something I was very interested in, and I wished that my hotel was closer to here so I could have gone there and saw all the different figures in the sky.
          I then wandered around the Forks market for a couple hours. It's kind of on par with St. Lawerence Market, only slightly more pricey, due to mainly tourists. I liked checking out all the specialty shops, and seeing all the organic produce. I spent about an hour in this antique market. It was full of items 50 years old and older (at least that's what they promised). The antiques market reminded me of my father's house. I saw a lot of similar dishes, decorative ornaments, blue cobalt glass (he collects this) which became popular in the 1950s. It made me wish to see him.
           Eventually I made my way back to the train station and picked up my luggage. I started my walk to my hotel. Two people along the way asked me if I was headed home. I smiled... the whole time I was wondering around Forks I felt like people were staring at me. For one, I noticed that NO ONE in this town wears heels. So my clip, clip, clop, as I walked certainly attracted people's eyes. I also haven't seen anyone in my age range who wasn't native. I was probably the only red-haired girl running around the city. But people asking me if I was headed home... well, I guess I really didn't stand out that much.
I walked uptown, getting a chance to see some of the city. I found out where the shopping centre was, where some places to have dinner and what-nots.
          I checked into my hotel, no issues, and finally got to shower. SO AMAZING!! Having space to spread out my belongings and having access to my giant suitcase was great.
            I took a brief nap and headed out for dinner. I went to a casual pub and sat at the bar. Had me some wine and dinner. Got into a bit of a chat about the Leafs with Captain Hook... He wasn't Captain Hook, I don't remember his real name... but he was this 47 year old guy with a hook for a hand. Our chat was quite brief, as I was ready to head back to my hotel.
Once here I called my brother and we chatted for a while. Then my exhaustion got the better of me and I fell asleep watching Doctor Who. Hehehe

Choo Chooo

        Throughout today the dismal winter was transformed into a more recognizable atmosphere. Vast forests of skinny evergreens lead way to breaks of rich lakes, and rivers. I took a moment to watch the sun dance across the lake and remembered that these moments are often passed up and not savoured.

          Earlier today we stopped in Hornepayne. This was the Hornepayne "landmark", an old silo, forgotten and abandoned. This was an hour and a half stop, and practically everyone piled off the train for some fresh air. It was quite snowy, but the sun filled the air with such warmth that I hardly noticed at all. SpongeBob was afraid to get himself wet with snow (Hence being a Sponge), and I had to coax him off the train.
The employees helped the children (passengers) to make snowmen as they cheerly chatted about Canadian climate and culture. 
Everyone looked so happy to be off the train and enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.
My boots, being far from waterproof, stopped me from venturing too far from the train. However I did find this old train station building which was also abandoned. All the windows were either smashed or boarded up with beautiful pictures painted over the windows.  Something about the old bricks and hand-painted frames drew me towards this building, where I felt it contained a certain kind of magic.

          At lunch I sat with a young couple who had a seven month old baby. Cutest little drooling thing he was. The mother had to put the child down (to nap), and I chatted with the father while I enjoyed my lunch. He worked for via rail and was taking the trip with his girlfriend to kill some time in his schedule before the busy tourist season started up. He was typically french (montreal), with only a slight accent, and I could tell he was liking the opportunity to work on his English.

          SpongeBob and myself spent most of the day in the dome car watching Ontario pass by in all it's grand beauty. I started working on a new knitting project (GO ME!!), which made me get motion sickness and hence took a well-deserved nap.

          Since we hit Winter in Sudbury at 5am last night I have not had any phone signal :( I think it should come back once we get back into civilization (probably tomorrow morning when I hit Winnipeg). I was enjoying pulling up my location on my fancy phone and seeing exactly where I was… Now I get to guess.

          I decided to once again visit the dinning car for dinner. I had a delicious cut of AAA Prime Rib and a glass of crappy Pinot Noir. The company was great. One quite nice and friendly retired salesman on his way to Vancouver (Courtney actually) to visit his son. He was full of world-knowledge, let me also say a plethora of knowledge for the rails, especially this trip (this being his 5th or 6th time doing it).

There was a nice mid aged woman who was moving to Edmonton to become a nurse. She was very supportive of my future attitude of career choice. She had told me about the many different careers she had ventured into, looking for the "right path", for herself. 

We also had a  middle-aged gentlemen who worked for companies to help clean up old industrial sites. He lived in Vancouver, and was taking the train home after flying to Toronto.

I felt like they were a little shocked by my age, and idea to take this trip alone, however I do not feel that they looked down at me in any way. I rather enjoyed my chats with them and I left dinner feeling full, satisfied and with a bigger smile on my face.

          The biggest difference I notice between the train and the plane is that it forces you to relax. You must relax completely in order to sleep between the jarring of the cars, and the constant blowing of the horn. I'm a light sleeper, and each and every time someone walks past me in the aisle, I am awaken. Not only that, but you have to wait…. it takes forever to get to where you are going, and it forces you to slow down and relax… it's not like you can go anywhere. The other huge difference is the staff. They are friendly, fun, and have their own personalities. I notice everyone is smiling. You WILL NOT see that on the plane. 

          My coach-mates are fine. Not loud or annoying in anyway. There are a couple young kids, who I think are quite well behaved under the circumstances. We just stopped for a "smoke-break" in Armstrong, where I picked up my first item to carry home. It is an old copper peg used to secure the wooden rails to the tracks. Now I'm in the dome car, ready to watch the night pass by seamlessly and Winnipeg to be my adventure of tomorrow.

          I'm a little sad to be getting off of the train. It feels like this is a comfy little home away from home, full of familiar smiling faces. 
          But first, the sleep!