When in…
This has definitely been an interesting week. Not only did I take my first actual train ride, but I also visited both Boston and NYC.
Several hundred miles and two worn, but not dead feet later, that is.
As I draft this, it’s 10:42 PM on 8/6/16 onboard the Silver Meteor train #97 bound for Miami. I left NYC over 7 hours ago, and Boston well over 60. In those places, I’ve seen and heard things I will never forget, and eaten things as well.
I started off in Boston, in the Prudential Center area that is. You see, the only reason I was up there was due to a conference that required the attendance of one of my parents.
Now, we were able to work out getting the rest of the family up there as well. All of us took the train, and that story is listed in my previous post.
Once we arrived in Boston itself, the Freedom Trail called our names. After passing by places such as the Old North Church, Paul Revere’s Home and the site of the Boston Massacre, we were near Chinatown. Now, my family has Asian heritage. (Albeit Korean, not Chinese.) Oddly enough, we found a place that served their food in a cook-at-the-table type of format. Thin pieces of meat and small vegetables are brought to the table, to be placed into a boiling broth to cook.
The cooking itself took no more than 30 seconds. Even then, you could just leave the food in the broth and nothing would go wrong.
Simply put, we left filled and happy. Shabu Zen was truthfully a surprise find.
With more than a few checks into the wrong subway stations, we finally worked our way back to the hotel. The next day, Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution were taken off of my bucket list. That same day, the Harvard and MIT campuses were as well.
NYC was next on the list, with another (far shorter) train ride to come. After arriving in Penn Station and walking the short distance to our hotel, we decided to hit Rockefeller Center. Now, this did two things. Sent us through Koreatown for dinner, and made us show up about 10 minutes before 8. Closing time for most shops in that area that day.
So, after a brief visit, we made the trip “home” to the 24th floor of our hotel. Rather disgustingly, we found the coffee machine to be caked with dust on both the outside and the inside. It wasn’t just there either. The headboards, fridge, microwave and wardrobe all had a reasonable amount of dust on them. It seems either the room hadn’t been stayed in for awhile, or that the housecleaning staff were just really bad at simple dusting.
Although, it was more than likely the room hadn’t been stayed in for awhile, as even the sheets felt old.
Either way, we were more than ready to get out the next morning and stay out until the room was properly cleaned. We didn’t return until midnight, after getting some Italian and watching Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway before walking back.
Even when we got back the room was still dusty. Not as bad as before, but still dusty.
At this point we had visited Rockefeller Center Twice. Once each day. In the end, the trip there was made three times, as one last run was made the morning of our last day. Finally, we boarded train 97 bound for Miami.
That takes me to now. It’s 6 AM on 8/7/16 somewhere in the Carolinas, and the train has blown its headlight. We can’t move. (I take that back, we just moved about 3 feet.)
Nonetheless I’m in a rather warm spot, with the AC being off and all. I have nothing else to do, so why not finish this off here? There’s no point in trying to go back to sleep with the sunrise now becoming a thing.
*Sigh* Now everything’s back online. It’ll probably be about half an hour before it begins to feel normal again in here.
The sunrise over this small town of (Kemtree-something…) is both beautiful and eerie at the same time. It showcases a new day in this town, yet also shows that the place has seen better days.
After all the hustle that NYC brings, I’m more than ready to slow down a bit. Home, here I come.