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Published: November 1st 2012
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I was due to start my epic train journey to Toronto from the city of Edmonton (Alberta). The train was due to leave on Wednesday night at 11.45pm which meant I had a whole day to fill at Edmonton Mall. Everything I had read about this mall made it sound amazing - people were writing on trip advisor that they come to Edmonton for a week's holiday at spend the entire week at the mall yada yada yada. I was a little excited to be see it and when I first entered the centre (at entrance 48) right in front of me was a full size ice skating rink! Even better, was the fact that in front of me was Rachelle, a good friend I had met whilst travelling last year, and we had planned to catch up to spend the day perusing the shops. I think I wrote a little about the mall in my last blog...it has a massive indoor water park with a wave pool and waterslides, an indoor aquarium with regular seal shows (kind of like what happens at Seaworld), mini golf courses, a theme park complete with two indoor rollercoasters - the works really! We had
a great day there and before long it was time to say goodbye to Rachelle and make my way back into the city to get ready for my train ride.
Arriving at the station (which felt like it was in the middle of nowhere!) I was happy to see that the train was on time and due in at 11.00pm. Finally, the train rolled into the station and we were allowed to board. Pierre, the attendant who was looking after my train car, met me at the base of the stairs to tell me about my sleeping accommodation and breakfast options for the morning which I paid no attention to because all I wanted him to do was take my photo boarding the train!
Boarding the train, my upper berth awaited...fresh cotton sheets, a very comfy mattress, nice pillows (with a chocolate on top which just begged to be eaten) and a shower bag, it really was a comfy place to sleep although it took some getting used to with the rocking motion of the train. At some stages through the night I would wake and it felt like we were hurtling out of control along the tracks
and it was at these times I realised I had very little to keep me on the bunk should the train make a sudden movement.
The following morning I was able to explore the train - two carriages back and we had the Park Car a place where you could go and sit and meet other passengers, or read a book, have a drink at the bar, make yourself a hot drink or eat a snack or sit in the upstairs lounge which had the glass topped roof to see everything. The dining car generally had two seatings per day for lunch and dinner and all of the meals that I had on the train were lovely. Lunch meals were three courses and dinner was four and usually consisted of a soup and salad before a main course with four different options...you could never go hungry on the train!
I loved the train journey - it was beautiful to see the scenery and each morning you awoke to a competely different view. My understanding is that the train tracks are owned by the freight train companies, so the freight trains have right of way, which meant our train
would pull off to the right of the main track and have to wait for the passing freight trains. That seemed fair enough, but you need to understand how much freight gets transported around Canada by train! One of the attendants was telling us that on average our train will pass 48 freight trains a day...and they are all massively long and many of them containers stacked two high. I enjoyed the times when we stopped because it meant you could get some nice pictures without the movement of the train, and it was all part of the journey.
We were due to arrive in Toronto at 9.30am on Saturday morning and we were quite close to making that time, until about 85kms out of Toronto a freight train in front of us broke down! Many people, particularly those that had been on the train since it departed Vancouver, were ready to get off the train by this stage, however the situation was fixed in a good timeframe and we arrived in only three hours late to Toronto. Overall, the train experience was fantastic, it was like a mini holiday within my holiday, however I was hanging to get
off the train and have the opportunity to go for a decent walk 😊
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Raelene Whitehead
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What a train ride!!!!!!
Hi Tanya. Another exciting entry. The mall sounded absolutely amazing, i gather that one day probably wasn't enough to get around to explore everything!!! So lovely to catch up with one of your travelling friends. You would have had a fantastic day together. What a train ride!!!!!! OMG what a lengthy time to be on a train, a real experience for you. I remember going on the ALL ABOARD in grade six, it was a week trip on a train around Victoria. It was a great week!!! Michelle is home this weekend so I am very excited to be seeing little Miss Zara. Continue having a great time and living the dream. Keep safe and take care. love the whiteheads xxxxx