Friday…..you can’t see the lakes for the trees or the trees for the lakes…..

So today I woke up to a very unique and different scenery rushing past me than I went to sleep with and nothing like I have ever seen in my lifetime.  The sun rising as a background to a forest of trees and lakes with mist rising up from the ground as the heat warmed up the cool lake waters and grass...sounds beautiful doesn’t it?? and it was....for the first 5 hours...I took countless pictures of lake, tree  variation and was dumbstruck at the beauty.

I had a very nice fried breakfast looking out at this amazing view and met this brilliant teenage girl whose mother had banished her to a small town of pop. 550 because she felt she was getting out of control.  She was very funny, intelligent and really switched on and I wondered what she could of done that was so bad that her mother risked her daughter potentially resenting until she got to adulthood and understood the 'I'm doing this for your own good bit'. A little bit of booze, a little bit of smoke...hey teenagers do this stuff, it’s to be expected.  Making me aware that I had been very lucky(I was way naughtier than her) as I sat there listening to her stories, her mum’s reactions and the fact she was sadly going to miss going to the prom with her friends.  For this trade off she was going to get college paid for her once she served her penance and repeated her last year of high school.....all this in a town with no internet!!!  This made me realise simultaneously how old I felt and how I’m still not ready to be a parent because I could see her side of it more than her mums and the sage advice I gave her “if you want to travel and see the world, don’t get knocked up too young....it only takes 5 seconds to put on a condom”.  Not explaining or going into the details that this is generally easier sober and with good lighting.

So far I’ve finished one book on this journey so far, ‘Fool’ by Christopher Moore, which was very funny, now I have only the more serious heavier stuff to get through...although one of my fellow passengers has given me some classic trash magazines.  On this journey, I’ve filed my nails, looked through the stamps in my passport, read a book, cleaned out my handbag, slept, eaten, taken photos, played solitaire and hearts on the computer....I can not last 2 or more days of this, it is killing me...what was I thinking, I’m like the most impatient person in the world and I decided to take a 4 day train ride what an idiot...

So I’m warming up to C-lady so much so I’m probably going to change her name in this blog(done), I think she’s essentially got a good heart and just has a long, arduous job. I gave one of the guys who works on here some tips about London and things to do and see and I got some bonafidey Canadian freebie souvenirs, woo woo.  Now all I have to is wangle shower access from someone and I’ll be happy.  Sink baths are not fun but I do have to thank Nadya for the baby wipes tip, they have proven to be invaluable on various nooks and crannies ; )

Oh yeah and I spoke to the pissed up guy today, he’s sober now and quite a nice guy.  Mortified at his overt pissedness and the fact that everyone on the train thinks he’s an alchie.  He was also wrongly accused he didn’t spew up all over the carriage he vomited into what he thought was a sick bag (they do look like sick bags to be fair) but alas they are simply trash bags that aren’t fluid resistant, so one thing led to another, and leakage ensued.  To his detriment, he did down a bottle of vodka  with mates before getting on the train, but coming from someone who has woken up covered in her own vom, who am I to judge?  So we got sat together on the lunch dining car, he’s Brazilian travelling through the States and Canada and generally having fun by almost getting kicked off Canadian trains.  Now that’ll be a grand story to tell back home.  He’s going all the way to Vancouver and although he whooped my ass in every card game we played it’ll be good to have someone to chat to on this bloody long journey.  Also had more chats with Tyler – lovely guy who I think is going to be struggling with this train journey due to serious migraines. Migraines suck.

I have met some interesting people on this train and it is easier to strike up conversation, because it generally starts with “so..Where you from?” or my fave “you going all the way to Vancouver?”  Now the lakes and trees have become so common you could be going past the most incredible scenery and it’s like lake, trees, lake, trees ahhh forest, then lake,  trees  get my drift?  Tomorrow we stop at Winnipeg for two hours, it’s sad that I’m excited....