FINALLY off the train ...

... and back in Adelaide. This train ride from Perth was by far the worst train ride of my trip, worst train ride of my life, and if I wouldn't have had my ipod and a copy of On the Road, it might have been the worst two days of my life. After so many consecutive solo seats and lovely train buddies, I knew I was overdue for a bad seat neighbor. I just knew it! My dad commented on my last blog: "If I took a 2 1/2 day train trip, I'd likely get seated to a 400 lb ex-con who hasn't showered in weeks and steals food." Well the guy sitting next to me on this trip wasn't 400 pounds (probably only pushing 300) and he didn't steal any of my food but he did move around in his seat a lot, pushing the armrest farther into my seat, all the while mumbling to himself in a creepy Exorcist voice. Every few hours or so, he would turn to me and tell me about his great deals on train, plane and bus fares. He told me three times that he bought his train ticket from Perth to Adelaide for $250. He also told me he flew from Adelaide to Perth for $220 and got a bus from Adelaide to Melbourne for $75. Of course I just smiled and said, "Wow, that's a great deal!" because I didn't want him to stab me in my sleep. Seriously, he was that creepy. I was also blessed a with white trash couple directly across the aisle who kept hitting each other with their inflatable neck pillows and getting off the train for a smoke at every stop, then coming back reeking of cigarettes. And of course no cross-country train journey could count as the worst ever without the presence of a screaming child. Or three. =/ Two neglectful mothers in my train car had three young boys between them (ages 3-6? I really have no idea) who ran SCREAMING up and down the aisle all day, both days, hitting each other, jumping over each other, crying, laughing, making every sound imaginable, and the moms did nothing. Around 8:00 last night the mother of the one boys finally told him he had to sit in his seat and be quiet ... so he screamed his head off for a full hour. I couldn't believe the train staff didn't intervene. I should have said something but I didn't want to make an enemy for my remaining 12 hours so I just turned up the volume on my ipod and tried to ignore the noise. Oh I almost forgot to mention that I had very little food and no money for the entire train trip. On Wednesday morning I had planned on buying some muesli bars and cereal before I got on the train, as well as getting cash for food (and for my eventual train ride from the interstate train station to Adelaide city) but it took almost 2 hours by bus to get from the house I was staying at in Perth to the interstate train station (story of my life in Perth. It took forever to get anywhere), and I almost missed my train. No time to buy food or even get cash. So I boarded the train with 30 cents, three peanut butter & honey sandwiches, about two handfuls of dates, and half a small jar of peanut butter. That's all I had to eat for two days. The train staff this time around wouldn't even give me free hot water for tea. Ugh. This morning, however, I got a wonderful surprise. For some reason I had gotten it into my head that my train was arriving in Adelaide at 9:30 am. I woke up around 6:30 this morning (of course creepy guy was already squirming in his seat and talking to himself) and thought, Okay. Only three hours left. You can do this. I picked up my book and turned up my music. After a little while, the PA beeped and a voice came on to tell us we'd be rolling into Adelaide Parklands station in 20 minutes!! Arrival time was 7:20!!! Not 9:30!! I was so happy, I almost cried. Seriously. That glorious feeling stayed with me through my 45-minute walk to the city center (no money for a train). I strolled with tears in my eyes, thinking how hungry and tired I was but mostly how happy I was not to be on the train. =)


As for Perth, it was nice and the people I stayed with were wonderful, but it wasn't one of my favorite places. The beaches are gorgeous but the public transport is terrible, or I just have terrible luck because it seemed like every time I went to catch a bus or train, I was a couple minutes late for the last one and had to wait 20-45 minutes for the next one. The buses took 45 minutes to get from the suburb where I was staying (Cloverdale) to the city center. Then I had to change to a new bus or train to get wherever I was going. I took a day trip to Fremantle and while it was a cute little town with cool old buildings, I couldn't enjoy it because it took me two hours to get there and then I couldn't find the beach (apparently the beach is just a harbor and the good beaches are a couple train stops away. bummer); then it got late and I had to ride the two hours back. It was pretty much a wasted day. The next day I went to Cottesloe Beach and that was really nice, but again, it took about three and a half hours roundtrip. After spending two days getting there, I probably spent an average of 6-7 hours on the bus/train every day. Bad times. But like I said, I was fortunate to stay with really good people. Matt took me stair climbing twice at Jacob's Ladder. The second time we went at night so it was much cooler and I did the equivalent of 91 stories! Matt did 148 stories!! What a rockstar! That was definitely my favorite part of my trip to Perth. It was also really nice having Antonia, Laura and Mareike staying at the same house with me for two nights. =)


Ok, now I'm off to enjoy Adelaide. On Monday ... MELBOURNE!!!! =D