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:: D R. K E R S T I N K U N Z E ::
:: curriculum vitae ::
research :: |
:: TRAVEL USA::
:: HA - DEN ::
DEN - SF ::
SF - LA ::
GC & LV ::
LA - NOL ::
NOL - CHI ::
CHI - HA ::
20.02.02Next morning I took a bus very early to the union station. I thought that it would be more interesting to go to San Diego the day, than spending in Los Angeles. But unfortnualy the bus tooks again more than one hour and so I arrived at 9:30 am at the union station, to late to get a ticket for the train leaving few minutes later. So I let my luggage at the station (this time it was possible and for free:-) and walked through downtown. It was much more traffic than the last time I was there. You could feel the difference between a weekday and weekend. Again I was going to the tourist information and this time I found some flyers, but the only interesting museum was for me the California science center. Like always it was only writting how to go there by car (an highway exit) and not by bus. But the street of the museum starts at the tourist information and it was just 30 blocks. It was nice weather, I had plenty of time and would sit the next two days a lot, so I walked. The area around was strange, first I pass a congress center, than a lot of fast food restaurants, the university and finaly the exposition park, where the museum was located.I arrived at the totaly wrong time: the museum was crowed by school classes and those kids where just running around and pressing all buttons they found. I really get nervous after a while. After lunch the museum get emptier, the school had stopped. But the museum is a little superficial. There was a computer calculating what I should take for a healthy meal. It showed a pyramide for the food, the basement is given by bread, the next level offers vegetables and fruits, than meat and at the top fat. I should eat as much as the width of the pyramide. Choosing a banana and an apple for breakfast the computer told me, that I already ate to much fruits for the whole day! And it would be more healthier (for my bread account) to eat an hamburger than cornflakes or other cereals in the morning. (I have to admit, that it also showed a too high fat content.) I have no doubts why the americans are so fat, if they have such an education... Sure, there was also an opportunity to eat in the museum: Mc Donalds.
When it starts to dawn I went to the union station. Shortly after I was sitting a woman from taiwan starts to talk with me. She is going together with her husband to their son in texas. They lived before 10 years in a house for older person in california and now they should go back to their children. The communication is quiet difficult, because even she lived so long in US, she didn't know to much words. Even with the help of an american I hardly can explain her where she has to enter the train. Later on I recognize, that both are also quiet confused, they were asking every few hours where the snackbar is (and there is only one stair in each coach and only one sightseerlounge!).
21.02.02Leaving Los Angeles it was dark (logically at midnight;-) and waking up in the morning I only saw desert. Except few places, like we saw in the morning passing few miles crowded my cows.The train left Los Angeles a little bit delayed, because it was waiting for the Coast Starlight from Seattle. In Tucson we get another two hours of delay. A lady in the train showed very feable behaviour and addionaly she had some blue parts in the face. She behaved like being drunken or filled up with medicine or drugs. She told her story in the sightseerlounge: She married in Las Vegas few days before and then her husband suddenly had to leave to Chicago - without her. Afterwards she was falling out of bed and get some injures in her face. So she stayed some days in hospital. Now a limousine was giving her a ride to the train in order to go to Chicago. But I really think it was better to send her out of the train. There were to less attendants for the train (normaly there is one for two coaches and at that time there was one for four), so they also had problems to locate the lady in the train. Finally they call the police and they were speaking insistently to the women to leave the train. When the train was continuing she was standing on the platform between the cops and waving.
Due to our small delay and due to the fact, that the tracks are belonging to Union Pacific and not to Amtrak, we had to wait for all sh* freighttrains on the route. This didn't lead to a reduce of the delay... Once we also saw the chief of the train running around outside in the middle of nowhere. He told later on, that there was a cow on the track. At late noon we reach El Paso, the border to Mexico. Few miles we are following the border line and it was a big difference, on the right hand side the slums of Mexico and on the left small detached houses. Shortly in front of the station we had to wait again, because our sister train was still in the station. It was a service stop, so water and petrol had to be filled again and this took some time.
During the evening Amtrak showed two films in the observation car, Bandits and American Sweetheart. I didn't follow the second one to much, because we started to play cards. Back at my seat in the coach I was greeted "hello stranger" by the lady sitting next to me. Probably she was missing a talking partner during the day... For the night I took my backpack and found a double seat for me alone. In this way you can enjoy the night. 22.02.02The next morning starts great. After more than 24 hours aboard you already know a lot of person (always the same persons are sitting in the sightseerlounge). So at the first stop around 7 am, everybody is going out of the train and like on a campingsite everybody greets and ask about the night.During the day we left the desert and green plants appear again. I even saw some turtles lying in the sun. We were passing a lot of lonely houses, to visit the neighbour you will need probably a quarter of an hour by car. We were asking ourself, how the people are earning their money.
I lay in bed at 11:30 pm and at that moment somebody was switching on the light and the ventilator. I was lucky to have my ear plugs. |
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