USA 45 Days by Rail: July 2015

Day 24 - Discovering Philadelphia

I had a really good night sleep, the hostel bed was very comfortable. Also the staff was really friendly. I could have just stayed another night there but I had to leave. After a warm shower and some tea and biscuits I was ready to go and discover Philadelphia. The historic center of Philadelphia was only a block away from my accommodation. I first passed by the National Constitution Center which wasn’t open yet so early. The building however was really impressive and I took pictures of the building from several angels. Right next to the National Constitution Center was the Independence Visitor Center. I didn’t enter the center because I wanted first take pictures of the Independence Hall. I walked around the Independence Hall and took pictures of the building. I hadn’t gotten a ticket at the Independence Visitor Center so I couldn’t enter the building. It was supposed to be rainy in the afternoon so I decided to leave the visit for later. Instead I went to see the Liberty Bell as cues to the center were short at the time. After learning more about the history of the bell and its meaning I finally got to see the Liberty Bell itself. I had planned to meet my friend for lunch around noon so I had about 90 minutes left after I had seen the Liberty Bell. I decided to leave the historic part of Philadelphia and go to see the SS United States. I was first considering to rent a bike but the rent was quite high compared to going by bus. I chose the bus instead. I had to walk however all the way down to Columbus Blvd off Philadelphia Landings to catch line 25. When I was approaching Columbus Blvd I saw a bus 25 arriving at the stop. I was lucky as the traffic light was just changing and the bus had to stop at the red light giving me time to cross the street and still catch the bus. The ride wasn’t very long, after about 15 minutes the SS United States towed at pier 82 came in sight. I requested a stop and got off just a block off pier 82. There she was, once the pride of America, still holder of the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing in regular service and the biggest U.S and one of the very last Ocean Liners built. Sure she wasn’t as large as the Queen Mary which I had visit in Long Beach last year but still impressive in her appearance. She went out of service in 1969 and sadly had been docked at pier 82 for years and been rusting since. Unfortunately pier 82 was not accessible but I still got some really good pictures thanks to my zoom lens. On the search to the closest stop of line 25 I just saw a bus approaching but couldn’t stop it as I was too far from the stop. The next bus was 30 minutes later. I returned to pier 82 to spend some more time with the SS United States. I was back at the bus stop 20 minutes later. The bus was approaching the stop but wasn’t slowing down until I signaled the driver that I wanted to ride on the bus. He apologized by saying that he has never seen anybody boarding the bus at that stop. Well there is always a first time for everything. After 15 minutes I was back at Philadelphia Landings. I walked down Market Street returning to the historic center. I had agreed with my friend to meet him at the Independence Visitor Center at 12.45 pm. I was still early so I used the time to briefly visit Washington Square Park and the tomb of the unknown revolutionary war soldier. Unfortunately my friend had fallen sick and couldn’t meet me anymore for lunch. I had lunch on my own. After lunch I finally visited the Independence Visitor Center also in order to get a ticket for the Independence Hall. Unfortunately there were no tickets available until after my train departure at 3.25 pm. I still spent some time in the visitor center before making my way back to the hostel in order to pick up my bag I had stored there. Thick clouds had formed and it looked after rain. I therefore decided to rather leave to the station early. Getting there took in the end slightly longer than expected as I had to wait quite a while until a blue line train showed up at 5^th Street Station. The ride down to 30^th Street Station didn’t take very long. I was just exiting the metro station when the rain started. Luckily the railway station was only a few meters from the metro station. I wasn’t surprised to learn that my train was delayed by 10 minutes. I spend some time in the Amtrak station, a beautiful monumental building, kept in Art Deco style. The delay increased every time I checked the screens. In the end the delay was 40 minutes. The cue again was endlessly long and I started to wonder how many seats the train had. Once the cue started moving boarding went quite smoothly. Of course I didn’t find a window seat anymore but that is something I have gotten used to. Finally train 42 “Pennsylvanian” left Philadelphia with 42 minutes delay. The “Pennsylvanian” called in Trenton, New Jersey and Newark, NJ before finally approaching New York Penn Station. Unfortunately the delay still increased and the final station stop in New York, NY was reached with a delay of 60 minutes. Finding my way through Penn Station wasn’t easy as the station was packed with commuters. However, somehow I managed to find the entry point of the subway system and I got myself a 7 day MTA pass before entering the platform. I had to wait some time until the A express train bound for 207^th Street showed up. The train was packed with people but slowly it got emptier and emptier. I rode the A line all the way up to the final stop at 207^th Street which took about half an hour. I exited the station and had only to walk about 50 meters until I arrived at my accommodation, home for the upcoming 13 nights. I had booked an Air B’n’B with a very friendly couple renting out a bedroom in their specious apartment. After entering the building and making my way up to the fifth floor I was greeted by the host. He showed me the room and provided me with a lot of useful tips for New York. I settled into my room and went to get some groceries in the nearby store. I spent the evening with my hosts before going to sleep.

National Constitution Center

Independence Mall

Liberty Bell

SS United States at pier 82

Washington Square Park

Day 23 - Crossing the center line

This day marked the middle of my trip. I couldn’t believe that already 22 days had passed since my departure from LA. Also in terms of distance traveled and time on the train I was pretty much in the middle of my journey. Up to my arrival in Washington D.C. I had completed about 5,000 miles (around 8,100 km) and over 100 hours on the train. I woke up early in the morning which wasn’t bad as there was only one bathroom for about 20 people on the same floor. I had not to wait long until I could get into the bath room. After a nice warm shower I eat breakfast in the kitchen. There I also met a very nice French guy who was on a road trip heading towards South Carolina. We had a nice chat about different travel experiences in the U.S. Then a quarter to nine I was ready to leave the hostel after I had packed everything ready. I went next door to the reception in order to check-out. There I again ran into the French guy who had left slightly earlier than me. Unfortunately the check-out wasn’t possible before 10 am. So we had to sit and wait in the lobby. There was a service number at the reception but nobody answered the phone. I was thinking about visiting nearby Chinatown but I had been there during my first visit in Washington D.C. three years ago and there wasn’t much to see. I didn’t want to go down to the National Mall because it would have not been worth to go there for an hour. So we both stayed and waited while continuing our conversation from the breakfast table. Around 9.50 am the reception opened and we both could finally check out. I left my bag in the hostel and walked the short distance to the closest metro station. With the yellow line I got to L’Enfant Plaza from where I transferred to the silver line going to the Smithsonian station which is located right in the middle of the National Mall. I walked down the mall towards the Washington Monument. After taking some picture from the monument which is slightly elevated and provides a nice view towards the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial I continued my walk towards the WWII Memorial. I was happy to see that the Reflecting Pool was filled with water. During my first visit in 2012 the Reflecting Pool was under renovation and therefore emptied. I love to take pictures of surfaces that reflect and provide stunning mirror pictures such as water, glass or metal. I strolled along the pool down to the Lincoln Memorial and got some pretty nice shots with the pool. Even so I had seen it before and my time was limited I still climbed up the stairs to the memorial in order to pay Abraham Lincoln’s impressive statue a visit. Of course the place was totally crowded with tourists. Still I got some nice shots and took also a picture from the point on the stairs where Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. After that I headed all the way back to the Washington Monument and even a bit further to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. After security screening I entered the museum and first locked my backpack, this time making sure that I had put the key in a safe space in order to not lose it again like the day before. Before starting with the collection it was first time to have lunch. As I still remembered from my previous visit, how difficult it was to find something to eat at the National Mall, I decided to go for the museum’s restaurant. It was indeed pricy but the food was good and they had a salad bar which was great. After I had eaten I had about two hours left. I entered first the exhibition called “American Enterprise” focusing on commercialization and consumerism, an area closely related to my study background and research interest. It was really interesting to learn how this issues had evolved in the U.S. and certainly enhanced my understanding of the U.S context in particular. The most interesting thing I found in this exhibition was the chart that showed the development of income in the U.S. over the past 100 years. The average income in the lower levels certainly hasn’t risen at all while the top 1% income group had seen a huge increase in income. This had certainly lead to people migrating downwards on the social class leader. While some have compensated the lower purchasing power by taking loans others had simply extended their credit card lines. The 2008 financial crises was one of the many negative outcomes of this development. Next I entered the “America on the move” exhibition, an interesting timeline of the development of the transportation sector in the U.S. over the past 200 years or so featuring interesting artifacts. I finally ran out of time but I still briefly entered the “American presidency” exhibition. But then I had really to leave in order to not miss my train to Philadelphia. I went back to the National Mall and entered the metro system through the Smithsonian station taking the orange line to L’Enfant Plaza station and then the blue line to the Shaw Howard station. I picked up my bag from the hostel which didn’t take much time and ten minutes later I was on the metro again taking the red line to the Union Station. I arrived well in time which was good because the station was busy and everything took longer than usually. I still had time to take some pictures of the station building and to buy some food to go. Then the departure gate and track number were announced and a never ending line for the Northeast Regional train 196 appeared out of nowhere. I got on the line about 10 minutes before boarding started. Once the gate had been opened the line moved surprisingly fast and soon I was down at the platform where I still could take a few nice shots before I had to get on board. To my surprise I still got a window seat. The train left sharp 5.05 pm, on time. Soon after we had pulled out of Union Station we already had our first stop in New Carrollton, Maryland. I ate my dinner while admiring the beautiful scenery that popped up once we had passed Baltimore International Airport. Also Baltimore, MD looked pretty nice from the window. Finally the train made one more stop in Wilmington, Delaware. Another two hours had passed and it was about time to get ready for the arrival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My Finnish friend and fellow Fulbrighter came to meet me at the station, we haven’t seen each other for more than one year since we both left Finland to study in the U.S. and we had a lot of experiences and stories to share. We took the Market-Frankfort blue line train down Market Street after I had gotten two tokens from the vending machine. All the way down from 30^th Street station to 2^nd Street took about 15 minutes. We got off right in front of the Philadelphia Landings only a short walk away from the hostel I was staying at. I checked quickly in and stored my bags in the room. Then we left the hostel and headed down towards the historic center of Philadelphia where we found a nice beer garden. We tried some local beers and had some bar snacks with that. There was so much to talk and tell, it got really late in the end. After I had returned to the hostel I went to bed almost instantly.

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool

Abraham Lincoln

View from the Lincoln Memorial

National Museum of American History

America on the move exhibition

Leaving Washington D.C.

Day 22 - Visiting the Smithsonian

I woke up when the train just stopped in Petersburg, Virginia. Unfortunately the train was still close to two hours delayed. I fell asleep again and woke up the next time at the station stop in Richmond, VA. I got slowly up, still having plenty of time until the delayed arrival in Washington D.C. I went to the launch car in order to get some breakfast and to charge my phone batteries. While having breakfast I enjoyed the beautiful landscape of Virginia. The lakes were very similar to those one can find in Finland, especially in my region. Once back at my seat I had a very nice chat with the person sitting next to me who was traveling from Florida to Connecticut in order to visit his family. We had a lively conversation on our experiences with delayed trains. Finally close to Alexandria, VA it seemed as if we had made up some time and we were supposed to arrive to Washington D.C. only one hour delayed. But then just right before pulling into Alexandria we were hold up again. Although the stop in Alexandria was short and the ride into Washington Union Station didn’t take long we arrived about one and a half hours late at 8.45 am instead of 7.07 am. I didn’t mind the delay a lot because I could skip the rush hour in Washington D.C. and Union Station was just slowing down significantly while I was still waiting for my bags at the claiming area. I first thought about storing the bag in the station and picking it up later when going to the hostel but $25 storing fee per day was for my taste a bit overpriced. Instead I kept the trolley with me during the day, it wasn’t that heavy anyhow. Leaving it at the hostel would have taken a lot of time away so I made my way straight to the metro and got a ticket. Once I had my ticket it was just 8 minutes until peak hour tariffs ended at the metro. In Washington D.C. there are two price systems for peak hours and off-peak hours. The off-peak tickets are about 30% cheaper. As ticket prices also depend on distance and I was planning to go quite far it was worth waiting the 8 minutes in order to save some money. I used the time to have a short walk around Union Station, a really beautiful building. This was my second time in Washington D.C. so I had been there before. However, spending time at Union Station is always nice. Finally at 9.31 am I entered the metro and got on a red line train to Metro Center. There I switched to the silver line and drove all the way to the final stop. The journey took almost an hour. From the final stop I transferred to the Connector bus line 983 that provided service straight to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum located right next to Washington Dulles International Airport. I has just missed a 983 bus but there was another one running 20 minutes later and soon I was on board line 983. The ride took about 40 minutes and the bus called also at the airport. I always wanted to see the airport terminal as it was designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen in 1964. By that time it was a revolutionary building. Indeed I perceived the building as very impressive and also timeless. Without knowing I would have never guessed that the terminal had been designed in the early 1960s. After we had passed by the airport the bus finally turned towards the museum that was located south of the airport. I was lucky, after safety screening I could store my bags for free at the museum instead of paying $25 at the Union Station. I started with the exhibition right away. I had heard and read so much about the museum that I knew exactly what I wanted to see, I only had to find out where the things were located. The museum really featured many outstanding objects that had written history in aeronautics and space flight. Just to mention a few, the museum had on display the Space Shuttle Discovery, Air France’s first Concorde, Boeing’s first 707 and the B-29 bomber “Enola Gay” which had dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and written history by ending WWII. These were just a few among a long list of interesting things to see at the Smithsonian. Finally I also had the chance to visit the control tower that provided great views over the entire Washington Dulles International Airport. I took some pictures of landing and taking-off airplanes. After browsing the museum’s shop I headed back to the lockers just to realize that I had lost my locker key. I couldn’t believe it, I have never ever in my life lost anything important such as a key. After checking my pockets several times I had to turn to the help desk which refereed me to the museum’s security. The supervisor had to be called and also came soon with a spare key. He was very friendly and opened the locker for me. I felt so sorry that I had lost the key but it must have been somewhere in the museum and I was sure that someone would sooner or later find the key and return it hopefully. Relieved I left the museum, it was almost 5 pm. I had been quite long in the museum as I had arrived around 11.30 am. Luckily I hadn’t to wait too long until a bus 983 came. The ride back took almost an hour due to rush hour traffic. By 6 pm I finally reached the metro station. After topping up my ticket, this time I had to pay the peak hour fare, I got on the silver line back to Washington D.C. I went all the way back until Metro Center where I transferred to the red line. After one stop I switched to the yellow line at Gallery station for another two stops. Then I finally arrived at the stop closest to my hostel. The hostel was only a 3 minutes’ walk from the station, luckily because it began to rain when I left the metro station. I just got into the hostel before it became really strong. After I had checked in I had to go outside again because my room was located in another building but only 20 meters away. The rain was quite strong but I made it without getting really wet. After settling in I went quickly to the supermarket around the corner to get some food for the night and for breakfast. This time I had my umbrella at hand which was convenient. While having dinner in the kitchen I met some of the other guys staying at the hostel. I had a nice chat with two guys from California that were both living not too far from me which was kind of funny. We had an interesting conversation on climate change and changing weather patterns that we had observed during our lifetimes. I didn’t stay up for too long as I had not slept that much the night before on the train.