I had to get up before 6 am this morning because of my early
departing train. After a quick shower I finished packing and left the apartment
by 6.20 am. There were no buses running that early on a Sunday morning but
luckily the Amtrak Station was only about 2.5 miles away. I walked for a little
less than an hour and arrived at the station quarter past seven. The train was
scheduled to depart at 8.20 am. I still had time to take a few pictures of the
train before it was time for boarding. There were not many passengers boarding
train 98 “Silver Meteor” bound for New York this morning so I got a nice window
seat in the last car. The Silver Meteor left Miami on time at 8.20 am. Soon
after Miami the train had several stops in Hollywood, FL, Fort Lauderdale, FL,
Deerfield Beach, FL, Delray Beach, FL and West Palm Beach, FL. Unfortunately
during those stops the train picked up a little bit of delay. I spent the
morning mainly with writing on the blog and eating off some food that I still
had left from the day before. Of course I also took some time to enjoy the
landscape of Florida which is really beautiful especially the lakes. After
further stops in Sebring, FL and Winter Haven, FL we reached Kissimmee in
Central Florida. I got off there instead of Orlando station as my hostel was
closer located to Kissimmee than Orlando. Before arriving in Kissimmee the
train had to wait for the southbound Silver Meteor from New York to cross and
picked up more delay through that. The train arrived in Kissimmee about 40
minutes late. Before getting off the train however, I still had lunch in the
launch car. This time I tried the Vegan Burger which I didn’t had so far. From
Kissimmee transit center I took bus Lynx 55 that went down highway 192, the
street on which also my hostel was located. The bus ride took about 30 minutes,
the bus stop was conveniently right in front of the hostel. The hostel itself
was more a motel but had also dorm rooms. At check-in I also asked about
organized tours to the Kennedy Space Center, the place I wanted to visit and
the only reason why I had stopped in Orlando. I had tried to book a tour
already in advance but all tour operator’s schedules that I could find online
were unsuitable for me as the tours didn’t return to Orlando any time before 7
pm in the evening. I however had my train leaving Orlando at 7.32 pm so joining
any of these tours would have not been possible. As I could not find any
solution online I left it until the arrival at the hostel. Unfortunately the
staff couldn’t help me either as they used the same tour companies as I had
already looked up. It had been a dream to visit the Kennedy Space Center in
Orlando but for now I would remain one. There was just no other option to get
there and back in time in order to catch the night train to Washington D.C.
Nevertheless, so far everything had worked out during this trip and sometimes
things are just not meant to be. Still I wasn’t disappointed as the location of
the hostel turned out to be very beautiful, with a nice lake just behind the
hostel and a swimming pool in the backyard. After I had settled in to my room I
took a dip in the pool and met some guys from Alaska that also had come out for
a swim. Clouds came up and it started raining, a funny experience, I had never
been in a swimming pool during rainfall. But the weather was warm and the rain
felt actually refreshing. At some point however the rain got quite strong and I
decided to head back to the dorm room. I supposed to be alone in the room. That
was at least what was told to me at check-in. However, to my surprise there was
another traveler in the room when I came back. I met a very nice guy from Porto
Rico who had been living in Texas for the past two years and had just returned
from a visit to Europe where he had spent his summer vacation. We had a long
and interesting conversation about cultural differences between Europe and the
U.S. In the evening I went to the nearby shop across the street in order to get
something to eat for the evening and for breakfast. The hostel didn’t provide
any meals but had a kitchen for guests so I could prepare my own food which was
convenient. I got to bed early because I felt tired as the night before had
been rather short.
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| Miami Amtrak with Silver Meteor |
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| Arriving in Kissimmee, FL |
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| Beautiful lake right behind the hostel |
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