The train, the toilet and the tornado!

Buffalo - 42°53'11.00"N 78°52'43.00"W

I arrived here on Sunday evening after a train ride back from Providence to New York city, a beer in an Irish bar and then another train ride here to Buffalo. Lots of time on the train so far but it's a good way of seeing the country whilst you sit back and do nothing!

The weekend with the Roosevelts was great. Haven and Bunny both made me feel really welcome. Their house(s) are awesome. I stayed in their "winter" home but I also got to see their summer place which is on the beach just 5 miles away. I think I'll send them a Christmas card to say thanks - unlike the faction of you that have conspired to post colourful comments to my blog! I wanted to assume they were from some of my younger student friends...........instead, it seems my 50 year old father is responsible!

Anyway - the train journeys like I said have been good. From Providence the train follows the water all the way down the north east coast, past harbours, ponds lakes and rivers, before it gets to New York City. About 10 minutes before we got to Penn station though, I made an educated decision to go to the toilet before I became burdened with luggage and having to find somewhere to go in the station.

So - I casually strolled down the train to the toilet cubicle at the end of the carriage, slid the door open and set foot inside.........almost! To my horror I was confronted with the sight of a young lady, mid squat (that's halfway between standing and sat), ankles loaded with jeans and underwear, and by now arms flailing frantically as she tried to get hold of the door to shut it.

Panic ensued and I failed to stifle an involuntary and rather loud "Oh sh*t, sorry", which served only to draw the attention of my fellow train passengers to the embarrassing situation. Having managed to get the door shut I was then confronted with a difficult decision. Did I A) turn and head back to my seat whilst trying not to laugh out loud and enrage the young lady's boyfriend who was sat just a few rows away, or B) make for the dining car, buy a packet of Dorritos and wait until I'd finished laughing before heading back to my seat. I took door B) and hid there until the train arrived in New York and I could get my bags and run away!

The train from New York City to Buffalo was less eventful, but the scenary was amazing. The track follows the east coast of the Hudson River all the way up to Albany with the mountains to the west. From Albany the sun went down and I slept the rest of the way to Buffalo.

I took a cab from the station to downtown Buffalo where the Youth Hostel is. My hosts at the University at Buffalo had kindly dropped off a bag full of information and an itinerary there for me, and I made my way to the dormitory feeling good about having arrived for the next instalment of my trip. Feeling good though didn't last long. As I stuggled to get my key card to open the door to the dormitory I heard what I thought sounded like a tornado or similar natural disaster unfolding on just the other side of the door. As I made my way inside I discovered it was in fact the sound of a bloated and oversized bloke struggling to breathe and producing the most horrific gutteral snorts and snores as he slept.

I've been told at least a million times not to exagerate, but I can honestly say that this was unbelievable. The walls were shaking, the windows rattled and the only other occupant of the dormitory, a small chinese guy, was physically shaking as he cowered under his bed sheets, doing his best to block out the noise and get to sleep.

I made up my bed and prayed that the offensive noise would end, but instead it carried on and on and I was forced to listen to Nancy Griffiths (the most soothing music I could find on my borrowed iPod) in an attempt to drown out the noise and get to sleep. I managed to get 1 hour! - I shouldn't have slept on the train!!!! I think there was a couple of times that the guy actually nearly died. There would be no breathing at all for at least 5 or 6 seconds........before the silence suddenly ended with a disturbing intake of snot congested air. The other time he nearly died was when I came close to beating him to death with his own shoes!!

In the morning I told a series of lies to the nice lady at reception - "Yes thanks, I had a good nights sleep" and "no, I won't be staying another night because the University at Buffalo have kindly offered me a place to stay that was closer to campus"............they had done, but that was months ago and I'd forgotten all about it - I had to hope that there was still space for me!

Anyway - there was space for me and I've spent the last few night staying in a Motel right over the road from the campus and the staff that I've been meeting with. Everybody here has been amazing. I've had a full 3 days worth of stuff to do and I've got information (and gifts!) coming out of my ears!

Tomorrow I'm off to Niagara Falls, and I think I'm walking across the bridge into Canada as well, which I didn't know you could do. Buffalo itself seems like a great town, but people have explained to me that it's been going through a bit of a rough patch lately with a decline in industry. With all this going on though I can honestly say that the people that live here are fantastic, and if anything can pick Buffalo back up onto its feet, it'll be them. There's plenty of history and culture here, so over time I think things will get better.

Oh - and the snow thing - there isn't any! In fact it's quite mild here. It turns out that the snow everybody had told me about was the result of a freak storm that they had here a few weeks ago. 2 feet of snow fell in about 12 hours. Every tree here has been nearly snapped in half because they still had their leaves on and the weight of the snow got to be too much! The city had a huge blackout as the power lines went down, the roads were closed and homes were damaged. I'm glad I wasn't here for it!

Just realised that this post is rather long, so I'm sorry if you've got this far and found nothing that I've had to say to be of any interest - here's the thing though - keep your comments to yourself......... Dad!

I'll be in touch again when I get to Chicago!

M