Continued from: https://mouthshut.com/blog/becholloom/Train-to-the-Big-ApplePart-1
The largest city on the way was Philadelphia and as the train approached the station I got an excellent view of the tall buildings there. The train stopped for about 15 minutes and then followed on its course to the big apple. After stopping at a couple of train stations in New Jersey, the train made for its final destination which is the New York Penn station. Built in 1910, the Penn Station has become the busiest train station in the western hemisphere serving up to 300,000 passengers a day. It is an extraordinary achievement of human ingenuity. Built fully underground it is a complete ecosystem, a city within a city connecting local and long distance trains through tunnels that run right under midtown Manhattan. The station has countless shops selling everything from food to medicines to novelty items but I didn’t care much about this place as I still had to get my passport.
The embassy office was located a few blocks away from the train station, all I had to do was find this office in the most confusing city in the world where very street looks the same and different at the same time. The good thing is that every street has a number and only major streets have names like “Broadway” or “Wall Street”. I was supposed to walk on 35th street till I spotted the office which I did with considerable ease. I was the first in line to pickup my passport and I was quite surprised and proud to see young Indian faces at the office. The young lady checked my ID and handed my PP to me saying that I was very lucky as many times the PP never returns and is lost forever. I thanked them and also appreciated their hard work. The time was a few minutes past 4 pm and my return train was at 6:30pm.
So what does one do in New York with over 2 hours to kill, for starters there is the New York style thin crust pizza and I could eat a few slices as my otherwise lost appetite had found its way after I received my PP. I took a lazy stroll to Times Square where there are many restaurants; I spotted a pizza shop and bought two cheese slices and a bottle of Gatorade, found a nice seat by the window from where I got a grandstand view of the most happening place in USA. As usual, people were walking here and there, some even running. There were an equal number of people with huge SLR cameras taking pictures of the buildings the landmarks. In words of a wise Brit, it was a large scale demonstration of Brownian motion. In front of me was a caricature maker who was making a caricature of a couple, the couple were facing me while the caricature maker’s back was facing me, so I could see what she was drawing and for the next 10 minutes I enjoyed the pizza while looking at art being created in a city which is no less than the canvass used by Leonardo or Picasso.
I finished my food and walked out of the restaurant towards Penn Station saluting the Chrysler building, the Empire state and Macys. I had one more slice of Pizza in the train station before boarding. The journey back home was a bit more interesting as the train was quite full, I did get a seat and there were people sitting next to me, most of them tired after a day’s work were listening to music while some were on their cell phones letting me eavesdrop on conversations of how horrible their boss is.
The train reached every station on time including my home, I was so tired I couldn’t even sleep, however I was relieved and that did count.
Conclusion:
FedEx does make mistakes; somehow they seem to work only when there is a tracking number. So if you are sending something via FedEx, there is a remote chance that the package may never make it, make sure you insure your package and always have a tracking number even if you are paying for the return shipment.
Amtrak is a fine train that connects many US cities. It is a very comfortable ride with the essentials like wifi and power sockets, food is not available in all Trains and it is much better to book through its website. Frequent travelers can get reward points which can be used as miles.
Indian Embassy is surprise revelation; the staff is young, energetic and helpful as opposed to the stereotypical government employees who are experts at passing the buck.
New York, well what can I say, you have to see it at least once in a lifetime.
