So I moved to Virginia... Why I say DC? Arrey yaar, to go to VA (where I live, now) I need to go to Union Station at Washington DC and I am 30 mins away from there. So I took my first Amtrak ride from South Station in Boston. I had 5 bags: 3 large bags, one carry on bag each 50+ lbs & one laptop bag which was 20+ lbs (My backpack laptop bag's awesome & I use it like anything for my travels). Amtrak allows two 50 lbs 21" bags as carry on & three 50 lbs 36" bags for check in (larger bags but still same weight as carry on even for check in, huh!! But I managed to squeeze 50+ in all bags. & It's awesome thing considering the fact how much I suck at packing :). You need to check in your bags 30 mins before departure & as usual I was late by few mins (when was the last time I was on time?? I guess I was born on time as expected.. or not!!!). So, they didn't let me check-in my bags, all requests were useless on those american Amtrak ears. However, they allowed me to take all those bags as carry on... so nice of them naa!! But... imagine carrying 5 heavy bags alone in a train as carry ons, UGH!!! But the amazing me managed to do that, I got all the bags in the coach by myself & placed them (they have really huge compartments to place bags there, i guess they make everyone carry check ins as carry ons), got a seat close by to my luggae, doors & toilet too (you can sit anywhere you want, no assigned seats). Amtrak ride is okay, fine seats & all that. They even have power ports so I plugged my laptop & watched two movies, Blue (it was just okay, 5/10. they spent hell lot of money on under water scenes, special effects maybe & start cast but forgot to put in the story properly I guess. Ohh, it turns out they had American writers for this, lol!!) and Moon (was fine, 7/10. they had american writers heer too probably but it was interesting concept about deranged clones working on moon). The train reached DC at time in morning and I got my luggage out of coach by myself. On the platform I got a Red-Cap (they are like porters/bellboy & help to carry your luggage on a big trolley and they wear red caps). He kept my luggage on trolley & took me to the gate (I tipped him $5, yeah I did that) where I waited for my friend to pick me up. I don't understand one thing though, why the hell they don't have trolleys on train stations. They allow so many heavy bags as luggage but don't think people would need a trolley to carry those bags, WTF?? Well... My friend Harish came up to pick me 7 o'clock in morning in the damn cold of DC, thanks!! Like my friends Emon & Anand came to drop me at Station in Boston; that's what real friends are for, thanks guys!!
Also I had my first incident of mild Racial Profiling for the first time in USA. What happened? I was sitting in train watching movie when a Police Officer suddenly came & asked me, "Can I talk to you for a min Sir". I said sure & went with him towards the train doors. He asked for my ID & started asking questions about me, where I am form, what I do where am going & why. Tells me that there are lots of police on the train and he's doing a random security check (really?? all the randomness makes you pick just a brown south east asian guy!!). I answered all his questions and he was noting all that information in a notebook. I said I understand that he's just doing his job for our security and it's okay. He didn't bother me much though & asked how was my first Amtrak ride & I said it was okay (till then!!). Anyways, overall it was a decent ride & decent experience on Amtrak. I finally moved to VA & lets see what happens next, lets just keep our fingers crossed & hope for the best!!! Well, the question is why do we cross our fingers & what does it do??? lol.... bye friends & thanks for stopping by!!!
