Train No.1 - The Canadian

Somehow I got to the train station ridiculously early and yet was still nowhere near the front of the cue. I was sat next to some lovely crazy people - A German girl, Elena who had been working at Tim Hortons in Toronto for 5 months; a Greek geologist, Nick, who lived in Halifax; a woman from Montreal, Karen, who loved trains and couldn't speak a word of French so pretended to be from Vancouver; and several old men who talked A LOT. The train was running early, for a change, when coming into Capriol so we had a chance to run to the Grocery store and buy watermelon, cheese and crispy chicken (essentials, obviously). Back on the train the men were complaining about the Chinese take-away they'd got. How the price had increased over the last decade or something similar... We sat smugly with our chicken and cheese and then devoured watermelon and pringles while watching Shreck 3 before falling asleep very contented.
Day 2 we discovered we were beginning to leave the frozen lakes and trees of Ontario behind and entering the vast flatness of the prairies. It's crazy how huge the horizon is and how big it makes the sky look in Regina and Saskatoon. We had another refueling stop in Winnipeg so went down to the market at the forks for a late lunch and to stoke up on bread and cinnamon rolls for the journey. The old men had moved on to discussing the increase in gas and hamburger prices since the 1930s and telling their war stories to anyone who would listen. Make eye contact and you're stuck for at least an hour. We watched 'No Reservations' that night in between spotting herds of deer, falcons and LOTS of crows.
Day 3 we got excited by the first glimpse of the Rockies and bagged front row seats upstairs in the dome car to watch them drawing nearer. When we entered Jasper National Park, we had a running commentary from one of the crew members about the draining of the river and rise in pollution changing the landscapes. Nick also informed us about the rock formations, how the glaciers had crushed them to be just so and then melted away to reveal what we see today. When we arrived in Jasper we avoided the over priced cafes and got a Subway before Elena and Nick had to get back on the train Vancouver-bound.