2013/07/28: Canadian Washago - Winnipeg

Yesterday I did not only have no chance to visit the beautiful cities Montréal and Toronto, I also didn’t have a chance to buy food, drinks and batteries for the next days in the train (my battery recharger obviously doesn’t work with Canada’s 110 V), so VIA Rail (and its lunch cars) will earn a lot of money from me because of their delay… And my GPS device doesn’t work anymore… Although I don’t like to pay them so much money, I absolutely love the staff of VIA Rail. I never ever met such friendly conductors and station agents. But compared to the US I still don’t understand why traveling by train in Canada is so much more expensive than in the United States – the Amtrak Service is partly much better, especially for coach car passengers, which in Canada are not even allowed to use the “real” dining car. I like Amtrak’s superliner double-decker cars even more than the also extremely comfortable Canadian cars, but taste is a matter of choice... Compared to this other huge country with its Transsiberian Railway, I miss the coal heating (these fucking air conditions, I’m freezing all day!), and I miss the Babuschkas offering cheap food and drinks on the platforms (this reminds me of the fact that I also miss the stops where you can move your legs, in Canada these stops are rarer than in Russia). But the landscape in Canada is more diversified than in Russia, you see not only trees and rivers, but also a lot of lakes! According to my “Trans-Canada Rail Guide” the train already entered “what is known as the “thousand mile gap” cutting through the Canadian Shield. (…) It took more than 20,000 men to get the track from here to the prairies, (…) the train is forced to weave and loop around numerous lakes, all the while cutting through the rock or bogland of the Shield”.


A bit of sleeping, a bit of reading, a bit of talking to other passengers, writing some notes in your diary – and suddenly the day is over. This is how it was at Trassiberian Railway, and it is exactly how it is here in the Canadian. I could stay another week in this comfortable living room train, with framed pictures in every car, four dome cars and nice fellow passengers from different countries. The second night in this trains begins soon, tomorrow morning I’ll have to leave it. How sad.


It’s difficult to name the highlights of a day where you’re relaxing in a comfortable train and looking at uncountable trees and lakes passing by. One of the highlights was for sure the concert of Matt Epp – yes, a life concert in a running train! Matt played some songs (I would call it country folk love songs, no idea what an expert in music would call id) with guitar and harmonica in the “activity car”. To be strictly accurate, he gave three concerts in the three different activity cars, every concert about one hour. His voice is great, so is his sense of humour. “I’ve got the best audience ever – captive!”, “Playing for the first time in a train, my music is moving – technically”. Matt will give some concerts in Germany this year, I can absolutely recommend to visit one!

Another highlight was the stop in Hornepayne. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, cold, windy, rainy, large puddles of water instead of a real platform – but many passengers used the chance to get some fresh air and to move their legs. So did we and entered a little shop that’s open on Sundays and that sells almost everything from potato chips to – yes, to batteries! My GPS device is working again. It’s also the only technical device which receives any signal, using a mobile phone or going online is not possible in this barely populated part of Canada. A last highlight of the day was the dinner in the dining car, followed by my first Canadian beer. I enjoyed it together with Laura, who is doing her work and travel in Canada at the moment. As she has to go back to Germany soon, my Canadian adventure has just started.