A Paris

It is 2am Icelandic time while I am writing this. It is still light out but its raining and 45 degrees so we decided to stay inside. Our plan to camp out in the bar has been hampered by the fact that the bar is closed. Instead, Neal is reading and I found some free internet access. By the way, Ms. Parker, if you are reading this I dropped a cracker on the floor when we first got here. I´ll let your imagination decide what I did with it.

How has the trip been going you ask? Well, the train station in Elyria consists of a double wide and a bench and we had to sit on that bench for 45 minutes because the train was 20 minutes late. Amtrack wouldn´t be a bad way to travel, you have big seats, room to walk around, a lounge car, plugs to charge electronics, if it wasn´t for the fact that the train has to stop for every freight train that comes along. Amtrack doesn´t own the track and so its trains spend a lot of time waiting on sidings. What was suppose to be a 13 hour ride turned into 15.5. I did learn however, the location of a nice bar just a block from the train station in Albany, NY, for future reference. I was a little sad when we got into Penn Station because I was hoping to get a sub. I figured that Penn Station subs were over priced in Columbus but in New York I wouldn´t mind paying that much. I couldn´t find one though.

Our hostel in New York was in a Brownstone on the Upper East Side and three block from central park. We roomed with a couple from Argentina and had some very good pizza. The next morning we were able to see a little of the city before flying out on Thursday afternoon. We walked around the park, got some bagels, admired the sky-line. I´ll have to go back and spend a longer amount of time in the near future.

That brings me to the flight. We were on Icelandair and that is why we have 8 hour stopover in Iceland. The flight was crowded and the Icelanders decided to have a party. They were constantly up and down the aisle,talking to people, drinking a lot of Viking beer, and generally having a good timea. I guess when your country only has 308,000 people you are bound to run into some you know. The guy Neal was sitting next to was from Sweden but now lives in the US and was taking his kids back to Sweden to visit his parents. He, however, spent 6 summers traveling around Europe for a month or two when he was in college and was full of great information. There was a also a couple and their three kids in the row behind us who are from Powell. They are traveling onto France as well and we are hanging out together in the airport. The seven of us are the only people here besides the occasional sercurity guard. It would be creepy but it is still light outside so it feels like the middle of the day in here.

All in all it has been fun so far. We haven´t gotten lost yet and I have already finished two books. Neal is about a third done with his first one. He falls asleep everytime he starts reading. Now I know what he does at the library all the time. Here I thought he was studying and it turns out he was just napping. Sorry for the typos and errors but its late and don´t feel like taking the time to fix them. Next stop Paris.