I will be in Dallas for a while now. We spent the whole of this week planning where to spend the weekend, without reaching any conclusion :P . Finally saturday of the 3-day-holiday dawned, and we fixed the historic M-line trolley trip as our 1st Dallas venture.
Saturday is a busy day for us, skyping with parents and all; followed by hatching up the plan, getting train timetable and map prints etc..and we started late by 1 pm. Me and my roomy walked down to the LBJ railway station near us. Another friend would be getting into the same train at the next station, and we co-ordinated well, but no DDLJ/ JWM scenes for us..our friend ran past our coach, did not hear us and got into another coach.
At our destination station, we climbed up this huge flight of stairs... Mr. ignorant Google maps told us that we need to walk 13 mins to reach M-line, but it took us <13 sec to find the waiting tram. And thus started the day..
The driver was a very funny man..he dropped titbits about history of dallas here and there. He asked us where we are from, when we said India, he folded his hands, and "AirIndia maharaja style namaste", and said, next stop Mumbai! a few minutes later, next stop Cochin! (My roomy wondered if he wanted us to get off the train). We walked back the whole length of the M-line and then some cowboy-hat shopping, lunch, co-ordinated meeting with another friend who joined us after some football match which he simply couldnt miss, and another trip down the M-line. This time the driver chatted with us, and said he knew about Cochin and Mumbai because of the synagogues.
Now that our recent joinee had an I-phone, we decided to venture to Kennedy Museum. Kennedy was shot from the 6th floor of this building. One remarkable thing strikes me..Americans are very plucky. A president knows that people are dissatisfied with his new policies, yet rides in an open-hooded car. People hear gunshots, and run up the grassy knoll to nab the killer, surely they must have known that someone capable of killing a president wont flinch killing civilians? To top it all, the killer is arrested in 90 minutes! Remarkable police action indeed, and laudable self-discipline of crowd that enabled police look for the killer than waste time managing hysterical people.
A note on the train journey: I have annual train/ bus pass, but my roomy had to get the ticket. She got 2 tickets, which we thought was one for her so-thought unsuccessful card swipe attempt and one for cash payment. She gave off her 2nd ticket to a random girl. Just prior to the train arrival, we noticed that the tickets were actually for the zone change, and retrieved the 2nd ticket. Now for California's Caltrain you have to swipe the ticket to get in at the station, but here nothing of that sort. Yet we insisted on getting a ticket on our return journey. We reached station with the train, and our friend blocked the train door while we were at the ticket vending m/c lest the train left w/o us; and lo..there comes the ticket checker :)
Saturday is a busy day for us, skyping with parents and all; followed by hatching up the plan, getting train timetable and map prints etc..and we started late by 1 pm. Me and my roomy walked down to the LBJ railway station near us. Another friend would be getting into the same train at the next station, and we co-ordinated well, but no DDLJ/ JWM scenes for us..our friend ran past our coach, did not hear us and got into another coach.
The driver was a very funny man..he dropped titbits about history of dallas here and there. He asked us where we are from, when we said India, he folded his hands, and "AirIndia maharaja style namaste", and said, next stop Mumbai! a few minutes later, next stop Cochin! (My roomy wondered if he wanted us to get off the train). We walked back the whole length of the M-line and then some cowboy-hat shopping, lunch, co-ordinated meeting with another friend who joined us after some football match which he simply couldnt miss, and another trip down the M-line. This time the driver chatted with us, and said he knew about Cochin and Mumbai because of the synagogues.
Now that our recent joinee had an I-phone, we decided to venture to Kennedy Museum. Kennedy was shot from the 6th floor of this building. One remarkable thing strikes me..Americans are very plucky. A president knows that people are dissatisfied with his new policies, yet rides in an open-hooded car. People hear gunshots, and run up the grassy knoll to nab the killer, surely they must have known that someone capable of killing a president wont flinch killing civilians? To top it all, the killer is arrested in 90 minutes! Remarkable police action indeed, and laudable self-discipline of crowd that enabled police look for the killer than waste time managing hysterical people.
A note on the train journey: I have annual train/ bus pass, but my roomy had to get the ticket. She got 2 tickets, which we thought was one for her so-thought unsuccessful card swipe attempt and one for cash payment. She gave off her 2nd ticket to a random girl. Just prior to the train arrival, we noticed that the tickets were actually for the zone change, and retrieved the 2nd ticket. Now for California's Caltrain you have to swipe the ticket to get in at the station, but here nothing of that sort. Yet we insisted on getting a ticket on our return journey. We reached station with the train, and our friend blocked the train door while we were at the ticket vending m/c lest the train left w/o us; and lo..there comes the ticket checker :)
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