It’s 8:30 p.m. when the dented, steel-grey carriages of the Skeena, the VIA Rail train serving the northern route from Jasper, begin their final wheezing crawl into Prince Rupert, the rainfall capital of Canada’s multi-fjorded Wet Coast. Far from a pampering Rocky Mountaineer excursion, this old-school locomotive feels like a perambulating 1950s diner, complete with a side order of cozy home-style charm.
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I’m standing in an overheated hotel reception room in downtown San Antonio, loosening a tie that feels like a noose and knocking back the free Merlot as if it’s water.
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Bleary-eyed and grumpy after a sleepless night in my city-centre hotel – a month on the road researching a guidebook has left me missing my Vancouver bed the way an amputee misses a limb – I’m wandering Dublin’s historic, near-deserted streets on a chilly, fog-shrouded Saturday morning.
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I’m wedged between preening TV glitterati from Mexico and ancient newspaper hacks from New York, sharing small talk about the size of Minnie Mouse’s rear, when the quadraphonic drum roll begins.
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Gazing into the cold, dead face of a killer isn’t one of my preferred vacation activities, but on an early morning creep around southern Australia’s Old Melbourne Gaol there isn’t much choice.
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I'm sitting outside a beachside café in Los Angeles in the middle of an unexpected storm, yawning uncontrollably as I wait for a hangover-busting greasy breakfast. Luckily, I'm enclosed in one of those see-through plastic shelters cautious restaurateurs attach to their patios when they don't trust the local weather forecast.
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I’m zig-zagging between the grassy knolls on the Plains of Abraham with a heavy heart. Now a swath of tranquil parkland, this historic Quebec City locale is where hundreds lost their lives in the 1759 battle between French and British forces, a milestone in the birth of the nation. It’s also the place where one of my biggest relationships finally disintegrated in an afternoon of juddering sobs, but there’s not a single plaque, information panel or historic re-creation to mark it.
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