Ten years ago, I rode on a high speed train for the first time in my life. Unfortunately, I didn’t really appreciate it all that much. I really should have, because we have nothing like that in Canada. Four years ago, I got back into trains and rail travel. For me it was all about the ideas, the concept of it, and the maps. I knew that rail travel in Canada is inaccessible. In a country where you can catch a $9 flight from Vancouver to Edmonton, the train on the same route costs $200 and takes almost thirty hours. On both sides of things it’s not that appealing: I can’t afford it, and it doesn’t strike me as particularly useful.

Luckily VIA Rail has been working towards a more affordable and accessible future for younger people in Canada. Part of this is that VIA Rail considers everyone under the age of 26, or those over who are full-time students, to still be “youth.” I can gripe all I want about VIA Rail (and I’m sure I will over the coming months), but I have never heard of another company that recognizes that our generation is more financially disadvantaged than any generation in the last seventy years. Round of applause to you, VIA Rail. And, really, I can’t blame VIA Rail itself for most things that it does wrong – it is a victim of nearly non-existent funding.

The moment I saw the railpass for such a low price, I started looking at where you can go with VIA Rail. Not that I don’t know that already – I created a map of every VIA Rail station, so I know all the names of towns. What I didn’t know is what you could actually do in those places. For instance, you can go to Campbellton, New Brunswick. So what? Well, there’s a great little provincial park within walking distance of the train station and a hike to the top of the highest hill for quite a long way. You can go to Brockville, Ontario. So what? Well, being a railway nerd, I couldn’t miss walking through the oldest railway tunnel in Canada. You can visit the Senneterre, Quebec. So what? Well, nothing really. That one’s a loss. Although, along that route, you can visit the very Canadian sounding La Tuque.

Over the coming months, I have a lot of planning to do. I have a lot of hostels to research, a of museums to look up, and lot of train schedules to read. I have a lot of library books to take out. I have reached out in online communities for local suggestions rather than following the published drabness from Lonely Planet books.

All I have to do in the meantime is survive seven more days of classes and three months of teaching a large group of children. Easy.