Amtrak and Salt Lake City, Days 12 and 13; Coming from the mountains

So, after 12 hours on the train I made it in to Salt Lake City after travelling from Truckee. Got to my hostel at half four in the morning and had to just sit in the lounge for a bit while it was time for me to check in.

The train ride was great, again; played cards with a girl who sold all her possesions and took off travelling and a guy who's off to do a ten month placement in Russia. Then, about 10pm, a groupo of Amish people suddenly started singing choral hymns which was quite a moving and spectacular moment.

Salt Lake City itself is something quite unique, Truckee was small with not much there, Salt Lake City is huge, sprawling, spread out with mountains penning it in on all sides. The founder of the Mormon church essentially marched into the middle of the desert and announced a temple would be built. They fetched stone from the mountains and they built the temple and it is quite a spectacular building. Just in the public library at the moment, which is really nice- there's a poetry circle here tonight which I might try to crash if the locals will let me!

Just one more day here, that's tommorow, and then 24 hours on the train to Lincoln, Nebraska, just for one night, and then Chicago will be my next big city stop.Travelling by train has been so much better than I ever thought it would, I'm really tired, missing people, but it's definitley worth it.