Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Happy Hour #227: SMNTY's All Aboard on Trains

Transcript

Happy Hour #227: SMNTY's All Aboard on Trains · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie Ann Smitha. I'm welcome to stuff
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I never told you protection I heard.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: You, and welcome to another edition of Happy Hour and
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: it's me talking about well just be an antsy. Essentially,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: we've talked about a lot about vacations and such and
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: dreaming of vacations and yeah, we're going to talk about
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: that again today. But before we start, because it is
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: a happy hour, if you're doing anything happy hour ish,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: please do so responsibly because we care about you.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: You are friends. Annie. Are you doing anything happy hour
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: ish in this early.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: We're recording, am y'all. Yes, we're recording in the morning.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: So no, I am not. I considered it, but I.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Know you got niney hot water to do. You have vocals? Yeah,
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I don't really.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Do it for that.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I start doing it because I
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: can't really have tea. I mean, coffee was making my
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: heart race, but I still wanted that kind of like
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: warm thing worm fill. Yeah, and it is good for
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: your It is good for your voice.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: It is I am drinking a throat coat because my
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: allergies have kicked back up and everything is swollen in
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: my face. Yesterday I was not really too good today,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I'm on the mend a bit more, but my throat
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: is definitely scratchy and itchy. Man Georgia alerties are legit,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Like I got hit this year real hard and it's
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: still affecting me. But so I have my throat cooked
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: tea with a little citron tea the Asian coitron tea,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: not the alcohol brand, not a sponsor because I'm not
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: chicking by it right now, but that is my happy
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: hour drink of choice. And also at this point is
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: when we tell you because we are to talk about vacations,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: we wanted to remind you listeners if if you need
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: a future vac slash voyage, we have an opportunity coming
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: up October second through the seventh of twenty twenty six.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: We will be on a voyage with Virgin Voyages from
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: New York City to Bermuda. Yes, this is an all
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: adults only trip that is going to be a beautiful
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: time where we get to hang out with our friends
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: from stuff you should know and stuff they don't want
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: you to know for an adventure time out at sea.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Please come join us if you can. You can get
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: more information at Virgin Voyages dot com. Slash stuff We
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: would love to see you there. You can hear us
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: do a podcast episode there Live Yes be fun times.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Speaking of which, Virgin, I just saw on your site
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: that you also are about to start doing trains and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: this is what we're talking about today. So hey, Virgin,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: if you want us to come hang out on trains,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: we would love to do that. Just you know, put
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: that out there, because I am very intrigued right now
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: by these train rides.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: So last year, I think we talked about it before, I.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Did a train ride with my partner from New York
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: City up to Albany on a specific track on Amtrak,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: not a current sponsor.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: And it was really fun.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Now, one of the things that I am a little
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: worried about is motion sickness, and I had to do
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: a perfectamething, like I had to get my peppermints, I
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: had to get my motion sickness medicine. I had to
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: get salty things because that really helped my stomach settle.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And then we also had to be on the right
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: side so I can see perfectly out in the scenery.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: But it was so fun and.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: There's something so romantic to me about train rides. I
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: have also recently discovered a new YouTube and it's not new,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: it's new to me phenomenon in which they do adventure stuff.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: But it's all I guess ASMR type of thing because
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: they don't talk on it. Instead, you just have to
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: read the captions and uh and in that they describe
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: to you what's going on, what they're saying, anything that
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: would you would typically hear a lot of the traveler
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: people do. They do it in captions and instead you
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: don't have to listen to that. You can just watch
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: the views and you can have some ASMR of the train,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of the rain, of like food being served, like all
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: of that, which I have, fine, delightful. I think I've
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: discovered I say this as a podcaster, that I enjoy
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: YouTube series that are not with talking.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: That's fine, you can do that, fine, you can say.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Can we say that as YouTube as podcasters who speak
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: for a living, Yeah, I think.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes I'm in the mood for speaking and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: sometimes I'm not. I think a lot of people can
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: relate to that.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: So I've also found I think I've mentioned camping videos
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: like that too. It just happened to be both of
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: the creators are Asian, so I don't know if it's
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: an Asian thing, because they've also tried to put in
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it's muckbung into the series as well.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Somehow I'm like, wait, I don't like that. I don't this,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: but somehow like they tricked me. Like I've gotten to
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: the point where my partner's like, oh, you feel like
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: you're being tricked at this point because they're like, you're
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: showing me a lot of food and you're eating a
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: ridiculous amount of food in one session in this what
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I thought was a camping video or a train video,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: but whatever, whatnot all does to say, I do really
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: enjoy I think it's relaxing and it also kind of
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: helps you feel like you're a part of it without
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: being interrupted, you know what I mean. So again, like
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: it is this train series that this one traveler does
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: solo solo travel if you interested to get not a sponsor.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: He's on YouTube.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure he and it's really fun because he
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: does different luxury train rides and also just like your
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: typical train rides all over the world, like he started
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: out in Japan and I'm a little scared of Japan
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: in that I am Korean as well. As all of
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: the other all the movies that I've seen are Japanese horrors,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: so therefore I.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Get that feel. I'm like, oh no, something a ghost
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: is gonna get me.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: But these travel series are really fun to watch because
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: you get to see how maybe like five hundred dollars
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: could be spent on a luxury train for a two
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: day ride, and you get these like sleeper cards, you
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: get these meals, and you know, different countries have different
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: levels of like luxury, so the US luxury versus japan
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: luxury is different. You get hamburgers and patty melts as
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: versus the sushi and abkasse level in some of the
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Japanese videos. So it's definitely interesting to see. I've discovered
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: that I really love it and I want to do this.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I can because it's gotten more
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and gotten more and more expensive, and I don't know
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: if that's because it's not as typical as once was.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I remember once upon a time, I think when I
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: was graduating college, taking a train had become a little
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: more popular because you can get from Atlanta to New
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: York on one train for pretty cheap. And I think
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: it's gotten like the cost has gone up pretty expensively.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: I will say also as I've gotten older, the idea
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: of sitting overnight upright in a train is also not
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: that appealing. I would like to lay down at some point,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: have some privacy, not share a bathroom. That might be
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: The other complicated part is like I want it to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: be nicer than your typical that you could do anything
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: on the cheap, Like you could take any cheap flight,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: but you're gonna suffer that costs, right, So that'd be
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: the same level with the train. But like I have
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: found it fascinating to see this level of travel and
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: want to really experience a good ride. Now, I know
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of people travel by train by necessity, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I wish we had more opportunities and abilities to do that.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: In the In Georgia and itself, we talked about public
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: transportation as appalling. They had to really revamp some of
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the system for World Cup stuff, and they did, but
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: you still can't go outside of the perimeter. So we
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: were talking about Friends of mine came down to go
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: to see a show and it.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Was in Atlanta, so it wasn't so bad.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: It went from my neighborhood to the State Farm Arena,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: which is downtown, so they were able to get that
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: train perfect. Next show they're going to see is that
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Truest which is in Cock County. There is no transportation
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: unless you would take four different buses, which is a
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: pain in itself. So it's kind of like, oh, man,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I wish we could have more access to that. So
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: as an area that we don't have that kind of access,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: it is kind of romanticized.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: But what I'm more talking.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: About is those day to day travels where we see
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: them going from LA to Chicago and you get the
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: most gorgeous view of the Rockies and the deserts, and
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I want to do that going from Seattle
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: to LA, you know, or across the pond you can
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: get from Scotland to England or like areas like that.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: There's specific tours where you could just sid and Ireland.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: I think you.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Have to take a ferry though, I mean that's that's
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: that level. But like they have old school trains to
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: like luxury Oriental express type of trains, you know the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: things that we've seen in movies. I've seen more and
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: more people talk about traveling solo. You were talking about
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: it before we started, uh doing the episode because I said,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: this is what I'm gonna do.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: I have seen people talk about it.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: One traveler that I saw, she had written about her
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: experience doing solo traveling.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: So it's so journeys.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Dot com a s O j O you are in
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: I E s dot com and I.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Think she goes by solo journer and she's a black traveler.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Like she talks about her solo traveling on and track
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: uh and like how much she does enjoy it and
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: how she wished that people would do more of it
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: because she thinks it's a great opportunity. She does talking
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: about it being a little bit boring if you're by yourself,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: but it does feel like it would probably be safer
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: because your area is in one like you're not traveling
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: from place to place, you're staying all one place while
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: it is taking you all out and about. And I'm like, yes,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: this is exactly what I'm talking about. She's talking about
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: how she got the room met and then she does
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: enjoy having her own space and it's worth splurging because
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: also I think some of these trains offer free food
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: if you're on a room met and that is the
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: sleeper card essentially, and then being able to go from
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the observation decks. So hopefully you get one of those
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: nice trains that have like what the Solo Solo Traveler
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: says is a ribcage looking type of card because the
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: way the windows.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Are placed, and so I'm like, yeah, that's that's amazing.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: This is what we do.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: She also talks about how you need to take your earbuds,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: which I would definitely do, but like you can make
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: your own soundtrack while travel. I have memories of being
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: in Europe when I would be on the train and
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I did the eurorail and all that and having specific
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: songs I have laid it out and those memories.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Every time I hear it, I have that memory.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah I miss that, but yeah, so I think it's
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: really really interesting. There's a woman that did a series
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: for women who Travel podcast on the Conde nas Traveler,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: and she went through India traveling on trains in India
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: and her experiences all the bat and.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Those are something thing I like, Yes, that's what I
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: want more of.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I want to be able to do it myself, and
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: then I want to get advice on how to best
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: do it. And when the Dells deals are there's trains
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: in Switzerland, and then I'm like, yeah, I want to
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: go through the snow times. Apparently there's one for the
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Arctic Circle in Finland, so you can go see Santa
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: solo solo traveling.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Did that?
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: There are different ways and I'm really getting the bug.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: So like I'm having a conversation with my partner, I'm like,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I need Okay, we won't go anywhere big this year.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Of course again, were going on a voyage this year
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: out at sea with our stuff people, so we're excited
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: for that. That's a new adventure for me and we
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: will be reporting back. I don't worry it, We'll be
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: reporting on it.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: But I really would love to try the train travel
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and to actually do an exclusive three to four day
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: trip if no longer on a train, to experience that
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: type of romanticized traveling.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Have you done this?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Have you?
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: I know we've talked about being on trains, but have
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: you traveled on trains for overnight?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: When I was nine, we took a train from Atlanta
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: or Atlanta whereabouts to DC and it was an overnight
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: train and I thought it was the coolest thing. My
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: dad and my older brother they had like this small
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: room that was just pretty much the like cots stacked
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: on top of each other, but me and my little
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: brother and my mom we got it was like an
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: actual room. It was so cool that I was too
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: excited to sleep. I was just watching as the window. Yes,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and yeah, a lot of countries do. I've taken a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: lot of trains in different countries because their train game
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: is really high. And actually one of my favorite memories
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: of traveling was at Kyoto train station in Japan. I
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: didn't even ride a train, but it's like the biggest
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: train station in Japan. I don't know if the world
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: is it's, but it's huge, and they have this like
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: amazing light display and I just it was pouring rain
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and I just sat and watched the light display and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the haird the rain and people just coming and going
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and I don't know, it was really cool.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Sounds amazing.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I just as train stations alone are fun.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: So we left.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: When my partner and I went through New York City
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: to Albany, we left from the Moynahan Penn Station.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Gorgeous, gorgeous.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: We of course were running behind, so we didn't get
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: to like explore the area. But it's a beautiful train
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: station and all the like different ones that I've seen
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: from like the Chicago Union Station, the Los Angeles Union stations.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: They're really nice and I'm like, I want to go
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: to there.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: I want, I want to go to there, and like, yeah, Japan,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Japan's game when it comes to like train stations apparently just.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: A whole different level.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: It was awesome.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: They had so many, like according to the videos, they
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: have people that just sit there and wait for trades
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: to go and come so they could wave at them.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Well, it's as a big it's a tourist attraction because
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I think the original reason I wanted to go was
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: they had like the largest KitKat store or so really nice.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I love I love kit cats, yeah and so, but
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find the store. It was so huge. I
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: had to get like a math. I did eventually find it,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: but it took me an embarrassingly long time. And then
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: I had like the best drama of my life. And
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it was mediocre, but because you know, I
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: got it out of the vending machine, I accidentally ordered
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: completely wrong thing that I didn't want. But it was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the best.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Still.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: The good, the good, ones, so like apparently like a
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: different stations have like to know if you know, you
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: know type of places, including ramin stations and soup places,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: like it's almost like a speakeasy and you have to
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: find it. I've seen different people go on different adventures
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: trying to find these locations. I think there's a numbacasse
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: spot and one of them, Like, there's so many things
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: that could happen, Like we don't give enough love to
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: trains anymore. I think again it's coming back to style.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's why I'm really fascinated by it because I've
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: seen it pop up. But I want an adventure, and
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: it would be fun to have, like an adventure with
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: you Andy, Like we should go as a stuff that
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: stuff mom never told you type of adventure because my
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: mom never done told me about trains. We just write trains.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: That would be such a fun thing. So, you know, Virgin,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: if you like us enough, you should take us on
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: another voyage, but on trains, a voyage of the land.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: But yes, if you ever had experience, if you loved
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: a specific place that you like to have, all you
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: give us recommendations, please do we love to hear from you. Also,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: if there's something we must do. Like you're like no,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: if you love this, you have to do this. You
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: know we need those recommendations.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, and tell us about your experiences with trains and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: train trips, train stations. Let us know. You can email
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: us at Hello at stuff Whenever Told You dot com,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you can find some zue sky a Momstuff podcast or
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: We're also on YouTube. We have some merchandise at Common Bureau,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and we have a book you can get wherever you
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: get your books. Thanks as always to our super producers
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Casey Chandler and Rima and our executive producer Maya. Thank
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: you and thanks to you for listening Stuff Never Told
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: You production of My Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: app Apple Podcasts, or if you listen to your favorite
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: shows