Friday was a day to get out – most definitely. I wanted to get away from job applications and just see something different. So Kat and I planned a day trip to visit Princeton. She is also somewhat of a campus groupie and loves the bookstores just as much as I.
We decided to make a real day of it – breakfast at my local diner (which for the price, it seems cheaper than making eggs, bacon and sausages here at home!). We planned to get the 10.01 train from Penn Station so this meant getting to the 7 train by about 9am-ish which gave us time to get off at Times Square, change to another line and get that to Penn and then find the New Jersey transit platforms, get our tickets and board the actual train.
Of all the time I have been here, I don’t think I have had to wait more than four minutes for a 7 train. Yep, the service is that good. Once we got to the platform, there was a lot of people, more than I have ever seen. And we waited. And waited. By about 9.25 the train appeared. We knew this meant we would be cutting it extremely fine but so be it. If we missed the 10.01 then it was another hour until the next train.
We changed trains, bolting through the Times Square station. Waited all of about 30 seconds for the next train and got to Penn. By this time it was about 9.45am. Now Penn Station is huge. It is Spencer Street station on steroids – it is the hub for the Subway, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad. It is an underground haven of snack outlets, platforms, ticket machines and people everywhere. We ran until we found the NJ Transit ticket machine. We were able to get an off-peak round trip and Kat opted to pay via her card so we could just do one transaction to make it quicker. Out came three tickets – each of our tickets and the receipt. We ran to platform 3 and at about 9.55am. Speedy gals we were!
As we settled in for the trip we looked at our tickets. Kat held in her hand what we thought was her ticket and a receipt. We looked at the tickets – she had one ticket TO Princeton and on ticket from Princeton to New York. In my hand, I had one ticket to Princeton. No return ticket and no receipt. ARGH! We left them in the machine!!! With that I screamed, Kat screamed and I ran of the train, up the staircase, across the concourse to the ticket machine. You wouldn’t believe it. No-one had used the machine since us and in the ticket collection window was my return ticket and… the receipt! I then ran all the way back to the train – with about 1 minute to spare. Does this reek of a Race Around the World experience or what? We made the 10.01, it was an express train and we settled in to watch New Jersey fly by our windows.
When we got to the Princeton Junction train station, it is necessary to board a little two carriage shuttle that operates only between Princeton Junction and Princeton itself. We sat around looking at this train for a while until it decided to shunt into the platform.
We then arrived at the absolutely gorgeous Princeton train station.
This was a lovely start to the introduction to the campus. Out of all the college campuses I have visited, I have to say Princeton was the most stunning. The buildings. The aura. The people themselves. Princeton was just about perfect. Maybe too perfect even? It did lack the actual campus feel – no food co-op signs, or posters for cheap housing, or indie bands at the local bars. It was straight out of any movie set. And it made for some great photos. I have put them all here.
You can imagine how beautiful the place was with the peace and quiet of a Friday afternoon on campus.
And it actually made me miss uni a little bit.
We walked and walked and walked. It was beautiful to be in a place that was so tranquil, green and peaceful!
We also sat and read our copy of The Daily Princetonian
We just took in the campus.
When we were walking around we also noticed there was a careers fair on. Perfect for us! We walked all over the place to find the Dillon Gymnasium and when we went to walk in… oops. Princeton Students only. So we sat outside and just watched the many khaki, blue Ralph Lauren shirt and loafer wearing people went in. It was like The Official Preppy Handbook had come to life before me!
It was a great day of people watching and we fell asleep on the train back to the city. But it was one of those naps which was infused with loud station announcements and the loud tap tap tap noise of the guy a few seats down on his iPhone. And landing straight back into Penn Station on a Friday afternoon peak hour was a sight and experience to behold. What felt like millions of people running in every fathomable direction. I am still recovering!