My trip to the US

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I'm just back from two weeks in the US, where I took a train trip around the country.

The route was New York - New Orleans - Los Angeles - San Francisco - Chicago - New York.

I could write a fuller review of this later on, and probably will, but for now I'm going to focus on the points that have to do with travelling as a person with AS. By all means if you have any questions though, don't hesitate to ask.

The AS-related pros: Knowledge of geography, always seeming to know better than the Americans where we were; a liking for and knowledge of transport which obviously helped with my success at travel, and made the long train trips (travelling wise, at least) absolutely no problem to me. Visiting, seeing and exploring the cities was very enjoyable for me, was a good experience with hardly any trouble.

But on the other hand, there were also experiences I wouldn't want to repeat, which AS must have had some bearing on.

- Latched onto by a guy on the train, approaching New Orleans, who wanted me to carry one of his bags into my hotel there (AND he was to be on my next train too). Obviously suspicious, most likely drugs involved, no doubt deep trouble had I accepted.

- The trains made stops at various places other than the termini listed above, and at those other places you could get out/explore for a while. Well, in one such place - San Antonio - I managed to have a brush with the police. I couldn't even explore the streets near the station without an approach from a cop who questioned me, when all I was doing was having a look round. I mean I would never have this problem if walking around near Ednburgh Waverley, or Glasgow Central, or any UK station.

- The Chicago-New York train proved a scary experience for me. I got a pretty scary guy beside me for the duration of this trip. And, at one point in the trip he tried to take a lunge at me. In fact it wasn't only him, but also the guy in front of me was trying to grab me at another point.

Other than that I do not recommend Amtrak trains for Aspies or those with social anxiety. There is a serious communitarian thing going on. There is forced socialisation at meal times, if you choose to go for them, and even if not you still have an awful lot of interaction which in itself got too much for me.

If I went back to America - I may or may not do but as I say I had a good time visiting the cities and would very happily go back to NY, LA or SF - then I sure would never take the train again.

I've often heard people say Americans don't understand sarcasm.