APRIL 30
i made it to my gate at the airport with PLENTY of time (1.5hrs) to spare. i never quite understood why "they" highly recommend a person to be hours early for their flight as every time i have ever flown (with the exception to coming home from this trip as you will later read) i have always been bored twiddling my thumbs (believe me, this is what i do) in the waiting area at my gate. this time i made it thru security and customs within 30 minutes. i'm a prostar. joy.
thing is, this trip almost didn't even happen at all. i had made the executive decision to do a last-minute booking on my flight for this trip. as i am saving to go travelling for a longer extension of time in the near future, i figured it would be good practice to see what all this "last-minute" fuss is all about. plus, if i could save a couple extra bucks, i wouldn't complain.
april 28 was to be my date to book the flight to leave on april 30. i figure 2 days was a good choice of time before leaving in order to book the flight. i was going to do it online. bing-bang-boom. done. one SMALL problem - my roomie and i decided to do a sponanteous road trip into none other than the small rural towns of northern alberta (we would have gone south, but a snowstorm blocked our path). i figured i would find somewhere with internet no problem. apparantly i was wrong. there aren't many places with internet when the town has enough trouble trying to get subway to park its butt there.
fortunately, we found internet at an information site for slave lake. i was already to book my flight, credit card in hand, but the site kept bumping me out of the bookin page. i finally just took down flight centre's phone number and decided to call later. well, later turned out to be TOO late as they were closed. so then i figured that i would simply just stop in at the airport on our way back into calgary on april 29 to buy a ticket. no big deal. problem solved.
we finished our road trip and zipped our way straight on over to the calgary airport. i waltzed in there and went up to the ticketing booth of an airline and told them id like to book a ticket to new york. for tomorrow (april 30). the lady typed in the information and told me that would be approximately $3000. i practically yelled at her in my shock at how ridiculous that was for me to pay $3000 for a 3-day trip to new york. hell, i could pay half that and do a round trip to australia. course - it would take me a day and a half to get there and the same to get back, but still.... the ticketing agent told me that this ridiculous price was because the flight was last minute and all their planes were booked up. so REALLY - what she was saying was that i could pay $3000 to MAYBE get a seat on the plane for the next day. she apparantly caught onto my discontent and told me to go check with another airline. i stated that this would be a good idea.
so i skipped over a few booths and talked to the next airline agent. gave her the same story and she typed in my information. SHE could get me on the flight for the oh-so-fabulous price of $1400. OMG. who the hell would pay THAT for new york?? everything online isn't asking for more than $500. i told her that there was no way in the world that i could afford that. she said she understood and recommended to check online one last time. so that's what i did.
me and my roomie continued back to our apartment and i immediately pulled up flight centre, typed in the info and got a DIRECT FLIGHT for $500. freaking sweet.
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all my roadtrip pics can be viewed at:
album 1
album 2
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sooooooooo.... back to the airport - i made it. no issues. well - except for the fact that they confiscated my body butter from my purse. i don't have a clue what they expect that people will do with body butter. i mean, really - i got a pen in my purse. i got keys. even bobby pins are goin to do WAY more damage than body butter. but hey - i aint the professional here.
i even was the first one at my gate so i got to sit in one of those awesome black leather chairs that are always hanging out by the windows. i swear, one of these days i am just goin to go to the airport to see if i can figure out a way to jack one of the chairs without them knowing. they are pretty much heaven.
moving on - i took the flight and arrived in NEWARK international airport (new jersey). that's right people. some genious out there decided that it would be ideal to put an airport on the border of new york and call it newark airport. try to distinguish those 2 when you talk and see if you get as confused as i did. either way - i made it.
next mission was to exchange my money. between having the mini roadtrip right before my journey to new york and my own personal belief that travelling does not have to be all pre-arranged.... i had not done this. as such, i did not have any money to travel anywhere outside of that international airport. i made a beeline to the first currency exchange booth. she was closed. she directed me to another terminal via the "air train" (a mini train that allows people to travel quickly between terminals and parking lots). i hopped on and went zipping along the tracks to terminal "b." i felt like i had just jumped into the cartoon of the jetsons and was on some space mobile thing. oh - what a sheltered life i lead in the "small" city of calgary. haha.
i entered terminal b and asked for directions. i raced through the terminal to make it there as quick as possible as who knows when this currency booth would close. should it close, id be stuck at the airport until morning. well - maybe it wouldnt have been THAT severe as i did have my trusty visa tucked away in my bag too. not that it mattered - i made it to the currency booth and got some good ol' (and completely uncolouful) usa moolah. as newark airport is in new jersey, i asked what the best route was to get to new york. the guy directed me to take the air train to the train station and then from there take the subway to my hostel.
i don't think i've ever been on so many train rails in my life. i hoped on the air train to the train station. check. i bought my train ticket to new york. $15. check. i then scanned my ticket and waited (patiently, i might add) for the entrance doors to open. they didn't. i scanned my ticket again. they still didn't open. as i'm sitting there with my furrowed brow tryin to figure this thing out, i notice the guard at the gate is trying to tell me something. yeah, that's right - he's telling me to go to the LEFT of the scanner rather than the RIGHT. geez. they should have signs or something. the left side of my scanner hung wide open, waiting for me to race through like a horse at the track races. i did just that.
i then got on the train. my ticket was checked by one of the train workers. i gazed out the window. it was then i noticed the time of day was getting later. so late - in fact - that there wasn't much light left at all. one would assume that it would be common sense to ensure that the signs indicating which stop a person is at would be illuminated in the blackness. or - at the very least - the conductor could announce which stop is next. neither happened. it wasn't until everyone on the train got off that i figured i should probably get off too and see which stop i was at. fortunately it was the right one and i continued on.
when i got off the plateform, i came face-to-face with a swarm of people at the train station. it was like the calgary stampede, only without the country music and smell of manure. i stood there stunned as the world appeared to spin around me. surreal.
once i found my focus again, i went to the information booth and asked how i would go about getting to my hostel. he told me to jump on subway 1. right. sounds easy enough. that was until i turned around to meet the maze of an underground mini-city that appeared to be an endless array of tunnels, all leading to some mysterious place sounding of screeching metal as the trains came to a halt at each stop. at least i found the #1 easy enough. i hopped on. all i had to do is wait for the stop on 96 st.
34 st.
28 st.
23 st.
18 st.
14 st.
it was about at this point that i noticed the numbers were goin down rather than up. as i did not have a map at this point, i hoped that new york was built like calgary where once the numbers got to downtown, they went the other way. this was not entirely the case.
christopher st.
houston st.
canal st.
franklin st.
chambers st.
at this point i got off. i found a map and looked at it. sure enough - i was going the wrong direction. i worked myself through the maze of subway tunnels and found a #1 going the other way. i got on. 17 stops later and one conversation where i asked for directions (again) - i made it to my hostel. completely exhausted.
i paid my fee and was so thrilled at the prospect that i could finally put my bag down and get a good night sleep. it was then that the guy at the counter stated that they were all out of the 6-bed dorm room that i had signed up for. he stated he would "have" to put me in a single room. i didn't complain. it was like a sweet gift from heaven to be able to have my own room for peace and quiet. i happily skipped (mentally, my legs were tired) up those 4 flights of stairs to my tiny room. i promptly lay down and fell asleep.
made it to new york.
check.
sleep.
check.
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all my new york pics can be viewed at:
album 1
album 2
album 3
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