We wake up and have complementary breakfast, which seems to be almost exactly the same at every "motel" and you try to eat as much as you can to keep you full for as long as possible.
Now we need to go into the city, we organise a time to take the free shuttle to take us to the subway to take a train into the city. You get to the subway station you have your two large bags and your two carry on bags and you have to walk down stairs to get to the subway. We swap bags so that etienne is carrying the two large bags which weigh 23kg each and you carry the carry on bags and you pray that you don't have to do this to many times.
Now I have to figure out how to buy us tickets to get onto the train, at least it isn't as bad as when you had to do it in Brussels because the machine is at least in English. You buy two tickets and eventually you are through the turnstile with all the bags. But you are dripping with sweat because you wearing your jacket you bought for freezing conditions that you cant fit into your overstuffed bags.
We climb onto the right train and its going the right way (this is amazing you don't understand how much until you've been lost in a subway). We then have to climb into a different train on a different track, which doesn't sound so difficult until you there and find out that its almost a kilometre that you have to walk though another turnstile which makes you think you going the wrong way because why leave a station to get another train. You ask as many people as you can if you going the right way and then find the right stairs down to the platform. Well another 40 steps with all the bags and we get onto the next train.
You very happy that this train will take you to grand central station which is your stop. You get out to grand central and now you need to get to your hotel which is less than 800m away so you decide to walk pulling the bags behind you. luckily you have offline gps so no getting lost and you find the hotel. you walk to the desk and the lady says sorry we cant book you in until 3pm and it's only 11am but you can stow your bags in a room till later.
You drop everything into the room including the big jackets and you now in New York so straight to times square.
Thursday 14 January 2016
Our first day isnt over.....
So we are South Africans and we cant go to sleep without putting the security lock on the door. Its a hotel room what can happen you say?
Well 3am in the morning you hear someone struggling to get into your door and then you get woken up a few minutes later by a phone call. The receptionist booked you into one room and gave you a key to another one. This caused your 3am wake up call when the room was given out for the second time that day. Well welcome to New York.
Well 3am in the morning you hear someone struggling to get into your door and then you get woken up a few minutes later by a phone call. The receptionist booked you into one room and gave you a key to another one. This caused your 3am wake up call when the room was given out for the second time that day. Well welcome to New York.
Landing in New York
We landed in New York after we flew more than 22 hours that excludes waiting times in the airports. I have never had such a sore ass in my life. I would say saving money and flying for longer might be a great idea but you will probably hate yourself.
You will probably do it again if it means you get to see your family but each time you will hate it. We got to JFK after 14-15 hours of being stuck next to an Indian guy that kept eating weird food out of a napkin and messing all over himself and etienne. Then we kept circling and circling until we eventually landed. Whoohoo I wish I could tell you how happy I was but mostly just completely drained.
Now the fun begins, trying to figure out how to get out of the airport and to the hotel. Now I don’t know if anyone knows that one of the worst things in the world is to landing a different country and not having a working cellphone. We eventually find out where to go to be picked up by our hotel shuttle but then we need to find out when they will actually pick us up. Well you can get their phone number on the internet using the free wifi and even call them if you have a husband that can help you phone over the internet but you can only get signal in the terminal which is about 500m away from where you waiting for the shuttle. So one of you is running back and forth trying to get hold of the hotel and the other is hoping that they can scream loud enough if the shuttle comes when the other is inside the terminal.
After about 40 minutes which feels like a few hours your shuttle arrives, this is after asking multiple drivers if they are your shuttle. You are completely drained now and really need a bed.
You get dropped off at the hotel and you book in and all you want to do is sleep but you first phone everyone back at home to let them know that you have arrived. You then go into a vegetative state until your stomach wakes you up.
You wake up and the you can barely make it to the hotel restaurant where you buy the cheapest thing on the meal and wonder how you can pay R200 on a burger but you finish the food and take home the chips because you not wasting anything.
You will probably do it again if it means you get to see your family but each time you will hate it. We got to JFK after 14-15 hours of being stuck next to an Indian guy that kept eating weird food out of a napkin and messing all over himself and etienne. Then we kept circling and circling until we eventually landed. Whoohoo I wish I could tell you how happy I was but mostly just completely drained.
Now the fun begins, trying to figure out how to get out of the airport and to the hotel. Now I don’t know if anyone knows that one of the worst things in the world is to landing a different country and not having a working cellphone. We eventually find out where to go to be picked up by our hotel shuttle but then we need to find out when they will actually pick us up. Well you can get their phone number on the internet using the free wifi and even call them if you have a husband that can help you phone over the internet but you can only get signal in the terminal which is about 500m away from where you waiting for the shuttle. So one of you is running back and forth trying to get hold of the hotel and the other is hoping that they can scream loud enough if the shuttle comes when the other is inside the terminal.
After about 40 minutes which feels like a few hours your shuttle arrives, this is after asking multiple drivers if they are your shuttle. You are completely drained now and really need a bed.
You get dropped off at the hotel and you book in and all you want to do is sleep but you first phone everyone back at home to let them know that you have arrived. You then go into a vegetative state until your stomach wakes you up.
You wake up and the you can barely make it to the hotel restaurant where you buy the cheapest thing on the meal and wonder how you can pay R200 on a burger but you finish the food and take home the chips because you not wasting anything.
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