An Interesting Start

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UK to New York

Things started off well, we arrived at Heathrow with plenty of time to check in, and even had time for the first beer of the trip (a Staropramen) before heading to our gate. The first rows were called up to board and we were ready to go. Then came the announcement that there was a problem with the plane and everyone needed to sit down again. Not a good start but not the end of the world.

Half an hour later they announced that the plane could no longer fly, but they had found a replacement that they would get ready as soon as possible. In the mean time we were given free food vouchers so we headed to Wetherspoons and grabbed a free beer (Carlsberg).

We were originally due to arrive in New York at 8pm, by the time we´d boarded our flight two hours late it was going to be at least 10pm when we arrived, and by the time we´d got through immigration and made it to our hostel it was going to be getting pretty late.

After studying the subway map, we worked out a route to the hostel that would require just one change. Things were fine until it came to the change - all the trains were going in the wrong direction. At midnight, hot and tired, we finally spotted the correct train approaching the station. It pulled up, switched off it´s lights then left again without opening the doors. We gave it another half an hour and then gave up - we headed out of the subway and hailed a yellow cab. At least that was one New York experience that was as easy as it looks on TV.

When it dropped us outside the address we had for the hostel it was about 1am. It was 6am UK time so we got out looking forward to finding our bed. The hostel was boarded up. Apparently the New York City council closed it down for being "unfit for habitation". We were now in Harlem in the middle of the night with our backpacks and nowhere to stay. "They shut that place months ago!" a lady passing by helpfully informed us.

Luckily, we had passed a hotel a few blocks back so we decided to see if they had a room, or if they could suggest somewhere that would. We stumbled in and were told they had rooms for $90 with a private bathroom and $70 with a shared bathroom. We elected to with the cheaper option. The cheap rates and tub of condoms on the check-in desk raised our eyebrows but we were too tired to care. The room was basic to say the least, but it had a bed (albeit an extremely creaky one) and that was all that mattered.

After being woken at 6am by a combination of our bodies being on UK time and a commotion down the hall (we never found out what it was about), we made a plan. We set out about 8am to find an internet cafe and hopefully a new hostel to stay in. Unfortunately, it was raining. Hard.

Fairly damp, we finally located a place but it wasn´t open yet so we had our first New York breakfast in the Bagel cafe next door. When we back to the internet place, we discovered that finding cheap accommodation in New York for a Friday and Saturday night on the day you want to check in is not an easy task. There was nowhere to book online so we wrote down a couple of addresses and set back out into the rain.

We trudged to two nearby hostels but neither had space. The second said we could try calling in an hour in case anyone had checked out. Central Park was nearby so we went to have a look around. After about half an hour we were drenched through, and pretty miserable. We headed back to the hotel to dry off and called the hostel. They still had no space, so we re-booked our room at the hotel for our remaining two nights.

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