After the usual quadruple checks for passport/visa and money, it's off to the other side of the bridge to meet the boys and head out to the airport.
Straightforward check in, wait for boarding, get onboard and have to wait for an hour while they sort out some malfunctioning toilets - happy to wait for that! The A380 is a nice roomy plane, which is good for a 14-hour flight!
We are all pretty hungry, having skipped breakfast and then not wanting to stand in the massive queues at the airport. Being veggie, my meal comes before the others and is one of the nicest I have had on a plane - mushroom pasta with pumpkin and beans. I should feel guilty that I have food and they're still hungry, but there's nothing I can do but tuck in!!
Watched Finding Dory and The Castle (again - love that movie), half slept through The Big Lebowski and then we finally landed.
They have self scanning passport things at the airports now, so it's really quick and painless to go through - at both ends. They have a heap of passport booths, you just follow the directions - answer the questions - "do you have over $10,000 USD?" "do you have fruit?" etc, etc. Then you put your passport down for scanning, put your hand down for fingerprint scanning, they take your photo and print you a receipt. The photos are hideous! After a 14-hour flight, grainy, tired looking photos that look like serial killer mugshots!
The guy at the booth next to me couldn't follow it at all and at every step had to call the attendant, "excuse me..." Should have realised he'd have trouble comprehending when he was standing there with his sleep cushion still around his neck.
So now we're in LAX - the most unpleasant of any airport ever. Thankfully we're not here for too long. LAX is one of the biggest airports (I'm assuming) and the departure lounge has two ladies' restrooms and they have seven cubicles each!! Really? So there's never a time there's not a queue.
I had forgotten about the American toilet cubicles with the doors that have the bottom quarter missing and an inch gap around the doors, so not entirely private. We sat and got a coffee and remembered that the coffee here is terrible too. Everything else - great!
Onto the plane, uneventful flight with lots of turbulence. The seatbelt sign came on and then the staff were also asked to buckle up - always a sign of bad times ahead! It wasn't too bad, thankfully. But there were four or five people who buzzed for the attendant, who made their way up to the passenger who asked when their food was going to be served...! I think the attendants have the patience of saints, they have to deal with this sort of thing daily. Like the old gentleman who stood to unpack his overhead locker while the plane was taxiing in. He was told to sit but either didn't hear or pretended not to and kept going. The guy had to come up and tell him to sit.
So finally at JFK and we've now been travelling for 23 hours! Get the bags, into the queue for a cab, into the cab and into town. The driver had fairly loud music playing. I asked if it was Jamaican, to be polite and say something, he said "no, Senegalese, did like it?" I said yes, to be polite. He turned it up and sang along to it. It seemed to have one refrain that played over and over for the entire trip! He also opened all our windows so it was nice and breezy...
We arrived at our hotel - lovely! I was trying to find my wallet, not realising Shaun had already paid. Got out and went inside and then I realised my camera was not in my bag and was in the retreating car!! And it's gone!! Shaun paid in cash so we didn't have a receipt with the medallion number on it so it can't be traced. Nothing I can do about that now, will try and follow up tomorrow.
Into the French Quarters Guest House - it's really lovely... Can sort of see it here...
And inside...
That bed looks very comfortable and inviting after the loooong journey. But first, we need dinner so,we head next door into the Bourbon Bar and Grille and have a fantastic mushroom burger. The bar is decorated for Halloween and looks great.
Then we feel the need to head up to Times Square, such an amazing place... It's almost an assault on the senses with the smells, sounds - cars honking, people yelling, spruikers trying to get you to buy stuff...
We've gone a bit crazy on the selfies...
Then to a cafe we went to a couple of times last time to have a hot chocolate and then back and into the comfy bed. Couldn't try and finish the blog tonight as I had to try and get some photos from Shaun and was too tired to try so will finish it tomorrow.
Welcome to New York!
No comments:
Post a Comment