New York City

New York City at last. A quick flight from Miami landed me in NYC about 6:30 pm on Wednesday, and I made it to my hostel about an hour after that. It was close to dark then, so I just hung around getting some things sorted out for the next day, what I was going to do and whatnot.

I had originally planned to go up to Ottawa, around there a bit and then tour back through the states in several places before going back to New York for the flight home. Funny how things are always changing.

Due to costs, I decided to cut the trip back after New York and just fly straight into Calgary. I called United, to change my ticket. No problem, they said. With fare difference and fees, that will be.....hmmm......let me see.........$1240.00.

I says "Pardon?"

The next half an hour to 45 minutes were spent talking to supervisors and then supervisor's supervisors, but none changed their tune. So given the initial cost of the ticket, plus the changes and fees, they were trying to suggest that a one way ticket from New York City to Calgary at the end of June was somewhere in the range of $1500.00. I don't think that's reasonable. So, for a hundred bucks on the train to Toronto, and a cheap flight with Westjet, I am booked to come back into Calgary on the 6th of July for much less than $1500.00. While I'm at it, I'm going to take the week to visit family and friends.

But, back to New York. After that fiasco, I simply went out and got something to eat. It was dark, and I was walking back to the hostel. Flip flops on my feet, just walking down the sidewalk, when something ran across the front of my feet, missing my toes by a few inches. I didn't jump, because I thought it was a cat, and we've all had cats run out in front of us, right? Cats are harmless. When I looked at it running into the park to my left, I saw that it was actually a very large rat. About 1 1/2 feet long from nose to tail.

Welcome to New York!