We weren’t supposed to be in New York.
We were supposed to be in Rio de Janeiro. But it’s as if we weren’t meant to go (and in hindsight maybe we weren’t). We were flying Montreal-New York-Rio but Montreal got hit with a snowstorm the day of our departure. I called Continental Airlines and was told that our flight was on schedule. We went to the airport where we were immediately told that our flight to New York was cancelled. Of course. It was a Friday night and we just wanted to get away and start our vacation.
We had a plan. We went downtown to the train station and found out that there was a train early the next morning to New York. We booked two tickets. We then called Continental and changed our New York-Rio flight from Saturday to Sunday.
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Above left: Pulling out of Montreal Above right: Amtrak train
The next morning we rolled out of Montreal’s Central Station and had a pleasant 8-hour trip (including 2 hours at the border) on Amtrak. We arrived in New York in mid-afternoon. It is Lissette’s hometown so we were actually kind of excited that we would have a chance to spend a day here.
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We spent that afternoon and most of the next day visiting some of New York’s sites: the Empire State building, Times square, Central park, Ground zero, Battery park. Stopped for coffee in Soho and used the bathrooms in Trump Tower (I left the Don a souvenir, Hehe). Being early March it wasn’t the greatest time to explore and we had packed for the tropics. We got a bit cold. But I was still a bit surprised by the large temperature difference between Montreal and New York – you could never wander outdoors wearing a rain jacket this time of year in Montreal.
Sunday evening we headed to the airport and took off for Rio. We had never planned to have 24 hours in New York but the whole trip ended up being an adventure. And sometimes its those kinds of unexpected things that make for the most exciting memories.
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Ever had a totally unplanned stay somewhere that ended up as being a memorable adventure?
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