The 41 Hour Day - worst of the trip!

Trip Start Sep 18, 2006
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53
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of United States  , California,
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

This was a mammoth of a day. For Will Waldron, Tuesday the 5th June 2007 lasted 41 hours!! And I travelling for over 30 of those hours. This was due to the time difference going from New Zealand to the US. I left my hostel at 11am and checked in to discover that my flight from New Zealand to Los Angeles was delayed from 17.55 to 19.30. Normally this would have just been an inconvenience but in reality I'd arranged specific plans to meet my friend from Uni, Will, at the World Trade Center site in New York at 23.30. Catching the original flight would have allowed easily for the connection to NY, but now I was rather flustered, not knowing what to do. After hours of stressing, we eventually took off and arrived in LA at 14.00 (many hours before I'd set off!!) but having missed my connection they rebooked me onto a flight which was set to land in NY at  00.35. After further stressing I was fortunate to contact Will and we agreed to meet at the later time of 2am instead.
 
All well and good then I thought...well not quite! I was still very nervous about arriving at the airport that late and having to travel with all my possessions through the underground of NY at that time of morning. This point was hammered home when I did arrive and after dramas during immigration, I was waiting at a subway station on the outskirts of the Bronx and Queens. It was intimidating, on a scale much more than id witnessed before, actually fearing for my safety. So I made the decision to grab a taxi instead. Almost a fatal decision, I emerged from below the surface to find it was even worse above ground! I felt like I was in a 50 cent movie, gangs hung around on corners, and not a white face to be seen. A man attempted to convince me that his badly dinted car was a taxi, but he had no proof of ID so I 'politely' refused his services (whilst rushing off, his gang were obviously taunting me). It was reluctantly that I found what most resembled a taxi and got in. I was convinced I'd die if I hung around so the taxi seemed at worst, the same feat. I had the foresight to ring Will, quoting the licence number of the driver in case I never showed up. Luckily I did show up, and after another train ride across the New Jersey state line, we arrived at Will's flat after 3am utterly exhausted. That's whats known in the business as a bad day!
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