Of snow, delays and homelessness

A story of snowy New York City, a delayed flight and ending up homeless in Mexico City in the middle of the night.

 It all started when the weather in New York City took a turn for the freezing-your-ass cold. We knew by way of weather reports that snow was coming but we didn't expect how much snow was going to fall that day.

To be fair, we did enjoy our time in snowy New York. As this was Bobby's first time visiting New York, we explored the High Line in the snow together which was wonderful. But of course, as is always the case with snow, the beauty and wonder is rather ephemeral in more ways than one. Soon that wonder and excitement turned into mild to severe annoyance when we had to walk on streets filled with black slush in our (not fully) waterproof boots. As the day wore on and we were preparing our bags to go to JFK, the snowing just got harder and harder. Looking out the window from our train to the airport I remembered being rather amused because the scenery reminded me strongly of the post-apocalyptic movie "Snowpiercer".

After check-in we had about an hour until hour boarding time and by then, looking out at the snow covered tarmac, we felt a tinge of worry as the snow didn't seem to have let up at all and was in fact getting worse. The hour passed by and even though it was already the stated boarding time there were still no announcement to board the plane. 15 minutes before the plane was due to take off, the intercom buzzed and the staff announced that our flight has been delayed due to bad weather. Cue some groans and shouts echoing across the gate from some disgruntled passengers. Even after repeated queries, there were no indication of when we would be able to board or when the plane was scheduled to fly, so we waited. It was not until about 2.5 hours later when we finally received the call to board our plane. Doing simple math in my head I figured that at this rate we will only reach Mexico City at about half past midnight to 1 a.m., annoying, but nothing that I couldn't live with. I laughed it off in my head thinking this feels like a much milder version of  my Turkey trip from 2 years ago which started out with a disastrous airline fiasco as well.

In the end we arrived a tad bit earlier than expected as our plane touched the tarmac of Benito Juares International Airport just a few minutes past midnight. Immigration was breezy as the airport seemed to be mostly deserted and getting a taxi from the airport was also relatively easy. We showed the taxi driver a print-out of my reservation with the hotel address and he nodded in acknowledgement after noting the street name. Thinking the worst of our travels were behind us we hopped on the taxi with misplaced excitement and optimism at being in a foreign country, knowing not what were to come next.

As our taxi weaved its way through the mostly deserted streets of Mexico City it soon became apparent that our Taxi driver didn't have a clue where our hotel is. Entering some relatively dodgy-looking areas we both started to feel just a tiny bit uncomfortable. In the end the taxi driver had to pull over in the middle of the street and flagged a nearby police car to ask for directions. Granted that in the end nothing bad happened to us, but it was still quite nerve-wrecking to be in a completely foreign country where you barely speak the language, and having your taxi driver stop the taxi in a deserted dodgy-looking street to flag down a police car.

With directions from the police, our taxi driver finally managed to find our hotel and we both let out a sigh of relief. With our bags in tow, we entered the hotel lobby and I produced my printed booking confirmation for our room. The receptionist took my print-out and after checking his books and records told us that they had no room for us for the night. Our hearts immediately sank. He told us simply that we were supposed to check-in by 11 p.m. and even though they have a 24-hour reception desk and we had booked the room for 2 nights, they had rented our room out to someone else. So in a  (not all that shocking by that point) twist of fate we were left homeless in Mexico City for the night.

I gave a quick glance at the clock on the wall and it was already past 1 a.m. by then. We were just desperate to get some rest and have a roof over our heads for the night. After some futile attempts at arguing about our reservation, we gave in and asked if he could recommend us a nearby hotel where we could stay for the night. Thankfully he was kind enough to make a few calls and secured us a room at a nearby hotel. He also called a taxi for us for which we were really grateful. Boarding our second taxi for the night and feeling just a tiny bit exhausted and defeated we set off to our (hopefully) hotel for the night.

Arriving at the hotel, an elderly man opened the doors for us and proceeded to bring us to the reception desk. He did not speak a word of English and though I learnt a little bit of Spanish in my free time, my Spanish was far from what I would have needed to be able to communicate with him. He at first gave us a double room with 1 bed and after a short conversation consisting of sign language, the word "Cash"  and  Spanish sounding English words, we finally managed to get ourselves a room with two double beds.

"Hurrah!"

Finally checking in at almost 2.a.m. seeing the two double beds in front of me, I uttered a weak "Hurrah!" for managing this far. Though feeling exhausted and a tad bit defeated after all the mishaps that happened, I couldn't deny that I did feel more than a sliver of excitement and accomplishment at being able to get this room with my very limited Spanish. Looking back at it, things could definitely have been much worse for us and we should count our lucky stars that our flight was not cancelled and  there happened to be a hotel nearby that could accommodate us for the night.

Finally resting on a bed that night, with adrenaline still coursing through my veins stubbornly preventing me from sleeping even though every inch of my body was screaming for rest, I couldn't help but to smile and wonder, what sort of adventure awaits us in this country?