Travels around the World – Boston – NYC

During our brief trip across America we took 5 flights on Delta Airlines on a stand by basis. Most of these were incredibly successful but I knew our luck could only last so long. We arrived at the Airport at Washington DC and planned to go to Buffalo with the intention of trying to get to Niagara Falls. This was the closest airport to the falls without crossing the border into Canada. All was going well until about 15 minutes before boarding when we were bumped off the flight for a couple of paying customers. Obviously we knew this could happen so were not too upset and instead decided on a trip to Boston and were assured that our bags would be transferred to the correct plane. A few hours later we had arrived in Massachusetts and were waiting patiently for our bags to arrive. I am not sure exactly how long it took us to realise that they were not going to arrive but we checked with the airline and were told that our bags were safe and sound in Buffalo. As we still had our stand by passes we though we may as well have a night in Boston and then try to go to Buffalo and meet up with our bags. As it was late when we arrived in Boston the airport was fairly quiet and there were no domestic flights going over that way this evening so we stayed in the Airport ready to get an early start the next day. By this time in our trip we were well versed in sleeping rough, the only difference this time was that we had no sleeping bags, no change of clothes and no toiletries but that didn’t matter, a few hours later we would have all we needed. We found a childrens play area and decided that this looked comfortable and it certainly did the trick. Both myself and Adam slept great until we were woken the next morning by airport security. We explained that we were not technically homeless, showed our flight pass and thanked them for the alarm call and headed for the Delta desk to book our passage to Buffalo. After a lengthy discussion it was apparent that we would not be making it to be reunited with our bags so we needed to come up with another idea and so we booked a flight to New York and requested that our backpacks could be transported to JFK at the same time. I enjoyed New York, I had visited the city the previous year and was very much looking forward to seeing it again. It was a completely different experience as last time I had visited in March and it had snowed where as it was now late July and there was not even a hint of snow. Also, the last time I had seen the Big Apple I’d actually had luggage. Still, the absence of baggage made the train ride into Manhattan much easier and the Delta Airline staff had been very helpful. All we had to do was call the airport once we knew where we were staying and they arranged to deliver our bags as soon as they arrived. In all we were bag less for about 3 days and had received a Delta toiletry bag with a few essentials in and had been out and picked up a few odd items of clothing to tide us over. We ended up staying just around the corner from 5th Avenue in one of the largest backpackers hostels we had stayed in. The view from the roof was pretty amazing and we stood for ages listening to one of the New Yorkers pointing out sights to his group. We managed to get a few of the tourist things done as well, Time Square is always impressive. I found on my last visit that a trip up the Empire State Building is much better at dusk as you can watch the city light up as it starts to get darker. What I had not realised the last time was that there is a second elevator that takes you up even further. I was amazed by this one even though you have to make do with the seeing the views from a small window. I could easily have stayed longer in New York but we were travel weary and felt we were not only low on time and energy, we were also struggling with funds so it made sense to make one final call and arrange the flight home. I landed back in Heathrow Airport on August 1st after an 11 month trip around the globe with a head full of memories. It has been 20 years since I went travelling and I have only just managed to get it all written down. I can honestly say that compiling the list of memories over the last few months has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience and makes me want to go and do it all again.