Adventures in NYC 9-1-10

My eight and one half hour layover at JFK International Airport in New York City turned out to be a little adventure. When I got off of the plane I didn’t really know where to go. The signs in the terminal that I was in were not good at all and the computer screens showing the arrivals and departures only showed the ones within an hour or two so I didn’t have any idea about my flight. I left the terminal and went to the baggage claim area which as a small room with only a few chairs, not a very nice place to spend a few hours. There weren’t any signs for where the ticketing and check in was but after a little looking around I found a way upstairs to where it was. This also was not a very large area and only about ten seats. I did the self-check-in kiosk and then sat down next to another older lady. My ticket didn’t say what gate or even what terminal it was in but simply said to check the monitors. Well, as far as I could tell, there weren’t any monitors in the check-in area. I suppose I would have to go through security and back to where I was to see the monitors that didn’t tell me anything anyways. I wasn’t planning on going back in, however. My friend Michelle, who lives in NYC was planning on picking me up at the airport at about 1pm to go to lunch. It was about 11am so I just waited. After a little while I got to talking with the lady sitting next to me. She had a pretty interesting story. She was on her way back home from a trip to India. She had had a scare a few years back and had thought she was going to die. Since then she has been traveling to all of the places she wants to see. It sounds like she has been all over. Earlier this year she took a tour to many of the major cities in Europe and stopped in Oberomigau to see the passion play that is only performed once every ten years. We talked about places that we have both visited and how once you start traveling it is hard to stop. She was a very nice woman and talking with her made the time go by fast.

At about 12:30 I got ahold of Michelle and she said that she was on her way. I went out to meet her about 1pm. I think that she drove around the loop for the terminal about 3 times before we found each other. It was that confusing! Once we finally met up I hopped in the car and we headed off to China Town for lunch. We were having such a good conversation in the car that we went the wrong way on one road and had to turn around and go back. New York roads are so curvy! Once we got to China Town we parked and walked around till we found a restaurant. When we were seated we thought we would be ordering from menus but instead they brought around carts of food and we picked what we liked from the carts. This turned out to be a really good deal because we could see what we were getting and each thing cost much less than the items on the menu! It was delicious really Chinese food! After lunch we walked around a little more until we found another place where we could have tea. I paid for tea since Michelle had treated me to lunch.

After tea it was time to go back to the car and head back to the airport. Michelle noticed that she needed to get gas before going to the airport so we on the way we looked for a gas station but didn’t see any right away so we got off the main highway to look for one. Unlike Minnesota, in New York they don’t have those convienient signs near the highway exits telling you where there are gas stations and food. We went off on one road and then on another and just kept winding our way around. We finally found one. I think it was the second time I have ever been to a full service gas station. The traffic on the way to the airport was not in our favor but we made it there in plenty of time for me. I felt bad for Michelle though because she was supposed to be back for a meeting and was surely going to be late. We said our goodbyes at the airport and I wished for luck and little traffic on her way back. All in all, I had a great and adventurous little stop in NYC!