i officially hate snow. and airports. and trains. and traveling in general. (well false, i mostly hate traveling on trains/planes in the snow).
what started out as a fun family vacay in finland quickly turned into complete and utter shambles. my bro and i were about to embark on a seemingly impossible trek from finland to NY while i continued on to DC later that evening. or so i thought....
despite the most snow helsinki has seen in a century, those practical finns kept the airport up and running, one of the few in europe that was still operational under all the snow. like the good little traveler i am, i checked the weather forecast in NY, which announced a SEVERE STORM WARMING from 3-8pm. good thing i was supposed to get in smack dab in the middle of the warning around 4. juuuuust great.
we took off about an hour late (because of the famous de-icing process) and made our way to ny 9 hours later, where we circled JFK because, surprise surprise, there was bad weather in ny. apparently the runway wasnt clean enough or some business (the pilots thickly accented announcements were somewhat cryptic over the static intercom). the complete whiteness outside and gale force winds shaking the plane were somewhat disconcerting, but theres not much you can do while still in the airplane. so i just held on for dear life and hoped for the best. after watching the flight path on the screen make a series of figure eights over the airport for an HOUR and a half, we finallllly land into full on white out blizzard conditions. naturally, my connecting flight to DC (and every other flight in and out of jfk) was cancelled. and so it began.
bags in tow, we left the terminal to catch a taxi into brooklyn to stay with some relatives overnight to weather the storm, but it was blizzarding so we decided to take the airtrain to the metro and head into brooklyn that way. after standing in a mob outside the train terminal for an nour, airport staff announced NO trains are running because of the weather. something about too much wind. pish posh! dejected, we go back to the bagage claim with all the other disgruntled travelers. Occasionally, an unmarked bus would drive by that EVERYONE and their mom (literally) ran to flag down. no one told us WHERE the shuttle was going, people were just anxious to get the hell out of the airport. elbows were thrown, babies pushed, the works! survival of the fittest!
weighed down by our massive suitcases, we didnt manage to finagle our way onto the bus so we went back to stand in the taxi line, in the blizzard. after an hour of braving the blizzard outside, the taxi attendant comes by announcing there were no more taxis, nothing is coming in or out because of the conditions on the road. awe-some.
once inside, we stake our claim on some prime floor space against a pillar for back support. i resign myself to spending the night in the airport, settling into my temporary home for the next few hours. meanwhile, people who had been waiting warm and cozy inside the terminal the whole time had gotten cots to sleep on. naturally there werent anymore left so we simply sat and gazed longingly at the comfortable, casually sprawled cot residents. bastards.
after about an hour, my brother decides enough is enough and goes to check the sitch outside. Reporting back about 10 minutes later, i learn there still ARE taxis coming (one every 15 min or so). Damn you taxi stand man who made us get out of line!! so we wait outside. in the blizzard. at some point the line dissolves and it becomes a free for all, people bum rushing anything with wheels that approaches the stand. no one was sticking to the code. the LINE CODE! most taxis that did approach the stand unmolested only went to manhattan, opting for the longer distance to hike up the fares. ugh. seriously??!! after about two hours in line, i reach my breaking point. tired, hungry, wet, cold, i give up hope and beg my brother to go back inside and sleep in the airport. iron willed, he refuses, telling me to wait inside for a bit while he takes one for the team and attempts to flag down cabs for us. ahhh bortherly love.
after something like three hours (that felt like TEN) one of the attendants takes pity on my incessant teeth chattering and convinces a taxi to take my bro, myself and a tiny trendy asian girl to brooklyn for an absurd amount of money. EIGHTY dollars for what normally costs about $30. at this point im willing to give the man my first born child, so i convince the others to just get in the fucking cab already. we finally head out of the airport around 11 or so, braving the unplowed, ridiculous roads on our way to warm beds.
incidentally, the ride was exponentially MORE stressful that actually getting ride. over the course of two and a half hour ride (which normally takes 20 minutes) we barrel through snow covered streets, passing abandoned cars that were stuck in the snow, hundreds of wandering travelers resigned to walking to their destination. the whole scene was a surreal, lawless, day after tomorrow type scenario. very disconcerting. take THAT for climate change disbelieving republican senators!!!
meanwhile, our taxi driver continued to mutter under his breathe, praying to himself in hindi, interjected by occasional outbursts of "oh shit oh shit oh shit". i closed my eyes for half the ride, prayyyying to any and every god to get us to our destination to save me from having to lug my 50+ pound suitcase miles in the snow. images of '28 days later' zombies attacking the car kept popping up in my mind, prompted by people outside banging on the window of the cab, hoping to catch a break from the blizzard and snag a ride from our driver. between the trecherous roads, lack of sleep, zombie people and a very active imagination i was a HOT MESS. (visual effect)
around 2:30, we got to our relatives' house, frazzled and soaked in snow and exhaustion. after a restless nights sleep, i got up and checked amtrak and wmata for a way home. still hopeful, i decided to test my luck and try and make a break for it that day. i booked a 5:39 train from penn station to union station online, optimistic that despite the lack of flights to dc, the trains would somehow still be working. i left the house around 2:30 juuuuust to be sure i wouldnt get stuck on the way there (who knows what the subway would be like!).
i got to penn station around 3:30, ready to tuck in with a book and my ipod for the next 2 hours until my train took off. just as i walk into the amtrak terminal. i immediately sense the aggravated tension in the air. i look up towards the departures board and half expectedly read 'delayed' and 'canceled' postings next to EVERY SINGLE train on the board. MAJOR SIGH. here we go again. a woman announces all trains traveling south are delayed due to an 'earlier signal problem out of penn station.' oh yeah, and the BLIZZARD. i heard that sammmmme announcement six times every hour, for the next seven hours. i was ready to slap a bitch. i do NOT accept your 'sincere apologies for the inconvenience' thank you very much!!!
i found myself a spot on the floor and prepare for the long haul. inbetween pages of my book, i glance up at the board, fleeting moments of hope that by some miracle my train will be departing. no such luck.
SEVEN. HOURS. LATER. the gate for my train finally switched from "delayed" to "stand by". my train didnt leave until TEN FOURTY FIVE. so much for easy traveling.
to add insult to injury, THREE trains that were scheduled to leave AFTER my train had already left the station. where was the justice??? my 5:39 departure stood defiantly on the board until the end, taunting me with the delayed listing. by the time the 3rd train heading to dc was listed on the board i was ready to flip a shit, got up to go demand i get on the train. of course, the ticket couter line was closed and guarded by armed policemen to hoard off the angry mob of stranded travelers. i went to stand with 50 other pissed off people in the customer service line and overheard a group of frustrated passengers, all from my train. just when we had collectively decided to just get on the train that was scheduled to leave before ours in mutual frustration, our train FINALLY listed a departure gate. a stamppppppede of people ran over to the gate, too relieved to complain at this point. but the fun didnt stop there.
once on the train, we got to philadelphia behind schedule only to be forced OFF the train, at 1 in the morning, with no explanation. we were corralled onto another train that had been sitting in the station. ironically, the train we got onto was another train for dc that had left hours before ours. oh irony.
people began swapping war stories, who had had the worst travel experience, etc. at one point i casually threw in i had come from finland to get here, inspring the appropriate oohs and aaahs of the crowd. damn straight i need some recognition for the toils and tribulations i had gone through!
when we pulled into union station at 3:30 am, i was in a state of disbelief. that, and extreme exhaustion and anger. once off the train, we all shuffled into a painfully long, slow taxi line as the metro had long since closed. i had overheard the woman sitting next to me on the train mention she was headed to cleveland park, not too far from me, so i offered to share a cab with her. strategically, she had a working phone to call a taxi (mine had conveniently run out of batteries waaaay back when on sun night). thankfully, my new best friend had the foresight to call a cab and arranged to meet a block from the station to avoid the crowd, so we walked over and met our cab driver. freedommmmmmmm!
i walked into my apartment around 4 in the morning, relieved, exhausted, frazzled, generally out of it.
but the good news, IM HOME!
