(The capital of the world takes its cut, New York – 23/08/2018)
I felt silly today. Perhaps odd. I am not sure how to take what happened today.
Today I travelled to Cancun airport to take my flight to NYC. My feelings towards New York are mixed. I have been always very critical with America and what it stands for. Don’t get me wrong, there are beautiful people everywhere. But I find the american way of life insane and it is a fact it was only viable because one nation was doing it at the cost of the rest of the planet. If they entire planet would live as America does, we would be extinct within 1 year.
But I must admit that my ideas about the place do not contradict the fact that, number one, it might be worth to visit and number two, that New York might be a fascinating place even if it would horrify me.
That fascination started right before approaching NYC. Accommodation prices in New York are just insane. Your accommodation search will return with ridiculous prices for places that look like a dump.
–‘Cesar, prepare yourself ‘ – I told my alter ego. The one I chat with most of the times, as I spend a great deal of time with myself.
One week in NYC is going to cost the same than 8 weeks in beautiful Bolivia. Or even more. God knows.
Looking for accommodation was a lengthy task. I found through MrBnB.com a decent place. Ok, I have to share the room but it was in a brand new house in Upper Manhattan for 28 USD. A bargain considering what he city offers.
But the rose of the winds changes its direction and the breeze from the helping gods would quickly turn into other type of wind.
I arrived to the airport in time. No drama. Yesterday, I checked the time of the flight again and a 13.10 departure would ensure me plenty of time. Even better, no queues at the check-in. Within 3 min I was a the counter. What a great start of the day!
The air assistant could not find my booking. We tried all the possible ways to retrieve it but we could not locate it. I booked my ticket using www.opodo.com. All I got at that time was a long email from them and an opodo transaction number. Not an airline code nor a booking reference from the airline. Trying to find additional information to provide to the air assistant, I started to carefully read the email again just to find out that my flight was yesterday.
What a shock and odd thing. Never in my life something like that occurred to me. Most strange thing was that, for months, I kept saying friends and everyone that I was flying on the 23rd Aug. The booking for accomodation was based on that day. The heading I gave to the PDF confirmation voucher was with the date of the 23rd.
I checked the flying details several times in the past. And two days ago I checked the time of the departure again and did not see that it was for the 22nd Aug.
From the day of the purchase, I commited to the 23rd Aug as the flying date. Most oddly, when your flight is approaching, you get emails from the airline or ticket supplier reminding you that your flight date is coming or that you could check-in online. But I did not get any communication. Something that could have made me spot my mistake.
Everything prior today was aligned with the date of the 23rd. There was not a single sign that could indicate something different. Just to realize at the counter that it was yesterday.
The airline could not offer me an alternative arrangement, as everything was fully booked until sunday 26th. I just have to get a new ticket elsewhere.
That was not the only problem. Despite being one of the major world airports, there was no internet at Cancun Airport. Neither free or paying one. Literally there was no way to connect myself to the internet.
Out of the blue, a middle age taxi driver saw my face of dispair when he asked me what was the matter. He offered me to share his connection after my answer. So just there, standing up in the middle of the entrance someone shared his connection so I could try to find my way out of the drama.
Found a ticket for today. Very expensive, although considering is a last minute ticket, was not that bad. Just did not think about it and bought it. And, as I was having 6 hours wait at the airport, I started writting this post (offline).
As I said at the beginning of this post I felt silly. And odd. Because I cannot understand how did it happened. Perhaps this is an Illuminati conspiration and revenge, since few days ago someone in facebook that claimed to be part of the group (I did not believe it that much) sent me a friend request that I rejected. Not really interested in joining any of these groups.
Or perhaps it is a different force behind? In any case, feels like the date was just changed overnight while I was sleeping to make me go through what I am experiencing today.
I thought that by finding the affordable accommodation I booked at the end, I escaped the demands of the capital to fulfil my duties. But the capital of capitalism always find the way to make you pay. One way or the other, NYC is going to get its cut.
It was a bad start for New York. And I hoped the Rose of the Winds would turn again soon.
But my day ended arriving to JFK at midnight and waiting 2h30min to go through inmigration. And spent another 60USD in a taxi as it was the only way to get to my accommodation.
I deeply breathed and assumed what happened as inevitable. It was meant to happen. Sometimes, money is there to be spent. Or to be put down the sink.
One tattoo less.
