st-jean/MTL/NYC

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SUNDAY 7TH; turning around a sleep schedule where you'd usually go to bed at 6am to physically manage catching a 8am bus without collapsing or dropping dead is no easy task. but apparently, i'd made it somehow?! i mean... the art of being sleep deprived, yet in a do-able way. albeit mornings still leave me feeling utterly miserable, at least this one was perfect weather-wise. the time had come to head off on this new journey: for better or worse?! having to wait an extra 2 hours at the viarail station in montreal instead of being able to sleep those hours in my bed sucked, for lack of a better word. but no other bus schedule would coincide better. only adds insult to injury that the train eventually passes back through st-jean on the way to NYC, without any stop. boo-freakin'-hoo. let's go—an experience with amtrak: first off: although advertised as having WIFI available during the ride, this turned out to be a blatant lie and had no WIFI service throughout. for 11 hours!!! there went my idea of watching youtube. bummer. unsure if i've just been unlucky or if it's always like that. *shrug* took about an hour to clear customs. unlike when crossing over with the bus, the officers actually come inside the train to inquire with passengers. had a bit of a chuckle when one of the officers did his best to pronounce "fruit" the french way for the two french passenger-guys sitting across from my seat, but they weren't quite getting it. turns out they thought the officer was offering them fruits so at first they went kinda like; "sure, ok." 😂 whilst riding i'd keep hearing people trying to slide-slam-shut the restroom door, or more like having one hell of a fight with it. OVER and OVER. this actually made me a bit anxious for when i'd eventually have to go, but turns out it was super easy, sooo... i've got no clue what happened there! or maybe the issue was with the restroom on the other side. feeling lucky the seat next to mine was empty for most of the ride (i'd say perhaps approx half?) but eventually a guy came sitting beside me. he was pretty calm and watching movies on his laptop, but know the feeling when you're not too fond of someone's smell even though they smell clean but you just don't like this kind of clean? not sure how else to describe it. but he talked to me at the very end of the ride and was actually super nice, so now i kinda feel bad for thinking that. oh ohhhh. AT LAST arrived in NYC: stepping out of the building as gentle-yet-goddamn-annoying rain started falling down. meanwhile trying to pick up both my umbrella and the address hotel info i'd printed out. fun fun fun. managed to find the hotel after a few wrong turns. aaand that's when i realized how bad my rusty spoken english was after YEARS of not speaking it. ha! during the check-in process got the WIFI hooked up on my phone (WIFI!!! hallelujah!) with the help of the desk clerk. however crappy news as i inquired about the microwave + kettle which were supposed to come as room amenities, or according to online info anyway. there was indeed a microwave, but only one for the entire hotel and furthermore it was located into a common area.... and no kettle at all. f*ck. as someone who cared to be able to easily boil hot water inside my own room to eat cheap meals like ramen noodles and such, this was annoying as hell and certainly rubbing me the wrong way. (yes i'm cheap. i know.) - [clerk lady]: "there's no kettle in your room, however there will be a coffee maker so you can use that instead." k fine. whatever. it's better than nothing, i guess. elevator up to room 1010: bed!!!!!! there's no microwave, but look, bed! 😍 ready to drop everything everywhere ...& yet *looks around* ......yep, no darn coffee maker. please. pleaaase. at the end of a long day like this, DON'T TELL ME THERE'S A COFFEE MAKER IN MY ROOM WHEN THERE'S NO COFFEE MAKER IN MY ROOM. but major bonus points for this hotel room having A/C (yes, A/C in may, thank you). back downstairs to tell clerk how there's no coffee maker in my room. she proceeds to make a phone call to find out if the hotel can provide me one, eventually telling me someone's taking care of it and would bring it to my room. asked her if i should wait in my room then, and she said yes. sooo... back upstairs. waited. and waited. clearly, nobody was coming! at the very least, not anytime soon. went back downstairs to head out on a quest for a mcdonald's to get freakin' coffee which i'm never gonna get otherwise. lined up at the first mcdo i stumbled upon. one of the employees came up from the other side of the counter to quickly ask everyone in the line what they'd be getting, cuz they were closing in a few minutes and apparently running out of beef or whatever. but i only wanted coffee, so, didn't care!! after getting my order i'm back out on the streets heading back to the hotel. or so i'm thinking. truth is: the 71 W 37st avenue i kept stubbornly looking for simply did not exist. wish the club bouncer i came across would've told me that upon being asked! at this point mind you i'm holding my coffee with one hand (without any cardboard thingie around the cup not to burn my fingers), cell phone on the other, umbrella left at the hotel cuz it had stopped raining but now it was picking up again, no hotel info with me since leaving all my shit at the hotel because i wasn't venturing very far at all, and for the cherry on top: cannot pick up any WIFI signal on my cell if it were to save my life. turns out it was freakin' 35TH AVENUE. of course at this point, my coffee is cold and i've already spilled some of it into my shirt & bra. back inside my hotel room, still no kettle and/or coffee maker in sight. surprise surprise. after drinking the rest of my cold coffee, headed down to 4th floor to make acquaintance with THE microwave. sure enough there's a weird/dingy microwave in there i'm not sure how to operate. oh yeah, and i almost forgot to mention. *laughs* GLADLY i brought an old crappy towel to use after my shower, cuz leftover hairdye traces wouldn't have meshed too well with their ALL WHITE towels set + bedding. riiiight.