Aaron Around The World >> North America >> United States of America >> Florida (and New York)
Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>
Florida (and New York), United States of America (15 - 28 April 2007)
For as long as I can remember I've had this massive desire to travel the US of A. I'm not sure exactly why as most people's opinion of the US probably isn't all that high hehe, but anyway. Mo did a two-month work experience stint in The Bahamas, and when she suggested we meet up and spend a couple of weeks going around Florida straight afterwards I jumped at the opportunity! At this stage my longer-term plans are to relocate to Canada some time within the next few years or so and from there I intend to travel throughout the States (whereas I'm mainly concentrating on Europe at the moment), but like I said I've wanted to go there since forever so why not :) Below is our itinerary, and a map showing the route we took around the state:
The best route I could find to Florida from Edinburgh was via Newark, New Jersey. The flights I booked to Florida gave me just over an hour in Newark Airport to do the immigration thing, collect my luggage, figure out where to leave it again, do the security thing, and board the next plane. Needless to say, an hour is cutting it pretty fine and I was pretty worried, but it was either that or eventually arrive late at night and be totally stuffed and probably jetlagged so I took my chances. On the other hand, the flight back to Edinburgh from Newark left in the evening and so I deliberately booked an early flight from Miami to Newark and put in a five-hour stop over with the intention of going for a wander around Newark (like I've been doing around Glasgow during work lately). However, I wasn't aware of Newark's proximity to New York City at the time, so that plan quickly changed when I got there ;)
The US immigration card cracked me up!
"Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were you involved, in any way, in persecution associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?"
Ummm, yes!
"Have you ever detained, retained or withheld custody of a child from a US citizen granted custody of the child?"
Ummm, yes again!
The immigration card above wasn't the half of it; I've never been so interrogated at an airport before! While in the check-in queue I was asked a number of questions about the intentions of my trip and all this other bullshit, and had my drivers license and passport taken off me for ten minutes while they went and did God-knows-what with it! Then, just prior to boarding, I was interrogated further and had to remove my shoes so they could check for weapons or bombs or smelly feet or something (despite having already done this at security). Everyone on the flight got the same crap, and obviously it was all due to this being a US-bound flight, but even so I was still taken aback.
As I mentioned above, I only had an hour to go through all the formalities and rigmarole in Newark Airport, and it seemed like the fates were against me! Despite arriving bang on time the plane was delayed at the gate for ten minutes due to debris on the ground, my luggage took forever to emerge, and the queue for security moved as slow as molasses! When I eventually arrived at the gate (after a healthy 200-metre sprint) I was bang on time to board - phew!
Yup, I was finally here but as it turns out that one-hour mad-rush of a stopover at Newark could've well been the least of my worries. The shitty weather was affecting the majority of America's eastern seaboard, and it became so bad further north that for the following two days after my arrival several flights were cancelled. That would've been a great start to my holiday - stuck in some random airport for 48 hours!
Page Comments