Ocean Walking: Texas and the Atlantic Stars, USA (Part 1)
This year I had a wonderful opportunity to go on a business trip to a global conference at our company's headquarters, which is located in Fort Worth, Texas. I was in America for the first time, so I decided to combine business with pleasure and extend my stay overseas by purchasing the Stars of the Atlantic tour with visits to New York, Boston, Washington and Niagara Falls.
Well, everything is in order.
I applied for a visa through an agency with which my company works closely and successfully, so I was only required to collect some documents, and the agency took over the rest of the actions. That is, by a certain time I just approached the embassy, where they handed me the documents, I stood in line for another 15 minutes and then went to get a visa.
The whole procedure took me 2 hours (there are still a lot of people who want to travel from the USA) and took place in 2 stages: first, a fingerprint scan, then a 3-minute interview with the visa officer through the window, where he asked me a couple of questions about the purpose of my visit , my position and company, and immediately announced that he was giving me a visa. It is interesting that I received a visa about a month before my departure, and they opened it for me immediately from the day of the interview at the embassy and for 5 years.
The flight was also without delay and surprisingly quite good, although the 9.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Dallas (Fort Worth) cannot be called easy a priori. But I had a business class (KLM for the entire route) and all the amenities that come with it. In addition, I love to fly during the day, when there is no need to force myself to sleep and it is light and beautiful outside the window.
The plane was an Airbus-330, they flew over the oceans perfectly, the weather overboard was amazing, from the map on the monitor / TV screen it was always possible to determine the location of the aircraft, travel time and to the destination, etc. We fed often and a lot, and also some time before landing in Dallas, each business class passenger received a small Dutch house with wine (or liquor, I have not yet opened) inside as a gift. Yes, it's also interesting that the toiletry set was from Victor & Rolf.
We arrived in Dallas at 13:30. In total, the flight Kyiv-Amsterdam (2.45 hours) and Amsterdam-Dallas (FV) (9.5 hours) took 12 hours 15 minutes + 3.5 hours at Amsterdam airport. Time difference with Kyiv -8 hours. It turned out that I flew out of Kyiv at 6:30 in the morning, and arrived in Dallas at 13:30.
I quickly went through all the formalities, once again “talked” with the border guard, who asked for a long time and in detail about the purpose of my visit, where I would stay, whether I was going to move around the United States, i. e. leave the state of Texas, etc. As a result, I put a stamp with permission to stay in the United States until the end of December 2012. That's how!
On the way from the airport to the hotel (I took a taxi), which I had in the small town of Frisco (20 minutes from the airport), I surveyed both the wide expanses of Texas and the autobahns with multi-level interchanges. No wonder they say that everything in Texas is big and wide.
Hotel – The Westin Stonebrier. With the stardom of hotels in the US tension. In all the hotels where I lived, I did not single out any stars anywhere, as, for example, in Europe. But I guess the hotel was 5*. The hotel is one five-story building, but it is simply endless in length.
What I noticed and even kindly envied is that Americans come here with their families for the week-end, play golf, swim in pools, play tennis ...just a resort hotel.
The room was also very spacious, as was the bathroom. In general, I, accustomed to the compact numbers of European fives, immediately noticed that everything in the room was somehow large. The entrance door is wider, the corridor at the entrance, a very wide door to the bathroom, the bathroom itself, and interestingly, the toilet bowl is much wider than those that can be seen as standard with us, and it also says American Standard on it)). The room has a very wide and rather high bed, the seat of the chairs is also wider than is customary with us.
In addition to the standard set in this class of numbers, i. e.
bathrobe, slippers, iron, ironing board, there was a mini-coffee maker, several types of coffee for brewing (Starbucks), different types of sugar (there was no tea as, in fact, a kettle), dry cream. I did not find a mini-bar, as well as a refrigerator in the room. By the way, the same situation was in all other hotels where I stayed during my trip along the East Coast. That is, in the rooms of all hotels (and they were already tourist class) always! there was a mini coffee maker and brewed coffee sets but no kettle or tea anywhere. Maybe this is also such an American Standard! ?
In addition, there was an ice bucket with tongs in the room. Americans generally have a special attitude to ice! Ice is always available and in large quantities. In every hotel where I stayed, there was an Ice-machine on the floor - an ice machine. An American should always have a drink with plenty of ice on the table.
There is such a film “Back to the Future-3”, when the main character finds himself in the Wild West of the late 19th century and meets his friend a professor, who, as one of the achievements of his engineering, shows a bulky ice machine. Before the trip to America, this episode didn’t mean anything to me, but now I understand that the presence of such a car in the film is like an obligatory attribute of a comfortable life for an American, which is actually demonstrated by the professor to the main character McFly.
So every evening, when I returned to my room after dinner, a side table was served in my room next to the bed and there was a bucket filled with ice on it. Interesting! I never once used this bucket, there was no thirst, the room was always cooled to low temperatures.
Entering the room, I set a temperature that was comfortable for me +22, but as soon as I left the room for a while, when I returned, the temperature on the sensor was +16 (translated from their Fahrenheit), i. e. it was automatically regulated.
And here is another feature of the Americans - this is the cooling of rooms to fairly low temperatures. Before the trip, colleagues who had been to the US at conferences warned me to bring warm clothes with me, because it can be very cold in the rooms, but I would never have thought it would be so cold! and the most comfortable suit may be made of woolen fabric in the summer in Texas, where the daytime temperature reaches +40.
In general, the average temperature of the room where we held the conference is also +16 degrees Celsius.
It was 3 miles to the nearest shopping mall, but to my question, how to “get there”, the reception boy’s eyes widened and he said that they don’t go there, but drive, and specifically from our hotel there is a shuttle bus, services which I took advantage of with pleasure, besides meeting my colleague from Turkey. In general, I didn’t get bored, and the shopping was a success, the brands were known to us (Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie and Finch etc. ), then previously unknown to me, but very attractive (White House Black Market, Banana Republic etc. ). The choice is huge, the prices are attractive. But then again, there was no point in buying a lot, because I had a tour along the East Coast ahead of me, where I still had to fly and drag my suitcases.
The second significant outing was with the whole group in Dallas, where we had a gala dinner at the Reunion Tower at the Hyatt's revolving restaurant.
This time, for the first time, I saw American skyscrapers and was, of course, "delighted and crushed. "
Local colleagues, well done, brought us to the restaurant in advance so that we, the visiting participants of our conference, would have time to simply walk around the diameter of the restaurant, admire the views and take pictures. Again, I repeat that the restaurant rotates and therefore during your stay in it you can look at the whole of Dallas.
Also, from the observation window of this restaurant, one could clearly see the place where D. F. Kennedy was shot, and also the building from which the shot was fired. There is now the Sixth Floor Museum.
That, in principle, is all the interesting things that I managed to see this time in Texas, but not all the needs that needed to be implemented. And I didn’t manage to realize visiting a real cowboy store and buying a real Stetson (cowboy hat), a fringed cowboy leather jacket and a pair of Texas jeans there.
Oddly enough, there was no such store in Frisco, and there was no opportunity to visit it in Dallas.
So, after spending a week in Texas, having worked ad nauseam at the conference, the long-awaited Friday came, which foreshadowed only the most pleasant for me, namely, a flight to New York to continue my stay in the USA on the Atlantic Stars tour.
In the morning, our group (who managed to do it according to the flight departure schedule) went on an introductory tour to the factory of our company, and in the afternoon I went to Dallas Fort Worth Airport with peace of mind to fly to New York. No signs of trouble! The day is sunny, the air is hot, etc.
Moreover, I bought a ticket for the Dallas-New York route (via Charlotte, North Carolina) in Kyiv with one ticket for US Airways, but, traditionally in America, you have to pay extra for each piece of luggage, well, the maximum weight of luggage also no one canceled.
Therefore, while still at the hotel, on-line I paid $ 25 for a suitcase. But at the check-in desk I had some overweight, and they let me on the plane with only one bag of hand luggage! (At the same time, I had a bag with a laptop (capacious), a small bag with things and a small women's backpack behind my shoulders for documents and a guide from my hand luggage. As a result, I had to transfer some of my things to another bag and pay another 35 dollars for it, as for a second piece of luggage.
And then my unexpected adventure began!
About an hour before the departure time of my flight to Charlotte, they announce that due to abnormal heat, the plane is delayed by 40 minutes and passengers who have a transfer to Charlotte for other flights need to go to the counter to determine the route of further movement. It should be noted that my connection in Charlotte is only one hour, and I understand that I will not get on my flight Charlotte-New York (arrival at 23:40).
I start to panic a little, because I have a hotel booked in New York, well, God bless him with this hotel, the most important thing is that the next day at 7 in the morning I have a group bus to Boston.
In general, for about 20 minutes, a pleasant aunt at the transfer desk honestly tried to find at least some flight for me through other airlines and cities in order to fly to New York today, but then she simply shrugged her hands helplessly. Then she and I started trying to put me on a flight to Boston, at least through something, to be in Boston in the morning, but even here there is a bummer - either there are no empty seats or the flights arrive very late in Boston the next day. In the end, she advised me to fly to Charlotte (North Carolina) on my flight, and then figure out on the spot how and where I could squeeze in to get to New York or Boston.
My then state was very sad, I called the agency in New York, through which I had a tour, and warned of the situation and boarded a flight to Charlotte, in my heart hoping that the flight to New York would also be delayed for one reason or another. other reasons.
The flight from Dallas to Charlotte took 2.5 hours. They didn’t feed on the plane, they only served water, coffee or tea to choose from, besides, the water was clearly from the cooler, so coffee and tea were foamy - brr. I didn’t even drink it, the stomach is more expensive.
When my plane landed in Charlotte, there were still 20 minutes left before the plane left for New York. We were late for the plane, there were 6 people, but, unfortunately, due to the large distance between the gates (it was necessary to run to the other end of the airport), none of us managed to catch the flight to New York, although we ran as fast as we could . It was a shame that when we ran up to the gate, the plane was still standing, but it was already sealed. I'm surprised so many people didn't wait!
Everyone then was still very much indignant that one airline, the flight arrived at the wrong time, the flight to New York was the last one for today, because they could have waited a couple of minutes, for sure there was an opportunity to report that people were already flying up! Well, there was nothing left to do but go to the Information Desk again and stand in a rather long queue, because due to the abnormal heat, many flights were canceled or did not arrive in Charlotte on time and their passengers turned out to be my comrades in misfortune.
But then luck still smiled at me, I received my boarding pass, though not to New York (my departed flight was the last one that day), but to Boston the next day. They also gave me 2 boarding passes. One - confirmed at 18:00, and the second as a stand-by passenger (waiting list) for the earliest flight at 7:58.
If I don't get on this early flight, then, as my aunt at the Information desk told me, I will be given a new similar ticket for the next flight to Boston, they fly there every half hour. In the most extreme case, I would simply have to fly to Boston on a 6:00 pm flight with a confirmed ticket, which I absolutely did not want, because I would again lose a day of my trip and a tour of Boston.
Due to the fact that I originally bought one ticket for the entire route, and not 2 for each of the sections, I was also entitled to a night at the hotel at the expense of the airline with breakfast, which I took advantage of with pleasure, having reached there by the hotel shuttle -bass. The hotel was a simple Quality Inn, but everything a tired and nervous tourist needed was there.
And here's another important point - this is luggage, which also had to be moved from the plane to New York to the plane flying tomorrow to Boston, about which, again, having stood in a long queue for an hour at Luggage Claim, I warned an employee of this department. He assured me that everything would be OK, entered the necessary data into the computer and gave me a large set of toiletries from the airline.
The next morning, by the time the check-in for the flight began, I was already at the airport. People simply slept en masse on the floor (impossible on chairs - the handles get in the way), immediately buying a set consisting of a flannel blanket and a pillow under the neck. Near the counter on my flight, I was one of 17! stand-by passengers, after which I felt sad again, knowing that my tour group had already left New York for Boston.
To be honest, I was very worried that I might not get on this flight, and therefore, when they called my name and handed me the boarding cabin, my happiness knew no bounds.
By the way, all 17 passengers from the waiting list got on this plane, and they sat side by side (they took 3 rows near the emergency exit in the middle of the cabin, but there is also a bonus here - the legroom is large)).
It should be noted that in America the cabin of an aircraft is usually divided into zones (zone 1.2, etc. ) and passengers are invited to board the aircraft according to these zones indicated on the tickets. By the way, this is a very good idea, because there is no crowding in the aisles.
The flight from Charlotte to Boston took 1.5 hours. It was interesting to watch New York under the wing of the plane when the plane flew over it. The skyscrapers of Manhattan “stick out” very interestingly, and then suddenly - Central Park - a clearly marked green rectangle in the center. Cool!
After landing in Boston, another unpleasant surprise - it turned out that my suitcases did not arrive with me. After contacting Luggage Claim, I was informed that my suitcases were waiting to be sent to New York for an evening flight.
Why do I need luggage in New York in the evening, if I'm in Boston this morning, and our group will be in New York only in 2 days. In general, again I had to spend time on registration of lost luggage. It should be noted that 2 grandfathers worked in the lost luggage office that day. It's the grandfathers! One was about 65 years old (he moved heavy suitcases very cheerfully), and the other, with whom I filled out the application, was about 80 years old. It seems that, due to his very advanced age, he was a little deaf, because I had to shout to him and repeat several times. In general, in America, I noticed that a lot of old people work, although our guides on the tour could not give clear information to my questions about this. They just said that they have a lot of social programs here that help the elderly.
However, after completing the application, my grandfather gave me an information leaflet and promised that the luggage would be delivered to the hotel I indicated that evening (a hotel in Lexington, located 20-30 minutes from Boston).
So, I'm in Boston. With one bag, in which, in addition to a laptop, only everything you need)). And this is a small travel electric kettle, a thin cashmere wide shawl (very useful - it perfectly protected me from the cold of the air conditioner on the bus all the way), a set of toiletries from the airline and a camera. And another very important item is a small bag with a pillow for the neck for travelers, successfully bought in the SPA salon at Amsterdam Airport (it was just an indispensable companion for me on the road). That's all my simple belongings!
To be continued….
