The first trip to NYC. I planned to do what Greg did when he drove me there in 2000 - leave the car at Union station in DC, take a train and arrive at Grand Central in NYC.
Except that Gugao maps weren't invented yet, so I printed my itinerary from yahoo maps, and... it took me to some backwater area of DC, where there's some Union Something street. I should have expected them to have some limitation in their software, but this was a bit ridiculous. Drove around some, then found a gas station, bought a map of the city (probably the last one I ever bought) and went to the station. Lost a whole hour, should have turned right right after crossing the river.
Getting a train wasn't as easy, because I didn't know the language of the railway. I missed two trains - one because it was too fucking expensive and full, the other because I bought a ticket for a no-reservation train, and this one requires them. Buzzed around, went out for a smoke, had a long chat with some black old beggar, had another smoke with him. Wise old man.
The train is nice, but relatively slow. And instead of around five, I got there at around seven. Hotel La Kinta (it's quinta, but kinta is cash, coin, looks better this way) is not far from the station. Even though it was night when I arrived, found it without a hitch, got the key to the room, all smooth. David was in his room, gave me a glimpse of the belgian keyboard layout, which is even more insane than the hungarian.
Coming late was actually good, because David wanted to give me some instructions first, which we did over dinner. We went to a turkish restaurant, as he counted on me knowing the cuisine of the Balkan*, as ours is a mix of austrohungarian, turkish and generally balkanic. And there they, amazingly, had liquid yogurt. Somewhat thinner and saltier than ours, but it had the taste, like at hom. We actually took two glasses each, over dinner, and I was happy, but his bowels were too, so we paced back to the hotel really fast.
The negotiations were scheduled for tomorow. Fingers crossed.
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* Anyone using Balkan in plural will be required to supply an exhaustive list of all of them.