On Friday night we decided to trek out to JFK airport to take our two suitcases back as they have to be repaired after being pummeled on our trip back from Australia.. more on that to come!
To make it fun we decided to have a bit of an adventurous date night. We were going to do a trip to JFK by not paying any more than a basic Metrocard fare – $2.25. The commute went like this –
B69 Bus to Fulton Street.
C train from Clinton-Washington to Nostrand.
A train from Nostrand to Lefferts Boulevard.
Q10 Limited Bus to JFK Terminal 4.
Airtrain to Terminal 8.
Then back again.
A lot of people do not realize that you can actually skip the $5 Air Train trips and see some of Queens if you leave early enough. Once you are at Terminal 4, the Air Train is free to go around to other terminals! We worked out that this way took about an extra 15 minutes than a normal JFK trip, but that was just from waiting for the C and A trains basically. Everything else went like clockwork.
It was actually kind of funny because when we were on the A train we obviously had our cases with us. When we got to the Rockaways the conductor said over the loud speaker “Get off here for the JFK Airport Connection and we just sat there. People actually said to us “You need to get off here for the airport!” We let them know we are going a different way and they looked at us like we were very strange!
As Lefferts Boulevard is the end of the line, we got to see how the train looks above ground right near some apartments. Imagine trains pulling in and out and then idling beside your bedroom window 24 hours a day?!
We went downstairs and exited the station to a group of 10-15 men all shouting “Taxi! Casino! Airport! Taxi!” As we went over to the Q10 Bus stop we were told two or three times by these drivers where to go.. it was the strangest experience to have all these people yelling at you and then basically bossing you around to tell you where to go. I had never experienced it here before! They were yelling out “Casino!” as the new casino was opening at the Aqueduct race track that night. It was all too much!
It was so strange going to the airport and not actually going anywhere. It was so tempting just to go to a counter and hop on a flight! Now we are counting down to our Europe vacation next year, it was fun to see where we will be leaving from as the only flights I have ever taken from JFK have been Qantas ones!
We did the trip back to the Lefferts Boulevard station and decided to look for something to eat around there. It was decidedly dodgy but there were still a lot of people around. We were about to settle on McDonalds when we saw a restaurant that had an Indian food sign. It looked clean and there were some people in there so we decided to eat there and see what it was like. The restaurant was Kaieteur Express. It was trippy.
First of all, we walked in to Phil Collins singing Against All Odds at full blast and the cricket was on. You don’t see cricket anywhere here. So we sat down and opened the menu. There was chinese food, Caribbean food and then a section on the back that listed five curries. So you could basically get sweet and sour pork, a chicken curry with rice and roti or Caribbean jerk chicken. It was a weird mix!
This was the interior with cricket on the TV – it was funny how we all had flimsy plastic covering the tables!
So we ordered a normal chinese style duck appetizer and then Bill got the lamb curry and I got the chicken curry – it was all absolutely delicious and some of the best curry I have had since moving here! Though the music did not improve. It was so strange as by the time we were eating there was only us and another couple there and some random people picking up their food and the music was pumping 80s love songs like we were in a nightclub and they played a CD that was basically a fake karaoke one with strange voices singing popular songs. I kept sitting there thinking “How on earth can I describe this place?!” I hope you get how hilarious it was!
By the time we got up and about on Saturday morning the snow for snowtober started falling. Katie’s Halloween Brunch party didn’t happen so we stayed in. When we went to Mass at 5pm and it was so awful outside. Lots of slush and the usual suspects on our block who don’t want to shovel the snow. Ugh. The ‘rain’ that was falling felt like little ice pellets hitting my face. After Mass we had to drop off some dry cleaning. We were two steps away from the cleaners when there was a huge BANG! A whole slab of snow fell off their awning and onto the pavement with a huge crash. It was like a boulder of ice and it smashed into pieces. We were SO lucky to have not been caught under it.
Between that and fallen branches, we just wanted to get home. The snow continued through the night and yet today (Sunday) has been gorgeous outside. I am so excited to have that little taste of winter… seeing cotton wool balls fall from the sky is just too exciting!!