Murphy’s Law of Vacations
Why is it that all the work arrives right before vacation time? I don’t know, but it never fails: I book a vacation for a time when I think things will be quiet, basically ensuring that it will in fact end up being the busiest week of the year.
After a mad-dash scramble to get everything done that needed doing, I managed to escape from the office yesterday, breathing a sigh of relief.
Dark n’ early
My alarm went off at the dark n’ early hour of 5am this morning. It’s the shortest day of the year today, and the sun wouldn’t be up for hours yet. Why oh why do I do this to myself?
See, when I booked my flight, it was scheduled to depart late morning, which meant an early but reasonable start to the day. But about a month ago, I got an email with the subject line “Ha ha, you get an hour less to sleep!” Okay, I don’t think that was the actual subject line, but it might well have been. Due to an airline scheduling change, I now would have the privilege of dragging myself out of bed at a ridiculously early hour of the morning in order to get to the airport on time. Yay me.
So I stumbled around in the dark, long before sunrise, grabbed my bags and my things, and set out for the airport.
The winter coat dilemma
Whenever you see someone walking around Montreal in the dead of winter without a coat, boots, hat or gloves, there are generally three possibilities:
1. They’re crazy.
2. They’re a dumb tourist who can’t read weather forecasts.
3. They’re on their way to be a tourist (albeit hopefully not a dumb one) somewhere warmer.
See, I could bring a warm coat just for the purposes of getting to the airport. But it doesn’t make sense to drag it around with me in my backpack for the next two weeks. The alternative was to be cold for about thirty minutes and more comfortable for the next two weeks. You can guess which one I picked. Luckily, it was pretty mild out this morning, and I did pack some warmer layers for chilly nights (Mexico City goes down to single digits at this time of year), so it wasn’t that bad. I got a few strange looks from people along Mont-Royal at 6am, mind you.
You’d think that, during the busiest travel week of the year, the STM might add an extra few buses to the 747 route. But that would require a level of intelligence not usually ascribed to the STM. I packed myself onto the crowded airport bus, people and luggage wedged in like sardines as the driver shouted at people to “tassez-vous!” Never mind Mexico; they’re going to have to make the chicken bus jokes about Montreal.
Feeling like a VIP
I arrived here at Trudeau shortly after 7am, checked my bags, and was offered a free exit row upgrade by the check-in agent. Score! I’m still a status member with Skyteam, and clearly it has its perks. I made it through security in record time thanks to NEXUS, and am starting to wonder how I ever travelled before all these VIP perks. I got some coffee and breakfast, saw a tour group full of people wearing sparkly santa hats, and am now at the gate waiting to depart. So far, my flight appears to be on time.
Goodbye, snowy Montreal. Next stop: Mexico City. ¡Vámonos!