What can go wrong must go wrong; or whatever Murphy actually said. However, I am sure it fits great to our trip from Montréal to Boston.

We got up early to organize the last things before heading over to the airport. Adept as we are, we did even plan a 2 hours window at the airport due to the security screening for the U.S. and that we still had enough time to eat something before taking off. But as Murphy said, things had to go differently: on our way from the hotel to the airport we had to change from the subway to a airport shuttle (as everyone else, as the subway or train does not reach the airport). As we arrived at the corresponding subway station, we just missed the shuttle, which should not really matter as they depart every 5 minutes. Unfortunately, in our case and for everyone else waiting at that time, we had to wait 30 minutes in the sun for the next one while 5 buses passed bus stop.

Luckily, the driver was efficient enough to catch up 20 minutes, so “we” were able to reduce our delay. However, at the next position of our trip, we lost 1.5 hours. Although we had already checked in on the day before, the baggage drop (including a small security check as well as ESTA check), the actual security check and the following nerve-wracking custom interview by the U.S. border control (although we were still in Canada) took all the remaining time. So by the time we took off, which was around 1:30 pm, we had no chance yet to even buy some food or eat something.

The following flight was actually rather nice, however due to strong turbulences, the stewardess was even unable to serve some drinks to everyone.

After arriving in Boston, we decided to hurry up and get to the hotel to quickly place our baggage in our room before we get some food. However this was probably our biggest mistake. Below you can see an image of Svenja in the “wrong hotel”.

What does “wrong hotel” mean? Well, it literally means “wrong hotel”. During our check-in, we were informed that the reservation we made online never reached the hotel. Furthermore, even by calling the booking website, we were unable to get a room as they were full booked. So we stranded in the lobby of the hotel where we actually really wanted to be and waited for the booking website to organize another hotel, of course in a similar location (as of course we wanted to stay downtown), similar price range and similar quality.

Well, the first hotel they proposed did not match any of the previous criteria expect the price (as they would have had to pay the difference if the new one would have been more expensive). So we decided to ask for another one while still waiting in the lobby of the actually booked hotel.

It took them exactly one hour until they came up with a new solution. It actually sounded great, but there was one big problem. The new hotel would actually have been an upgrade and they would have come up for the difference of nearly 500 CHF. HOWEVER, we first would have had to pay the full amount at the hotel during the check-in and get the money back as soon as possible. It sounds reasonable, nevertheless impossible for us. As someone with a single paycheck, the credit card can be pretty limited. Well, of course, there is more than enough for a hotel, however, as we already booked the hotels for our next station (New York City) and these hotels already reserved their money on our credit card, there was not enough left to go with the better hotel, even if the booking website would have paid every back write after checking-in.

And so, after a terrible day, where everything possible can go wrong, we had to take the hotel they proposed first. So, at the end of that day, we ended up in a hotel we would have never actually booked for ourselves, just because there were no others left for that price in Boston and paid nearly as much as we would have paid for our first choice (because we booked it more than 1 month in advance). Nevertheless, right now we are more than 20 minutes outside of the city center (by subway) and far away from where we actually wanted to be, yet still unable to get the first food during the 12 hours of our “Murphy’s marathon”.

P.S. In memory of someone who always told us that bad days can get better and unfortunately died today: