A night like this

I think travel is an interesting thing. It doesn't matter where I go, it's always an experience. Considering the actual flight to Newark from Toronto is only an hour, it was strange that I spent the whole day traveling. I left my apartment last saturday (almost two weeks ago!) at 11.15 am and arrived at my hotel at 5 pm with no problems. (And yes, Tajé, I did get to the airport early, and no, there was no running through the terminal.)

I wish someone would have told me that the strange "satellite terminal" that is Gate E at Pearson is a little pissy backwaterish terminal with nothing in it, very reminscent of the Windsor Airport. Because had I known, I would have wandered around in Terminal 2 for at least an hour before hopping on the shuttle bus and being stranded in that no-man's-land forever. Lessons learned for next time.

Jersey City looked very much like an American city; parts of it reminded me of Detroit (which looks like Gotham City straight of Burton's Batman). Jersey City is awash in muted 1940s browns rather than the greys that predominate Detroit. The downtown business core of the city was empty, as are most American cities on weekends thanks to urban sprawl. Indeed, there wasn't really anything to do or anywhere to go outside the hotel. Which is probably a good thing, since I was actually in Jersey on business and didn't step one foot outside of the hotel for the whole weekend; my time was spent in meetings and at lunches, dinners and cocktail parties. It was busy and overwhelming and I felt like my head would explode from the sheer amount of information, faces and names.

And the hotel. The Hyatt in Jersey City is impressive to say the least. It's a beautiful hotel, overlooking the Hudson, with gorgeous views of the Manhattan skyline from my window, the suite and from the restaurant. (And the restaurant..yummy! I usually eat pretty well most of the time, but this place managed to impress; the food was just lovely.)

I think I now understand after all these years exactly what everyone meant when they said that PACA was like a family reunion. Within seconds of stepping off the elevator to go to my first meeting, I ran into a colleague of mine from the UK whom I hadn't seen in ages. This industry (that'd be stock photography folks) is a small one, with lots of familiar faces.

It's nights like this one that I realize how much I miss the ones that are no longer with us, for one reason or another.

Filed under life