It all started when we happily left the flat at 4pm to go to the airport. Upon arriving, we went to the United Airlines check-in desk and the man looked at our tickets only to say 'yeah, that connecting flight's not gonna happen.' We weren't quite sure how to react to that. The man then told us that we can either spend the night in San Francisco or spend the night in Vancouver and leave tomorrow. Either way we'll arrive 24 hours later than planned. Needless to say we were flipping livid about this. Not helped by the man's nonchalant attitude, lack of apology and assurance that there would be no compensation as 'we didn't want the plane to be delayed either'.
So while we were on the way home with our tails between our legs, ready to come back to the airport the following morning, it suddenly occurred to us that if we didn't leave the country before midnight, we'd be illegally in Canada. So, much like Cinderella, but without the glass slippers or jovial godmother, we hurried to the nearest exit. Thus ensued the ridiculous unthought-out adventure that I shall henceforth refer to as the Flagpoling Debacle of 2014.
By now it was 5pm, so, as we were running out of time, we diverted our journey home by taking a bus that seemed to take us to another bus that took us to somewhere near the US border. This took about an hour and a half. However, the second bus didn't take us as close as we thought, so we ended up walking along a motorway, due to lack of pavements, and down a very dark spooky farm lane for about half an hour. By this time it was dark and we were lost. We'd also misread Google Maps and there seemed to be no road joining us and the border crossing. We decided, in our desperation, to call a taxi. This was hampered somewhat by the fact that we didn't know where we were. The taxi miraculously found us and drove us less than a mile down the road to the border crossing. We had been so close, and yet so far!
Once at the border crossing, we navigated towards the USA did, which is really not made for pedestrians, and got some very funny looks when we explained to the lady that we're just 'flagpoling' even though we have suitcases. She gave us the necessary papers and told us to go back to Canada. We then navigated all the lanes of border traffic to get to the Canadian side, and were met with the same suspicious looks. particularly when we told the man that we'd walked to the border! He eventually gave us our visas and we hobbled back in to Canada. I think we were both slightly concerned there might be an issue and we'd both (or one of us) get stuck in the USA.
As it was now around 9.30, we stopped in the first pub we saw for dinner and a congratulatory pint. After this we called for a taxi to take us to a bus stop and got home around midnight. If we weren't before, we're definitely in need of a holiday now!
Français
On est finalement arrivés à Cancun et bien que les vacances n'aient pas encore vraiment commencé, le voyage pour en arriver là - les 40 heures - était une aventure en soi. Et si vous me demandez, une trop grosse aventure !
Tout a commencé quand on a joyeusement quitté l'appartement à 16h pour aller à l'aéroport. A l'arrivée, on est allés au comptoir de United Airlines et l'agent a regardé nos tickets seulement pour nous dire "ouais, le second vol, ça va pas être possible". On ne savait pas trop comment réagir à ça. Il nous a ensuite dit qu'on pouvait soit passer la nuit à San Francisco (de notre poche bien sûr) ou rester à Vancouver la nuit et partir le lendemain. Dans les 2 cas on arrive 24 heures après la date prévue. Pas besoin de dire qu'on est devenus livides. L'attitude nonchalante du guichetier n'aidant pas, le manque d'excuse et l'assurance qu'il n'y aurait pas de compensation parce que "on ne voulait que l'avion soit retardé non plus".
Donc pendant qu'on retournait à la maison, la queue entre les jambes, prêts à revenir encore à l'aéroport le lendemain matin, on s'est soudainement rendus compte que si on ne quittait pas le pays avant minuit, on serait illégalement au Canada (nos visas expiraient le jour du départ). Donc comme Cendrillon mais sans les chaussures de verre ni la marraine, on s'est précipités vers la plus proche sortie. C'est ainsi que la ridicule et impensable aventure à laquelle je me réferrerai dorénavant par la Débacle du Tour du Poteau de 2014 (un tour du poteau consiste à passer la frontière et revenir tout de suite pour avoir un nouveau visa, c'est pas possible de refaire un visa en restant au Canada, on est obligé de passer la frontière).
Maintenant il était 17h donc on manquait de temps, on a dévié de notre voyage vers la maison en prenant un bus qui semblait nous amener à un autre bus vers quelque part à proximité de la frontière avec les US. Ca nous a pris environ une heure et demi. Par contre, le second bus ne nous a pas emmené aussi près qu'on pensait (si si c'était marqué sur la magnifique application Transit, c'est juste qu'il y a pas d'autres lignes de bus dans le coin), donc on s'est retrouvés à marcher le long d'une autoroute, à cause du manque de trottoir et ensuite sur une très sombre et effrayant route avec des fermes pour environ une demi-heure.
A ce moment
By this time it was dark and we were lost. We'd also misread Google Maps and there seemed to be no road joining us and the border crossing. We decided, in our desperation, to call a taxi. This was hampered somewhat by the fact that we didn't know where we were. The taxi miraculously found us and drove us less than a mile down the road to the border crossing. We had been so close, and yet so far!
Once at the border crossing, we navigated towards the USA did, which is really not made for pedestrians, and got some very funny looks when we explained to the lady that we're just 'flagpoling' even though we have suitcases. She gave us the necessary papers and told us to go back to Canada. We then navigated all the lanes of border traffic to get to the Canadian side, and were met with the same suspicious looks. particularly when we told the man that we'd walked to the border! He eventually gave us our visas and we hobbled back in to Canada. I think we were both slightly concerned there might be an issue and we'd both (or one of us) get stuck in the USA.
As it was now around 9.30, we stopped in the first pub we saw for dinner and a congratulatory pint. After this we called for a taxi to take us to a bus stop and got home around midnight. If we weren't before, we're definitely in need of a holiday now!
