Southwest to NYC (LaGuardia), NYCAirporter to JFK got me there in plenty of time for my midnight El Al flight. When they opened up check in, I was waiting in line with a nice older lady. One thing led to another and Stella revealed that she is a Dutch child survivor of Bergen Belsen. I tried not to be too star-struck. She is traveling to Israel for a granddaughter`s wedding. She lives in Queens. After security and a bite to eat, I caught up with her at the gate. She welcomed the company. We were sitting close to each other on the plane and she was willing to move to my row if there was room (there wasn't). We exchanged greetings during the flight. Then on disembarking, we met up again, and suffered the very long wait at passport control together. Her sister was picking her up, so one would think that we would part ways there and then. But...then we couldn't find our luggage. Mind you, I had done the math on her age, and I tried to keep her stress and walking down. They had taken our flight off the carousel directory because we had been so long in passport control. Luckily, my turquoise suitcase with yellow strap could be seen at a distance. One of her bags was close, so I got her to come over and find her other bag. I would never guess that she's close to 80. We finally parted ways in the arrival lobby.
I changed some money, and got on the train. One carry-on and one 45+ pound suitcase. No big deal, right? Well, the train station only has stairs to come up on the south side of the street. The street is fully divided. I huffed and I puffed and I got that stuff up to street level. Took the #204 bus, reloaded my transit card and got to the Carmel shuk. I am glad that the suitcase has wheels.
Ah, but there are more stairs. Yes, I have a fourth floor walk-up. Ha!
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