Best Travel Story 5, Cristina Poleacovschi

So basically my travel to USA started in December around the 20th of December. I left Turkey from a conference and headed to Atlanta to visit my boyfriend who lives in Alabama. At the Istanbul airport people were running around and yelling at each other for no reason (at least that’s what i thought at the beginning). I checked in and what seamed strange to me was that the I had an interview at the check in line that lasted for 20 minutes. The guy asked me about everything that you can ask a terrorist about. When I checked in I found out that my plane from NYC to ATL was canceled because of the storms and they didn’t know when the next plane to ATL will fly. Oh well, I though would spend one more day in NYC and that should be fine. I arrive in NYC and guess what? Delta announces that the next plane to ATL would be in 5 days, and that wasn’t very exciting for me since I didn’t have a place to stay there or spend my 300$ that I saved for this trip. Somehow I borrowed people cellphones and called my bf to let him know about this. There was a foreign couple that took me to the bus station and luckily I found a ticket to Alabama for which I paid 166$ and got there 24 hours later.

The second lucky part of my trip was my trip from Chicago back to Alabama. We visited some friends in Chicago and everything was pretty fine with his car before we got to Chicago. The oil seamed low on his car and we bought some before we left. The car was still showing the oil is low and we realized something is wrong. Let’s not forget that if that car would stop on our way back while outside is -15F(-30C) this wouldn’t be very healthy. So one hour after we left Chicago we took an exit to see what’s going on and right when we entered the exit the car stops. Me and Leon(my bf) had to push the car to a station and decide how will we get home with just 100$ in the pocket. At the station we tried everything: puring different sprays , we were even caring buckets with hot water and pouring it on the engine. In the end we decided we will sleep at the gas station and next day when it gets a little bit hotter the engine might start. All of a sudden we saw a truck shop or stop where they usually have a place where they can fix trucks. Me and Leon covered with a blanket and ran there since it was freaking cold outside. The guy from the shop said he would charge us 40$ is we left the card there for 30 min to warm up. So that would leave us with 60$. I asked him nicely that we would probably not get to Alabama with this money so he said it’s ok. Meanwhile we were having some coffee (well actually one for two since we wanted to save some money) at the shop next to that garage. The guy next to us started to talk to us by accident and Leon told him the story with the car. He said he would go with us to check what’s wrong with it since he is a  truck driver! Well actually he mentioned he is a pick up truck driver ( I think this is how it’s called) and he is headed to Nashville. That moment I knew that we met him not on accident and the car wouldn’t work and we will end up asking him to take us to Nashville. That’s what exactly happened and he offered to give us a ride. The only thing was that we had to spend the night there, and me and Leon slept on a floor of the cinema. We had blankets and pillows so let’s pretend it was comfortable. The next day in the morning we had to figure out how to get the car on the truck. So we had 4 people that were pushing it and it took us a while to get it there but we did it. At the end everyone was hugging us and wishing us good luck and then we all ran away since it was freaking freezing out there. The whole way was actually pretty interesting. The guy was awesome . We got to Nashville and stays over night because nobody could pick us up from there until the next day. If you wonder what happened to Leon’s car in the end : it is dead

And the last part of the story: Since Leon’s car was dead one of his friends offered us a ride to the airport. Huntsville to Atlanta trip is almost 4 hours. We woke up earlier to be there on time. Two hours after we left his card broke. We stopped at a gas station and realized its the transmission and some spray but it didn’t work. At that moment I realized my whole trip was cursed but I still didn’t give up since I kinda needed to be at the airport very soon. We asked couple of people to give us a ride to the next exit where we can rent a car. Leon rented a 300$ car and we left in an hour. 300$ wouldn’t be as much as my ticket if I were late at the airport. the guys were speeding at some point, and I got there 40 minutes before my flight. At the check in the lady from Delta told me that it was too late to check in my luggage and I should leave asap if I didn’t want to miss the flight. So that’s it. i left, my luggage was there but the adventures, the laughs, the stress and the people you meet was something to remember. There are still more details, small but interesting that i can tell if we have a beer together!