Thursday was our final night in New York City. Hopefully. We’ve already had four flights cancelled in the past three days. Wednesday we were about to get on the shuttle bus to Newark airport (EWA) when I got another notification saying there has been “an itinerary change”. We delayed getting on the bus (tickets already purchased) and called Air Canada. The nice lady said Friday morning was the earliest she could get us out. With no other options on the table, we took it.
Our research revealed that the buses and trains were not yet running. A one-way car rental from New York City to Ottawa? It’d be cheaper to go by helicopter. Options exhausted, we had to find a place to stay for two more nights. We’d been staying with a friend and didn’t want to put her out any more (props Katrina – we love you!). Interestingly her water and heating failed Thursday morning (you can come live with us!).
I checked my email from an overloaded Starbucks hotspot to find that the Travelzoo weekly specials included a Times Square hotel that was only five avenues away. The Internet connection was so shitty that it was faster to walk over than to wait for the page to load.
So this hotel called The Out had these $75 a night (per bed) in a four-bed “room share”. Sounds terrible but it was not. Just look at the photos.
Das Sink
Der non-wall toilet.
and one of the four sleeping pods.
Die “foot” of the bed.
und, the head of the bed.
Downsides include: the room was at street level – 43rd Street can be pretty noisy at all times of the day. Sharing a room with strangers – but the $75 a night rate should keep out most of the riffraff. $11 drinks at the hotel bar – it’s Manhattan, what ever!
Die Hard Three 
You can’t bring a US rental car into Canada if you are a Canadian. Candian law forbids it unless its abig emergency. I don’t know if if killer super storms named after your father qualify.