The Broadway Disaster

On Monday, May 14th, the three of us met on Wall Street. We went to the delicious bagel shop that we had discovered in the first few days in New York. There was another delicious avocado cream cheese peperoni bagel and a vanilla latte for only 7 dollars. A bargain and finally something we could show Teresa :D Teresa then went to the 9/11 Museum. Tim and I walked to the Brooklyn Bridge and crossed it. The view from up there was super cool and different from what we already knew. We even met someone up there who was also part of our travel group. It's a small world :D There were a lot of stressed-out cyclists up there. You should always be careful where you walk and stand. We walked back and passed by the Charging Bull in Battery Park on Wall Street. There was a huge commotion at the Charging Bull and there were only Indians there. A bit ironic, since cows are sacred in India 😉

We picked up Teresa in front of the museum and talked about this incident for a while. It was somehow scary to imagine standing on a ground where 17 years ago on one day people were still going to work as usual and on the next day everything was in flames. It took us a while to process that and then we realized that we were pretty hungry. So we walked through Chinatown and then through Little Italy, where we found a beautiful little restaurant where you went to the backyard and there was a garden. You totally forgot that you were in a hectic and noisy city. We all had a portion of delicious noodles and even got a free dessert😊 Then we walked to Rockefeller Center and actually wanted to go up. However, it cost 40 dollars and the next ride wouldn't start for an hour. So we decided to go directly to Central Park. There we chilled for 2 hours and enjoyed this great park once again.

Then we went towards Broadway and the disaster began. Teresa and I got ready in Central Park earlier. We changed into different tops and shoes, combed our hair, and put on lipstick. We were really looking forward to the show. Then we went to the ticket office to pick up our tickets, looked for the theater, took excited pictures, and then had 1 hour left. We bought drinks and sat down at a table and waited for it to start. Then we went 20 minutes early, stood in line, said goodbye to Tim, and went through the bag check. Our tickets were scanned. Teresa already had one foot in the theater when the lady stopped us in surprise and showed us the date on the tickets. The performance was printed for May 15th. She quickly referred us to the ticket office located in the theater. We looked at our confirmation and purchase email at the same time. We had booked the right day. May 14th. The lady at the ticket office said she couldn't do anything about it and that we should quickly go back to the ticket office where we picked up the tickets. So Teresa and I ran over half of Broadway and Times Square back to the ticket office 15 minutes before the show started. The woman who had given us the tickets noticed us right away and started making a phone call. She said she would fix it. Then she was gone for 5 minutes and came back, out of breath and still on the phone. I could tell by her expression that this story wouldn't end well. By now it was 5 minutes before showtime. She told us that a mistake had been made and we couldn't go to our seats anymore, and all the other seats were sold out too. She gave us our money back and said that she had asked and there were still standing room tickets available, which we could buy very cheaply at the theater. She also gave us 2 free tickets to a comedy show. We were very sad and angry, but at least we were still glad to be able to see the show. So we ran back again and told the lady that we now wanted 2 standing room tickets. She threw our money back at us and said everything was sold out. At that moment, the musical music from Chicago started playing in the theater and both of us stood in front of the closed ticket booth with smeared lipstick and tears in our eyes. We couldn't believe it. We were so excited and it's not our fault at all, and we still wonder to this day who sat in our seats because we had bought and reserved them a day earlier. We left the theater deeply shocked, sad, confused, sweaty, annoyed, and angry, where the two corpulent, 2-meter-tall dark-skinned bouncers looked at us in confusion. We complained about our misfortune to them and they were very sympathetic and I think they would have liked to go in with us and scare someone else away. Then it got even worse trying to hold back our tears. So we sat down in front of the theater on the floor, contacted Tim, and felt sad. One of the bouncers then bought us chips and handed them to us on the ground. Then Tim came and we complained to him again about our misfortune, wondering how much bad luck one actually needs... Then we came up with the brilliant idea of selling the comedy tickets that we had been given as a gift, but actually cost 30 dollars, to someone for half the price. Because we really didn't want to go to a comedy show anymore! Do you think anyone wanted those stupid tickets? After 3 attempts, we tried to give the tickets away for free. Still, nobody wanted them. Then we started talking to a man who was collecting money for homeless children. He took the tickets off our hands. At least something. We then walked around Times Square and Teresa tried to shop out her frustration at Levi's. But she didn't find anything suitable there either. Now there was only one solution: alcohol :D Teresa told us that she had a great bar at her hostel. So we went there. Arrived - "we don't sell alcohol." And all the supermarkets were either closed or too far away. So that really wasn't our night. Well, as a pick-me-up, Teresa gave us a nicely written card with funny things she had said during that time and things we had experienced together. That was really nice. We chatted for a bit and then all fell dead tired into bed around 1 a.m.!