Travel can mean so many things. It can mean spending a week relaxing on the beach, or pushing yourself to climb a mountain. It can mean leisurely wandering European streets where no one speaks your language, or going on a road trip in your own country.

This week Nick and myself experienced two vastly different types of travel, myself flying standby for two hectic days in the largest city in the United States, and Nick spending a week in Canada’s oldest provincial park.

Working for an airline can have it’s benefits. Leaving as soon as my shift ended on Tuesday, my sister Nicole, friend Laurie and myself were off to New York. After landing we were pleasantly surprised by the drastic difference in weather from a city so close to home – we departed our cool, wet spring, to arrive to summer in New York. After taking 3 or 4 trains and subways we arrived in Brooklyn, where we quickly found our awesome B&B, ’3B’. Having previously stayed in Manhattan, when booking accommodations this time around I had my eyes set on Brooklyn, only venturing into Manhattan to visit our must-see-sites.If you are having trouble find a a cheap place to stay in this massive metropolis you can try to find a cheap hotel in New York at the lowest rate guarantee with Easytobook.com

We decided to get on the subway and get off somewhere in the lower east side for our long awaited dinner. After bellies full of Mexican beans and sangria, we eagerly set out to explore as much as possible, feeling slightly pressured by our lack of time.

We did pretty well, walking through the humid streets of Little Italy, Bowery, Lower East Side and ending off when we emerged from the subway to Times Square where it seemed to be daylight again.

We awoke the next morning intent on walking around Manhattan for the entire day, before retreating to a restaurant and bar in Brooklyn to celebrate Laurie’s birthday. We spent most of the warm perfection of Wednesday ambling around Central Park, with our treasured treats from Bouchon Bakery. Soon enough it was time to get back and get ready for our dinner at a restaurant on Smith st. Our mediocre meal was followed by a small bar named ‘camp,’ where we sat on tree stumps, washed our hands in basins made from buckets, and played trivial pursuit with some new friends. The ironic parallel to Nick’s trip was not lost on me.

Even with the bars closing 2 hours later than ours do, we weren’t yet ready to end our New York trip, so we headed back to the Park Slope rooftop of our our new friends to watch the sunrise over the Manhattan skyline. Why go to sleep when we can sleep all day tomorrow at home…?

…working for an airline has it’s downfalls. Flying standby is an evil, evil thing when there are weather delays. Our arrival time back to Toronto was scheduled to be approximately 2:30pm, and when we missed the curfew for our airport, we were scheduled to go to a further airport, then when we missed that curfew we arrived at an even further airport at 2 in the morning.

Going straight to work without sleeping for 2 full days is a bit of a sour ending to any trip, but in the end we got to truly experience New York as the city that never sleeps.