The Thirty Dollar Hot Dog

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I’m in the Montreal airport waiting for three hours for my plane to Charlottetown, PEI. When I arrive on the island, I will have traveled for seventeen hours, so you might forgive me my “who’s on third” conversation with the waiter as he tried to make change from 40 dollars and I tried to tip him. I won’t go in to what prompted the confusion, but the man at the next table was very entertained. At any rate, once the transaction was finished, a hot dog with potato chips, a rum and Coke plus tip ended up costing thirty dollars, Canadian.  We aren’t in Mexico anymore, Charlotte!

 

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

17 thoughts on “The Thirty Dollar Hot Dog”

  2. barbwit's avatarbarbwit

    Maybe they speak English on PEI? But even Canadian $30 is much too much. I love your ref to Who’s on third? – my PA does ‘radio theater’ at retirement homes and this is a favorite skit. Safe travels.

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  3. Christine Goodnough's avatarChristine Goodnough

    Ouch! Hmmm… Somebody was definitely confused (or pretending to be?) I would have thought every server at the Dorval airport could speak English, though quite a few may be immigrants from elsewhere themselves and it can be hard to understand their accents. The food shouldn’t be more than $6 even at an airport restaurant, but I won’t try to guess the drink price.

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      The hot dog was $10 I believe. I guess the shot of rum and two Cokes was $15. He did speak perfect English. I was just jet-lagged and had been so many hours with so little sleep that the intricacies of trying to get change for $10 and just basic addition and subtraction was beyond me, in spite of no problems with language. The extra $5 was the tip.

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      1. Christine Goodnough's avatarChristine Goodnough

        Well, I wouldn’t have thought…mind you, we go to the “quick stops.” Dorval has a nice airport; been there many times when we lived in Mtl. One day when we were there several of the Canadian Olympic team gold medalists were returning home. Huge celebration at one gate!

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          1. Christine Goodnough's avatarChristine Goodnough

            Now that’s outside the realm of my experience. Interesting that you were headed for Charlottetown. Do you have family on the Island?

            Such a distance from Mexico — no wonder you had jet-lag! And maybe coming from Mexico didn’t help at Customs, as a lot of drug traffic comes via that country. The officers will be searching bags thoroughly.

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            1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

              Nope…went through customs in U.S. and Canada and no luggage search. It was just that the lines were so long in Montreal and poor organization.. You were just herded without knowing where you were going, how many lines, just a huge group of people merging from a big room down a smaller corridor with no divisions..very strange. Then eventually there were two customs agents and you had to sort yourself into two lines.. still no divisions. And the female agent was very cranky when I pushed my cart to get up to her and the cart, being in front of me, extended a tiny bit beyond her. No line.. just her idea that nothing could get past her.. so I talked to her from four feet back since that’s how long the cart was. So strange. She didn’t question my form.. just had to exert her power a bit before waving me on.

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  4. hirundine608's avatarhirundine608

    Yeah, the Quebecois like to insult English speakers, even in airports. They are so superior it seems. Yet they don’t even speak proper French. It’s a dialect.

    I’m a vegetarian, so would not dream of ordering such a dish. I suspect the rum and coke, was about half of the cost? Travellers are held over a barrel in airports. From Heathrow to Schiphol to Dorval or Denver. It is disgusting the cost, for even something so ordinary as coffee.

    I think you will enjoy PEI more? Though you might feel cold there, compared to Mexico? Cheers Jamie

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