It's been quite a while since I had a holiday.
So, to make up for that, me and my dad decided on a Work trip to Amsterdam.
Wait. Work? Amsterdam?
Yup. That's what we did.
An exhibition in Amsterdam took us to a last minute trip to Europe.
Here're some teasers:
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And so it started in April. We remembered this exhibition that was to take place in Amsterdam in May. We knew we had to go. Only problem was, we had no tickets, visa, reservations. Heck, we didn't even have a plan!
Hmmm. Ok. Schengen Visa can take time. Most of us know that. And it totally depends on your country of arrival.
Out family had learned that the hard way. Flashback to Eurotrip 2009. No work. Only pleasure. We had to enter into Europe through Frankfurt. And then go to Hannover for my sister's graduation.
Everyone got a Schengen Visa from the German embassy easily. I didn't. I had to get mine through the Swiss embassy because of lack of time. Anywho. It was managed then.
What now?
We called up our neighbourhood travel agent who also happens to be a friend. We had to quickly book our return tickets. This late, and that too during school summer vacations in India, meant we got pretty high prices.
We booked Finnair from Delhi to Amsterdam via Helsinki.
And then came the visa application.
Got all the documents prepared. The day we had to submit them came. After rushing to our office for the last minute checks, we went to the agency that takes care of these applications. Thankfully that was in Nehru Place, quite close to our office.
After about two and a half hours of waiting, we finally submitted our documents. This was a Friday. Our flight was booked for the Monday that was 9 days later!
And we got to know that Monday (2 days after visa application) was a holiday. Weekends were off. And from the visa center to embassy and back, the passports and application forms would take two working days.
Oh dear. This was cut quite close.
Each day after that, we wondered whether we would actually be able to go or not. And then we called the visa office on Thursday. We got a curt response. "Your passports are ready. Please get them collected."
Whew!
I had maintained a pretty cool exterior. But inside, there were bursting bubbles! I rushed to the office. Waited for my turn. Got our passports. We had managed a Schengen Visa from Netherlands embassy in 3 working days including the day of our application!
I had waited to shop for some essentials assuming that if we don't go I could delay it :P I am not a big fan of apparel shopping. Anyway, that was managed pretty quickly.
Monday came. Got up early. Thankfully the flight was not at insane hours.
Got to the airport well in time. I do like T3 at Delhi Airport. It has taken the airport experience to levels I had not experienced before in India.
Our boarding was announced. And a couple of hops and skips on the step on no need to walk thingys later, we were at our boarding gate. And I got a very brief glimpse of our Airbus 319.
I took a picture of that. But I can't display that here. Reason will come later..
Anyhow. On our last trip to Europe, we had Lufthansa flights. And those were yucky. Old planes, with CRT displays which you could see if your neck was made of rubber.
This though, was something different. The plane seemed quite new. There were flat displays behind all the seats. And a nice control in the arm rest.
And leg room that was good with your legs comfortably detached and kept on the seat next to you!
Aah well. We took off. There it was. The uber cool In-Flight Entertainment system.
Check it out here:
Some nice food and drinks, with nice collection of movies and TV shows later, we landed at Helsinki, Finland.
And I realized that I had not gotten up from my seat in about 7 hours! That must say something of the IFE system!
Thankfully, my legs had not turned to jelly. So we walked to the Passport control for Immigration. Only to be greeted with a nice long line. And just two counters. And a very good case of Murphy's Law. Our line was the slowest.
And we had about 1.5 hrs of lay-over time before our flight further. But only 45 mins to board it!
Anyway, we got the nice stamps, and rushed to our boarding gate for the onward flight to Amsterdam. Only to be told sternly to hurry up!
This was a basic Airbus that we have in our domestic flights. And lo and behold! We had seats in the very last row! How I dislike that.
We took off. And within 30 minutes or so, we were flying over the sea. With islands. And there came out Dad's phone. Click click click!
Cheers!
Sam
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Some more teasers: