Saturday, January 22, 2011

EUROPE 2010 - PREPARATION

PREPARATION

There is nothing more I want to do than travel. I want to visit all corners of this earth, experience different cultures, see the monuments, hear about the history and most of all eat all the different food there is. I always knew that I loved to travel and some time back, during a counselling session with Priya, she asked me to close my eyes and visualize what I would rather be doing the most. I visualized myself walking in some obscure street in Europe, looking at the shop windows and most interestingly I was alone. I realize then that travelling is THE passion in my life and it didn’t matter to me whether I had someone with me or not.

The idea of making a trip to Paris entered my mind as early as in 2008 when Meara & Ajoy got transferred to Paris. And then last year when Aleena & Ankur also moved to Paris, I was determined that I will go before either of them move to another place.
Late last year, Appa offered to give me some money to “do whatever I please”. For about 5 seconds I had thoughts of buying a laptop, a good digital camera and eating at some exorbitantly expensive restaurants. And then I realized I can go to Paris after all. I was willing to forgo the laptop and the fancy camera if only I can travel.



Super excited, I immediately mailed Meera and Aleena and they were most welcoming. I thought I will travel in summer, but Meera said they are getting transferred out by end of May. And the more I read about it, I realized the best time to go would be spring. The weather may not be as warm as I want it and unexpected showers are a possibility, but flowers will be in full bloom and the throng of tourists wouldn’t have yet descended. So spring it was, and we finalized on the last week of April.


The first thing I had to do was to get the Schengan Visa. It was a bit dicey as I am single woman travelling alone. As far as the immigration authorities were concerned, the possibility that I might just get married to a Frenchman and settle there was high. However after a trip to the French Consulate in Bombay where I was interviewed twice – the first the regular interview and the second by a Frenchman who wanted to know why exactly I was travelling alone, I had the visa in hand.


Before I went for the visa, I had read up a LOT in umpteen number of sites about what all I could do in Paris. But now, suddenly I could make concrete plans as compared the wishful dreams I had. I bought myself a Lonely Planet ‘Paris’ and in addition to reading it cover to cover twice, I tagged the museums and churches I wanted to visit, the walking and culinary tours I wanted to take, the extended trips I wanted to go for, and the shops I wanted to peep into, in different colours. 


I have a really supportive group of friends at work. Deepti generously offered to give me warm wear for Paris and gave me so much more.  I had enough sweaters and jackets that I didn't need to buy anything.
The days of reading, planning and forming a tentative itinerary I think were perhaps the happiest so far. I kept the LP Paris on my desk at work and carried with me everywhere I went and any moment I had to spare at work or in the bus or when waiting for someone or even when waiting for the food to be served at a restaurant, I would read it. I had a lot of Paris websites bookmarked and I would constantly open and look through. I enjoyed the planning process immensely. My biggest fear at that point was that I was planning so much that perhaps I may not have enough time to do everything I want to or the actual experience might be a letdown.


And then some obscure volcano in Iceland erupted. I read the news and continued surfing the Paris websites. But on Friday the 16th, a week before my scheduled departure, Mt. Eyjafnallajokull forced its way into my awareness as I read with horror about airports across Europe shutting down one by one. Charles de Gaulle was one of the first. Frantically I went to the Air France site and checked the flight status. All flights cancelled. I spent the weekend watching BBC. However thankfully on Wednesday the 21st, the Air France flight from Bengaluru International Airport to Paris CDG took off. The countdown on my white board which was stuck at "7 more days' jumped to '2 more days'. However till I was actually on the flight, I don't think I relaxed as the scientists were expecting the volcano to act up again. 

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