Still cant believe I am so far from India in a foreign country... Its been 3 weeks and still not much difference... Sounds strange but its the truth..
True that I'm missing many things from back home, but still this place is not so different from India..
But my First flight was really exciting and memorable.
Though the kid sitting beside me kept staring awkwardly as I kept on staring outside the window, though i got the most uncomfortable middle row seat in the flight, i still managed to enjoy the thrilling feeling of my first flight from Bangalore to Mumbai... The far away red sky among the otherwise dark sky, through the small JET airways window was by far the best sight to my eyes. The thrill was flight touching 300 kph in seconds, the elevation, the decline were all worth experiencing..
Unlucky middle row seat in JET flight again disappointed me as I approached the magical world which I had dreamed since long... I stopped watching Barfi and tried to peek into windows on both sides of my seat, but with little luck. Cant tell how much I was cursing the guys sitting on Window seats and snoring loudly in deep sleep. How can these guys sleep when the view outside the window is so breathtakingly beautiful... I cursed myself for ignoring to ask for a window seat while check in at Mumbai Airport...
Sadly I had to get my concentration back on the screen in front of me as I could not get much glimpse of outside on either side of my seat... I opened a flight information window tab and kept staring at it... That was the first time when I realized how fast I was moving... The screen was displaying I was 40000 ft above ground level and speed at which I was moving was 850 kph .. Outside temperature was an unimaginable -60 degree Celsius... Within seconds I had great respect and gratitude towards the person who invented these wonderful creatures called Airplanes... I wish I had got a chance to somehow go on top of that flight and experience the thrill of the wind and chilling temperature outside...
Coming back to reality...Screen was showing that I was flying above Germany, Frankfurt... I thought I missed a chance to count number of countries I had traveled over during the flight... :) Though stupid, this is the one thing which I would always do during any trip... Then it was cities and now it is countries.. Something big and different Huh?? The screen was also displaying I was approximately 1 hour away from My destination and home for at least next 6 Months...
It was being announced that we will be landing in another 10 minutes and I could see few glimpse of beautiful landscape through windows.. With a frightening shudder, the flight landed on UK land... Time was 6.45 AM (Tough my watch was still showing 11.15 IST :P ). The screen ahead of me was showing Outside temperature is 2 Degree Celsius!!!. I cursed all my friends who kept on telling its Summer in UK and I am going at the right time.. Some how Summer and 2 degree temperature doesn't really match for we Indians..
I could feel the chill of the cold only after I stepped out of airport after 2 hours in cue for Immigration and 15 Minutes of Q & A round with Fat lady immigration Officer(Had to make her understand why I am here...).
Before I could make any calls back to India to inform my safe landing, the taxi driver made me to get into taxi... If we had stayed for 4 more minutes, we had to pay more for parking..Everyone has their own problems you know...!!! The driver dint have international calling facility in his phone and international roaming was not activated on my phone...!!
My destination East Ham was at least 50 Miles from Heathrow Airport so I have to wait at least 1 more hour to call my parents and tell I have landed safely. I was not really surprised by seeing the well planned roads, greenery and pollution free atmosphere on the way home as I expected it to be like this. But most amazing part of that journey was that I dint see any human being on either sides of the road till the last 5 minutes of my journey in the taxi.... I understood the reason for that the moment I got off the car and the chilling wind laughed at my decision to persist with my old (Made for Indian winter) Jacket.
Friends welcomed me as I got down from Taxi... I was surprised to see the uniqueness of street full of row houses around my PG...
A thought entered my mind as I entered the PG - How many more such surprises await me as I begin my journey the next day in this new foreign country... !!!
And I was in London.... Finally... !!!!
