First Flight : Part 2

I’m back with part 2 of the first flight adventure of mine, last time I left off at getting down at CDG. Well now that I was in a foreign land where the temperature was almost freezing and it was my first time abroad, I could hardly think. Every time I let my bag sit down, I could almost hear my dad shouting at me,

Idiot take your bag or you’ll lose it.

Well anyway I managed to hold on after that, now I read on the web that i’d have to go outside terminal B to get the bus to the next airport, yes I had to change airports. Like CDG was not big enough to accommodate another airport on a Sunday! I guess it was a good thing as I got to travel through Paris, FYI my mouth was always open in awe, how the hell can  a place be so clean! I come on to the airport floor and try to figure out where I was and which direction I had to go in, seeing my lost state a Pakistani driver asked me if I wanted a taxi, i got scared that i’d get mugged for no reason and started running away. He was not scary or anything but there were no other taxi driver inside the airport asking people! Finally I found a board that read terminal D, i was happy thought just two alphabets I don’t have to walk much! Ok how wrong was I in thinking this? Like the worst estimate I had ever made in my life, I walked for close to 20 minutes at a rapid pace before I got to terminal B gate and then finally asked the receptionist how to get out of the place. Oh and I forgot to mention, the taxi costs 122 euros for a ride from CDG to Orly airport! I was like what the, I can rent a AC taxi in India for that price and do a whole trip of Karnataka and also stay in a luxurious hotel. Well I had done my research and found out there was a shuttle bus between the two airports every half hour.

Once I got out and reached the bus stop, i saw boxes painted on the ground that read the name of each bus, i made my way to the box that read Orly. Well I got something right for once, I waited for around 5 minutes and I saw the bus arrive. Like what I do when i spot a BMTC bus in Bangalore I started walking towards the bus thinking it’ll stop wherever it wants. Well it parked itself perfectly in the box that was drawn for it, i was stunned at the precision and discipline they follow even when the road was completely empty. Got into the bus and paid 20 euros and tried hard not to convert it into Indian rupees cause I knew i’d feel like an idiot for paying 1300 INR for a local bus journey, i’d probably be paying a tenth of what i paid there here in India.

So the journey began, beautiful is a word that can only describe a fraction of what exactly transpired through my eyes. The roads are so smooth and clean i wouldn’t mind living off the streets here! The speed limit was 100 mph and the bus was travelling at exactly that speed and to my pleasant surprise even when changing lanes they use the indicator and yes even when the road is empty. Finally I reached Orly and this airport was as beautiful as CDG but really quiet and empty compared to the former. i took my baggage and tried to figure out where to go, found a English speaking police dude and he directed me to the check in counter.

Now the comedy was about to begin again, like people can’t make a guess that I’m Indian and probably wont understand French! I go up to the check in counter and there was a long queue, I din’t mind standing in. The kind of people there my god, I felt like a dwarf, most of the women there are my height and the men are at least half a feet more than me. Then there was a bunch of kids who were going on a surfing holiday to Barcelona[ yes I was going there too ! ] and they all had their surf boards all packed. Finally after around 15 minutes of waiting my turn at the check in counter, I dropped my bags on the weighing scale and handed over my passport and ticket over to the lady and assumed i’d be done without a conversation here. She said

Bonjour or born chor or whatever and something something yupwei asdkhadh cndjsfgha

I was like excuse me? French naaku telledhu! Ok that was telugu, well I din say that I just gave a stupid expression and she understood I din get a word of what she was saying. She finally translated to english and asked me if I wanted both my bags as checkin, I said yeah sure and then she says Sir that would be 15 euros. I was like what! Then she immediately understood what had happened and said

Sir you can take one of the bags as cabin baggage and you wont have to pay anything

I said, well that is more like it!

Made my way to the security check and like every other south Asian my beg was completely checked and so was I, well I surely hope this discrimination would stop someday. Nevertheless I made it to the waiting area and felt really hungry, I had my mom’s parantha but it was in the bag that i checked in, so I decided i’d go around looking for something to eat. The food stalls looked beautiful and unlike India where they have a small circle depicting if something is veg or non veg, these guys had nothing. Only non veg all around, I asked at a bakery if he had anything vegetarian and he said No! I was like oh god, please let the animals live. Went hungry for the next hour and a half and finally boarded the plane.

This plane was those 42 seater ones, small and I was pretty scared that it would crash, really such a small one? Anyway got it and I got the last row window seat and it was right next to the loo. I was a little disappointed, but that disappointment was soon going to disappear, a pretty lady sat next to me and the seat next to ours had her pretty friends. Well I did smile a bit but decided to whack that stupid expression before they noticed, again i went clicking my camera to get the beautiful air shots of Paris from the sky. I loved the pictures I took, I shall add them at the end of this post. So this lady who sat next to me soon realized I was travelling on flight for the first time, and she asked me what I was going to do and stuff. We spoke for about half an hour and the flight descent began. This flight was not that bad I must say. *wink*

Barcelona airport is so beautiful, I lost my breath for a moment, i quickly took my baggage and went out to take a taxi to the place I was going to stay there. All kinds of cars stood there as taxi’s and there was a neatly organized taxi stand and one airport authority making people get a taxi and leave. No fighting there, I stood there in a line and I was given a Benz, i was delighted and gladly sat into it and we covered a distance of around 40 miles in 25 odd minutes. The view of the streets was breath taking and I finally reached the hostel and took a good amount of oxygen in and settled down.

The next two flights were the funniest, I still laugh at what happened to me! To be continued and finished in part 3 of the series.

Cheers 🙂

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Advertisement