On Wednesday, the 30th of July, Fiona and Lina picked me up from home around 11am. We had originally intended to get on the road around 10am but there had been some car troubles. The conclusion? We were not to try and manually close any of the doors or the trunk.
We then went up to One World to pick up Yu-Ja. Then, finally, on the road. Well, sort of. Google Maps took us up through these small neighborhoods for the next hour, taking us on probably the least direct route to the 695.
We got to the airport (Newark) around 2:30 that afternoon. Fiona and Lina went to return the car while Yu-Ja and I went inside to get checked in. Inside we found the rest of our group: Carmen, Akrita, DJ, John, and Jason, who, even though they had left around 9:30 that morning, arrived the same time as us.
Our flight wasn't until 6:25 that evening so we mosied around the very small terminal and ended up eating some Japanese food. Unfortunately Lina realized she was missing her wallet and we spent the next couple of hours desperately looking for it. Fiona bought a giant Toblerone to help get us through this crisis. In the end we boarded the plane and Lina had to cancel all of her cards. Not the best start to a trip.
This first flight to Paris was about 6 and 1/2 hours, maybe a bit more. I managed to watch half of Spiderman (embarrassing, still haven't seen the new ones) then slept. We arrived in Paris 8am their time and mostly sat around, a bit dazed for the next two hours until our flight to Bangalore. Some of us might have considered sneaking into Paris and "accidentally" having to stay there for the next two weeks. DJ kindly shared his croissant with us though, and we got our little taste of Paris.
The flight to Bangalore was over 10 hours. We all transitioned through eating multiple plane meals, sleeping, snacking, and watching movies throughout that time. We arrived in Bangalore at 12:30 am August 1st. Our flight wasn't until 6:55 am so we didn't feel in any rush. DJ still had to get his Indian visa (apparently if you have a South Korean visa you don't have to apply in advance. Whatever.) The airport staff eventually made us leave DJ to apply for his visa alone, as they informed us that people would take our baggage if we didn't hurry up. We waited down stairs for DJ until about 3:30 am or so, at which point airport security tried adamantly to get us to go through customs. We nobly fought them, insisting we wouldn't leave poor DJ alone. In the end, around 4am, we compromised on sending him a note and going through customs. DJ didn't come through until close to 5am.
We rechecked in our bags for our third flight and went through security once more. They separated us by gender and started implementing silly rules (such as you must remove all electronic items, including chargers, from your bag). We got through and went to our gate, which was so small there wasn't any seating. So instead some of us ordered Indian fast food and we played banana-grams and card games for the next hour or so.
The flight to Hyderabad, while small, was pretty unremarkable except that they expected you to pay for food and drinks instead of giving it to you for free. The flight was super quick, one of those take off and then land flights, and we got into Hyderabad around 8:30 am, a bit early. Akhila was waiting for us at the exit and she took us to a van. Finally, we were here.
We then went up to One World to pick up Yu-Ja. Then, finally, on the road. Well, sort of. Google Maps took us up through these small neighborhoods for the next hour, taking us on probably the least direct route to the 695.
We got to the airport (Newark) around 2:30 that afternoon. Fiona and Lina went to return the car while Yu-Ja and I went inside to get checked in. Inside we found the rest of our group: Carmen, Akrita, DJ, John, and Jason, who, even though they had left around 9:30 that morning, arrived the same time as us.
Our flight wasn't until 6:25 that evening so we mosied around the very small terminal and ended up eating some Japanese food. Unfortunately Lina realized she was missing her wallet and we spent the next couple of hours desperately looking for it. Fiona bought a giant Toblerone to help get us through this crisis. In the end we boarded the plane and Lina had to cancel all of her cards. Not the best start to a trip.
This first flight to Paris was about 6 and 1/2 hours, maybe a bit more. I managed to watch half of Spiderman (embarrassing, still haven't seen the new ones) then slept. We arrived in Paris 8am their time and mostly sat around, a bit dazed for the next two hours until our flight to Bangalore. Some of us might have considered sneaking into Paris and "accidentally" having to stay there for the next two weeks. DJ kindly shared his croissant with us though, and we got our little taste of Paris.
The flight to Bangalore was over 10 hours. We all transitioned through eating multiple plane meals, sleeping, snacking, and watching movies throughout that time. We arrived in Bangalore at 12:30 am August 1st. Our flight wasn't until 6:55 am so we didn't feel in any rush. DJ still had to get his Indian visa (apparently if you have a South Korean visa you don't have to apply in advance. Whatever.) The airport staff eventually made us leave DJ to apply for his visa alone, as they informed us that people would take our baggage if we didn't hurry up. We waited down stairs for DJ until about 3:30 am or so, at which point airport security tried adamantly to get us to go through customs. We nobly fought them, insisting we wouldn't leave poor DJ alone. In the end, around 4am, we compromised on sending him a note and going through customs. DJ didn't come through until close to 5am.
We rechecked in our bags for our third flight and went through security once more. They separated us by gender and started implementing silly rules (such as you must remove all electronic items, including chargers, from your bag). We got through and went to our gate, which was so small there wasn't any seating. So instead some of us ordered Indian fast food and we played banana-grams and card games for the next hour or so.
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