Holy Freezing, Batman! It's cold! -2 degrees fahrenheit and -18 degrees celsius and that's not including the wind chill.... Brrr!
Alas, this is home. I'm home and I'm glad to be back.
I left the hotel at midnight on Saturday night, my flight left at 3am. And just as people warned me, the Delhi airport was chaos. It went like this: I stood in a 'line' to get into the airport that mirrored the way people drive. You grab a cart and where ever you can fit is free game. There's no rhyme or reason, everyone just makes their way toward the door by moving in the same direction. I waited in line for a half hour just to get inside the airport. Once inside, to the baggage security check then to the Luftansia counter. Both of these were pretty easy and while in line at Luftansia, I started chatting with a hottie from Napal, Mani. He was on his way to Barcelona for a large telecommunications conference. Mani speaks English, Napalese, Hindi, Chinese- all fluently- and Japanese and French only a little bit. He lived in China for 6 years, he's in Delhi for 2 and then he plans to move to Canada- with his wife and son. For the next 2 hours, Mani and I would become best friends.
After the Luftansia line, I headed to the immigration line which just kept growing and growing. Mani saw me and I let him budge in line instead of standing about 20 people behind me. We went through different lines after we waited/chatted for about an hour together to show our passports. Mani got ahead of me and found his way to the security line, I found him this time and he let me budge in line with him instead of waiting 20 people behind him. We waited/chatted in this line for about an hour and a half. It seriously took 2.5 hours of waiting in lines to get to the terminal. Mani was in economy and I was in business class, so we had different lines this time. With a quick wave, I walked right in thinking Mani would have to walk past business class on his way to his seat. I never saw Mani again, but he gave me his business card so that I could let him know the next time I'm in India so he can take me around to see the sites. Hospitable and friendly, that Mani, but obviously not the mani for me.
The first flight went by quick. 7 - 7.5 hours or 2 movies later and we were in Frankfurt. As soon as I was off the plane in Frankfurt, I took a deep breath by instinct. It was nice. I walked about a mile to the United gate and hardly had time for a pit stop before it was time to board the 2nd plane. The second flight was long. I slept pretty hard at some point during the first 4 hours and when I woke up, I felt like I had been asleep for 6. I was hoping I only had 2 or 3 hours left, but nope- 5 more hours to go. So, I found another movie to watch and snooze through.
Once we landed I was the first person off the plane and #1 in a line of 0 to get through immigration. My bags were 2nd off the conveyer belt and I was 3rd to get through customs. I was asked about 4 times if I needed connecting flight information and my answer to everyone was, "Nope, I'm home," with a big smile on my face. I had to wait for about 10 minutes for the limo to pick me up and I actually stood outside in the freezing cold and took those lung filling inhales and yogic exhales I was longing for. And I've done that about 8 times in the 9 hours I've been in Chicago.
As much as I would have been ok had my trip been longer, I'm obviously happy to be home. Now, I look forward to a vacation. I know, you're all saying, "But you just got back...." I was not on vacation, my friends. I was working long hours and I worked hard.
California to visit Heather and Amy? Des Moines to visit Mandy and meet baby Audry? Indy to see Ali? Or to Florida to relax at the condo on the beach... maybe all of the above.
A few final pics
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=ahmukup.9q4sksyp&x=0&y=x4rh1d
And that's All She's Writing, folks. Thanks for the emails and sharing the trip with me. See you soon!
Namaste.
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