My journey and the start of a new innings

 

I always think that the hours to go before the time you actually reach the airport are the worst in terms of emotional state for everyone – including the one who is travelling away for a long time and also his family and folks. Its not that bad for the latter, as they have each other, something the former does not once he is abroad !!

Anyway, check in and the rest of things took 2 and a half hours, so that by the time I was at the boarding gate, people had already started boarding !!

Schipol wasn’t bad at all – for me. (After reading facebook forums, I had prepared myself for things like – long long queues to passport control, baggage or baggage not arriving at all, or anything else that may be the case. But because I was prepared, I guess I was out in a little over half an hour !! (Murphy’s law). It was a feeling of nostalgia as I came to the familiar old red checkered square which is called as 'the meeting point'. I was back here the same way in 2013, but with my friend and colleague.  

After thinking and thinking whether to catch a taxi – which was OUTSIDE the airport or whether to go by train, I finally froze ‘Train’. The taxi would’ve cost me half my flight ticket to Amsterdam and so my sense of adventure kicked in, I bought a train ticket and dragged two big wheelies weighing about 23 Kgs each along with a handbag and backpack weighing around 12 Kgs together into the elevator that took me to the Schiphol NS station. I felt like a soldier carrying a light artillery weapon and dragging his sack alongwith it !! The train arrived and I quickly loaded the luggage in the train. The train was to leave in just a minute !! Choosing to sit on the seats by the door, I rearranged everything so that it wouldn’t come in the way of anyone. As I settled down, I heard the announcement that the train would start a little later, as there was some problem !! It started a full 10 minutes later and I wondered whether I would miss the connection train !! I wouldn’t have worried if I was without any luggage, but then WITH it was a different concern !!

Luckily, I got the connection equally easily. I reached my destination after a full 2 hours. That wasn’t bad at all. After getting down at the destination station, a lady asked me if I needed help with the luggage. I politely refused, but thanked her. Coming out of the station, I dragged all my luggage another half a km to my new home. Even half a km seemed to be an eternity. The housing agent was there with the keys, right on time. She showed me around the house, got my signature on the inspection sheet and left. (after all it was a Sunday !!). My wife had packed some stuff for lunch and I gobbled it up quickly. After some sleep and a chat with home, I got outside to buy stuff – Milk, cheese, bread and all.

After this, time has simply whooshed by. I had thought of writing a post immediately upon arriving, delayed it to the second week and then the second month and now I'm almost 3 months here !!

All this time, Ive had a lot of fun – making new friends, meeting the old, doing a new kind of work and settling down in a new life and weather !! I decided to finally post this post, so that I could move on with more posts !! This post was like a barrier which I had decided to post before any others !! Now that its out of the way - the road is clear !!