Getting it started!

Missing worrying about the fact that you may have some forbidden item in your check-in luggage as you pass through "nothing to declare", even though there is no such thing?!

Missing packing 35 “just in case” outfits?!

Missing that weird excitement that keeps you awake all night before the day you have a flight to a destination in your bucket-list?!

I hope this quarantine helped you realize the importance of “catching flights, not feelings”.

But now think of a situation where you are all set to take your first overseas trip to a beautiful destination, you have been waiting for this for a long time now, you have prepared the perfect itinerary, done your vacay shopping, prepared your travel playlist, selected the books you would read on your flight etc etc………….

but then just when you sit down to book the flights and the accommodation, SOMETHING HAPPENS AND YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO GO!

Something like this happened with me. And no, it wasn’t the Corona-virus outbreak.

Also, if you are anything like me and by that I mean someone who can never say never to travel, reading this is gonna bring you in tears, lol, you might even laugh a bit! Haha.

So, in May 2019, after all my exams were over and after almost a year without travelling, my mum and papa surprised me with the idea of my first overseas trip. I am so glad they finally realized that my passport craves to be stamped, although they did realize it a bit late, and you’ll see why.

My mom suggested that we take a trip to Vienna, Austria, a 10-12 day trip in which we would take a flight from Delhi to Flughafen Wien-Schwechat aka Vienna International Airport, we would stay for about 3-4 days in Vienna and then we would take a train to Prague, explore the beautiful Capital of Czech Republic and then we would end this beautiful vacation in Budapest, Hungary.

How pretty, isn’t it?! Dreaming about the same? I was too! Sorry to break it to you, BUT NOTHING OF THIS SORT HAPPENED.

At that time, I didn’t know that something this worse could happen, so just like any other enthusiastic chica, I couldn’t contain my excitement and started planning my entire itinerary, I started off with planning on the things we would do and what all places to explore in Vienna. I made an entire list of all the palaces and the cathedrals that we would visit (just typing “would “ while writing this post makes me so sad).

Schonbrunn Palace and St. Stephens cathedral were at the top of my list. One thing I was the most thrilled about was the Sunset dinner cruise that we would take from the Danube river.

It was supposed to be at the night of my mum’s birthday and I also planned a little surprise for her but………

The highlight of the trip was supposed to be the ethereal thermal baths in Budapest.

Budapest is known as the “city of baths” so of course it had to be the highlight.

I decided to include Gellért baths and the Rudas baths. The Gellért baths are famous for the mosaic walls and floors, stained glass windows and Roman-style columns which makes it the most beautiful thermal bath destination. Rudas on the other hand is a Turkish-style bathing complex that dates back to the 16th century. There is also a rooftop pool overlooking the Danube. Just reading about them soothes you, right? Imagine having to spend a few hours in these healing waters. Pure bliss.

And well, in Prague, it was the old town square, the Jewish Ghetto, Golden lane- playground for alchemists, the Charles bridge , Prague castle and a lot more! The thought of visiting Czech Republic intrigued me in a completely different way because of its history of communism that persisted in this country and hence, was really excited to visit the communism museum.

I began making a list of all the cafes and restaurants we had to try out at all these places. I always tend to be a little extra jaunty about the places where I eat when I go out because I get a chance to explore the different cuisines especially the gluten free cuisine, for those of you who don’t know me, I am a celiac, allergic to gluten so I gotta really be aware of what I eat. This brings me to another reason for my fondness towards Prague, it is a heaven for gluten- free globetrotters.

Why?!

Well, because it has got 102 gluten-free friendly establishments and all of them are with more than 70% rating making it an ideal destination for the celiacs.

I even started on planning my “just in case” outfits.

BUT

On the day when we decided to book the flights, my mom started filling up the passport details and just when she pressed enter after filling up my passport details, there it comes on the screen: INVALID PASSPORT!

That was the day I realized that your return dates should be at least 6 months before the expiry of your passport and well, my passport was expiring in Sept 2019 and we were to return back in the last week of June 2019.

I tried to search if there was any way that this wasn’t true but sadly, that couldn’t happen. To acquire the Schengen visa, you need a passport that’s valid for 6 months after your intended return date.

I cried.

But then my lovely parents started searching for options where I could travel with the passport I had at that time and we ended up travelling to Thailand. Don’t laugh. Something is better than nothing!

As it is i can't say no to BEACHES and those SUMMER VIBES!

Although, my brother still curses me cause he was holding a valid passport, LOL.

I am pretty happy cause in that same year I took 4 trips back to back so hah! Not bragging.

Lessons I learnt:

1) Renew your passport as soon as it is about to reach the 6 months cut off.

2) Always remember that you are blessed and better trips are ahead of you!

I promise the next ones are gonna be all the happy posts.

You can also checkout this link – for my ITINERARY FOR THE TRIP I MENTIONED ABOVE!

Much love!!